The Americanisation that never was? The first decade of the Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche, 1954–64 and top management training in 1950s Germany

Abstract

This article will investigate why German business leaders during the 1950s resisted the American lead for advanced management training but instead developed theirvery own model, the Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche (BBUG). The article explains the origins, set-up and methods of the BBUG; it also analyses the background of the talks' participants during its first decade of existence. In so doing, it provides another viewpoint to the debate on the ‘Americanisation’ of German management in the post-war years.

Keywords:

• Americanisation
• management training
• German industry
• modernisation debate
• Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Matthew Hilton for some critical and very helpful comments on a very early draft of this paper; thanks also to Professor Corey Ross for his helpful comments and suggestions on a later draft and to the anonymous referees for some very helpful suggestions.

Notes

 1. ‘MBA in Deutschland. Noch kein Geschmack gefunden’, Financial Times Deutschland, June 13, 2008, A1.

 2. Kleinschmidt, Der Produktive Blick, Locke, The End of the Practical Man; Locke, ‘Business Education in Germany’, 232–53; Locke, The Collapse of the American Management Mystique; Kieser, ‘The Americanization of Academic Management Education in Germany’, 90–7; Kipping and Bjanar, The Americanisation of European Business; Egwall and Zamagni, Management Education in Historical Perspective; Kuijlaars, Prudon, and Visser, Business and Society; Zeitlin and Herrigel Americanization and Its Limit.

 3. On the consumption see de Grazia, Irresistible Empire; German historians such as Anselm Doering-Manteuffel, Arnold Sywoteck and Axle Schildt speak rather of a process of ‘Westernisation’ or ‘modernisation’ of (West) Germany.

 4. Kleinschmidt, ‘An Americanised Company in Germany’; Kleinschmidt, Der Produktive Blick, 293–312.

 5. Kipping, ‘“Operation Impact’”, especially 56 and 69.

 6. Locke, ‘Mistaking a Historical Phenomena’, 145–56; Locke, The Collapse.

 7. Erker, ‘“Amerikanisierung” der Westdeutschen Wirtschaft?’, 145. See also the thoughtful commentary by Kuisel, ‘Americanization for Historians’, 509–15.

 8. Schröter, Americanization of the European Economy, 4.

 9. Bjanar and Kipping, ‘The Marshall Plan’, 7.

10. Gimbel, ‘Amerikanische Besatzungspolitik’, 147–50.

11. Erker, ‘Amerikanisierung’, 142.

12. Kleinschmidt, Produktiver Blick, 293; Mayer, ‘The German Handelshochschulen’, 19.

13. Kipping, ‘The Hidden Business Schools’, 102; Kipping and Kleinschmidt, ‘Ludwig Vaubel and the Renewal’, 524; Bertsch and Zürn, Führen und Gestalten; Bertsch and Weitzmann, Das Netzwerk der Vordenker. I wish to express my gratitude to the current BBUG Geschäschftsführer Jürgen Bertsch, for presenting me with the book.

14. Arlt, ‘Zur Tradition unternehmerischer Bildungspolitik und Bildungsarbeit’, 121.

15. Arlt, ‘Zur Tradition unternehmerischer Bildungspolitik und Bildungsarbeit’, 141; Bertsch and Weitzmann, Netzwerk.

16. McGlade, ‘The Big Push’, 50.

17. Locke, The Collapse, 73; Kleinschmidt, Der Produktive Blick, 296.

18. See, for example, report by Hanns Voith, Summer 1949, Stiftung Rheinisch-Westfälisches Wirtschaftsarchiv zu Köln (henceforth RWWA) 130/400101401/75.

19. Kipping and Kleinschmidt, ‘Ludwig Vaubel’, 523. Quoted from Vaubel, Unternehmer gehen zur Schule, 14.

20. Application form for the Betriebsführergespräch 1955, 130/40010146/515, RWWA.

21. Bertsch and Weitzmann, Netzwerk, 78.

22. Bertsch and Weitzmann, Netzwerk, 91.

23. Nachlaß Curt Becker, report ‘Förderung des Unternehmernachwuchses in Industriellen Unternehmungen’, November 20, 1953, Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik (henceforth ACDP) 01-162-055/1.

24. Kipping, ‘The Hidden Business Schools’, 101.

25. ‘Schooling to produce a ‘completed’ entrepreneur or company leader does not exist’ (author's translation; emphasis in the original text). Nachlaß Curt Becker, report ‘Förderung des Unternehmernachwuchses’, ACDP 01-162-055/1.

26. Kipping, ‘The Hidden Business Schools’, 98. In the mid-1950s, only 31% of Vorstand members and Geschäftsführer had a university degree, by 1990 the figure was 81%.

27. Nachlaß Curt Becker, report ‘Förderung des Unternehmernachwuchses', ACDP 01-162-055/1.

28. See, for example, Wiesen, West German Industry, 7, although Wiesen argues that this was in the first instance an attempt to improve industrialists' image after the Nazi years.

29. Most poignantly by Locke, ‘Mistaking a Historical Phenomena’, 145.

30. Bührer, ‘Zum Wandel der Wirtschafts’, 102. The attitude described by Bührer was certainly still prevalent during the 1950s.

31. See Faulenbach, ‘Die Preußischen Bergassessoren im Ruhrbergbau’.

32. Quoted in Faulenbach, ‘Die Preußischen Bergassessoren im Ruhrbergbau’, 231.

33. Locke, The Collapse, 70.

34. Stein, Unternehmer in der Politik.

35. Kleinschmidt, Produktiver Blick, 294.

36. Locke, The Collapse, 73.

37. Fassbender, ‘Der Wuppertaler Kreis’, 79–96, especially 86–9.

38. National Economic Development Office, The Making of Managers, 31.

39. Letter by Karl Guth to Hermann Reusch, May 13, 1955, RWWA 130/40010146/515. For the complete list of firms see Bertsch and Weitzmann, Netzwerk, 108. Five of these companies were from heavy industry, eight from the chemical sector and fourteen were from manufacturing, with a majority working in the electrical engineering and machine tool manufacturing. Three companies belonged to the food industry.

40. See Vaubel, Unternehmer, 9; RWWA 130/40010146/515 and 516.

41. Becker, ‘Information and Business’, 513–20.

42. Kleinschmidt, ‘An Americanised Company’, 184.

43. See Wiesen, West German Industry, 98 who points to Public Relations, which achieved anearly mystical status amongst some German business leaders at the time.

44. Becker, ‘Information and Business’, 513–20.

45. Eschenburg, Herrschaft der Verbände?

46. Berghahn, The Americanisation of West German Industry.

47. Booklet Die Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche, Appendix A and B, undated, published for the members' meeting of the Gesellschaft zur Förderung des industriellen Unternehmernachwuchses, March 9, 1957, RWWA 130/40010146/516.

48. Die Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche. Thirteen of these 27 were university professors from German and Swiss universities and from various disciplines, including economic subjects, two speakers could not be identified.

49. Letter Reusch to Karl Guth, August 24, 1955, RWWA 130/40010146/515.

50. Die Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche, Appendix A.

51. Bertsch and Weizmann, Netzwerk, 303.

52. Kipping, ‘The Hidden Business Schools’, 106.

53. Die Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche, Appendix B; Bertsch and Weizmann, Netzwerk, passim.

54. Letter by von Witzleben to the association's members, February 12, 1957, RWWA 130/40010146/516.

55. Bertsch and Weitzmann, Netzwerk, 238, 242. In 1985, the GFU bought the villa for a nominal DM 1 and the promise to renovate the buildings for an estimated cost of at least DM7 million.

56. Kipping, ‘The Hidden Business Schools’, 102; Kleinschmidt, Produktiver Blick, 299.

57. Guth, ‘Die Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche’, 6.

58. Geschäftsbericht der GFU, July 14, 1955 to November 27, 1956, RWWA 130/40010146/516. ‘This first get-together served in the first instance for the better personal connection of the participants’ (author's translation).

59. Letter by the association to its members, August 28, 1957, RWWA 130/40010146/517.

60. Protokoll der Mitgliederversammlung der Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Unternehernachwuchses, May 13, 1959, ACDP 01–083–193/2, 1959.

61. Tätigkeitsbericht der GFU, various years, RWWA 130/40010146/515, 516, 517, 518, 519.

62. See, for example, GFU letter and attached guidelines for participation at the BBUG to Reusch, October 28, 1963, RWWA 130/40010146/519.

63. Bertsch and Weitzmann, Netzwerk, 303.

64. Die Baden-Badener Unternehmergespräche, Appendix B.

65. Tätigkeitsbericht der GFU, various years, RWWA 130/40010146/516, 517, 518, 519.

66. Tätigkeitsbericht der GFU, various years, RWWA 130/40010146/516, 517, 518, 519.

67. Erker, “‘Amerikanisierung’”, 139; Berghahn, Americanisation, 254.

68. Kipping, ‘The Hidden Business Schools’, 101.

69. Teilnehmerliste und Lebenslauf, 3. 4. and 5, Seminar, RWWA 130/40010146/515, 516.

70. Kleinschmidt, ‘An Americanised Company’, 183.

71. Locke, ‘Mistaking a Historical Phenomenon’, 147.

72. Berghahn, Americanisation, 256. See also Bührer, ‘Offiziere im “Wirtschaftswunderland”’, 44–5; Hickel, ‘Eine Kaderschmiede bundesrepublikanischer Restauration’, 108–54, 111 for the participation figures. Hickel's chapter is a political analysis in the post-1968 neo-Marxist style and looks at the political links to National Socialism of both the seminar's founder, Reinhard Höhn, and the seminar contents and message. Guserl, Das Harzburger Model critically analyses the management concept of Harzburg, but provides no details on the participants and it seems there are actually no studies which do.

73. Erker, ‘Einleitung’, 18.

74. Kipping and Kleinschmidt, ‘Ludwig Vaubel’, 526.