EH.N: CfP: Conference on the Change of Economic Elites in Germany and Nazi-Occupied Countries after World War II

[Marcel Boldorf]

The Change of Economic Elites in Germany and Nazi-Occupied Countries after
World War II

Conference at Ruhr-Universitaet in Bochum (Germany):
February 19 and 20, 2009

In all German-occupied countries in Europe, liberation was followed by the
persecution of collaborators. The effects of this on the economic sector were threefold:
a) Legislative sanctions: In order to prosecute war crimes, laws and regulations were passed. These were aimed at providing legal sanctions to punish criminal offenses as well as crimes against humanity, for instance, in the context of the use of forced labor.
b) Career-related sanctions: Obvious collaboration was sanctioned in professional life either by a change of position to a less politically sensitive one within a company, downgrading to a lower rank, the assignment of unskilled labor was frequently used as a means of penalization; or the relocation to a different place, a different company or to a different branch; or the dismissal of  executives, which was decided upon more often than it was enacted.
c) Sanctions on business: In some countries, businesses which had enriched themselves in the wartime economy, faced sanctions like the freezing of accounts, confiscation of illicit profits or imposition of retrospective higher taxes. Sometimes the argument was taken further and used to legitimate sequestration, not infrequently leading to expropriation.

Not only collaborators and perpetrators are to be discussed, but also the people and institutions who were part of the denazification process. Commissions and committees formed spontaneously in many countries which took responsibility for sanctions, for instance, the commissions for denazification in the GDR or the comites d'epuration in France. In many cases auxiliaries to the National Socialist regime took self-regulating measures. Partly voluntarily, partly for fear of punishment, executives resigned from their leading positions, chose early retirement or moved to another part of the country. In the case of the Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, this often meant a flight to the West, whereas German citizens, who had moved to Austria after 1938, returned to the Federal Republic of Germany. Legally sanctioned offenses were dealt with by specific institutions for prosecution or by the reconstituted courts of law and police forces. The process was often supervised by the Allied forces or the Soviet Union as the new hegemonic power in Eastern Europe.

In the countries governed by socialist or communist parties in the post-war years, important branches of the industry were nationalized by sequestration. This is an important issue in the countries of Eastern Europe, which can be contrasted with the development in the West. However, efforts at nationalization also existed in Western Europe, mainly aimed at sectors considered of national interest, in an attempt to control them economically or because of their great strategic value for the national economy as a whole.

The process discussed entailed a replacement of economic elites, which required availability of replacements. Especially in the nationalized economic sectors, the new government could exert influence on the selection. For France, the problem of the ensuing collective rise in rank of technocrats has been discussed. In the planned economies of the East, the political influence by the governing parties will be of greater significance, but even those countries could not fill all leading positions with loyal party members. It can be argued, that compromises dominated the selection of replacements. It is clear, still, that matters of political opportunism were relevant as well as the consideration of professional qualification.

Questions to be discussed include but are not limited to:
- How can the change of economic elites be measured qualitatively and quantitatively, e.g. for a specific region, branch or economic sector?
- To what degree was the persecution of collaborators influenced by external forces such as the Allies or the Soviet Union?
- What characterizes the careers of specific groups of managers? To what degree were planned sanctions implemented?
- Which problems arose from the replacement of the economic elite?
- Which consequences did sequestration, nationalization and the change of elites have on the performance of companies or economic sectors?

The conference will be held in the third week of February 2009 at the Bochum Institute for Social Movements. Hotel accommodation will be taken care of, the provision of bursaries to assist with travel costs can be arranged. 

The conference language will be English.

Please submit as soon as possible a proposal of about 600-800 words to:
marcel.boldorf at rub.de