German economic history in the industrial age has classically formed an important basis for the study of economic growth and industrialisation more generally. This book aims to introduce English-language readers to modern German economic history based on a selection of work by one of Germany's leading economic and business historians, Werner Plumpe, who places particular emphasis on the institutional structure of the economy. Plumpe's work demonstrates that the country's economic evolution can only be understood by paying close attention to institutional peculiarities, such as the shape of industrial relations and the dynamics of corporate decision-making. It also emphasises the importance of the interconnectedness of capital and labour in the German coordinated market economy and draws attention to individual events and decisions that may have driven long-term economic development, but are rarely considered in approaches that deal primarily with macroeconomic growth.
German Economic and Business History in the 19th and 20th Century shows that Germany's economic history still warrants the application of an institutional view of economic transformation that is slightly different from the more formal perspectives dominant in the UK and the US. The book serves as a practical demonstration of a historicist approach to economic history introduced by the German Historical School a century ago, which still inspires large parts of German economic historiography.

Werner Plumpe is Professor of Economics and Social History at the Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Germany. He studied history and economics at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany and received his PhD in 1985. He has held various positions in advisory boards, such as Chairman of the Academic Advisory Board of the German Society of Business History and President of the German Association of Historians.

German Economic and Business History from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day: Introductory Remarks.- Part I: Economic Ideas.- 1. Economic Thought and Economic Development: On the Linkage of Economic History and the Historical Semantics of the Economy.- 2. The Birth of theHomo Economicus: Historical Thoughts on the Origins and Significance of this Model of Human Behavior for the Modern Economy.- Part II: Business History.- 3. The Improbability of the Jubilee Or: Why the Only Way to Shed Light on a Firm is through its History.- 4. Business and Industry under National Socialism An Interim Report.- 5. 1968 and German firms: On Marking Out a Field of Research.- 6. The Economy of theKaiserreich: Noteson the Genealogy of German Capitalism.- Part III: Economic History.- 7. The National Association of German Industry (RDI) and the Crisis of the Weimar Economy.- 8. The Economic and Corporate History of Nazism: Reflections from the Perspective of Systems Theory.- 9. Germany as an Industrial Country 19452008.- Part IV: The History of Industrial Relations.- 10. Capital and Labor: Concepts and Practice of Industrial Relations in the 20th Century.- <11. Carl Duisberg, the end of World War I, and the Birth of Social Partnership from the Spirit of Defeat.- 12. Industrial Relations in the GDR: A Mere Footnote to German Economic History?.