Search results

Macht der Kapitalismus wenige reich und viele arm - oder immer mehr immer weniger arm? Nicht erst seit der Finanzkrise ist es wieder üblich geworden, den Kapitalismus für fast alle Übel der Welt verantwortlich zu machen. Dem setzt der Wirtschaftshistoriker Werner Plumpe die Geschichte des Kapitalismus entgegen, die zeigt, wie viele Probleme die kapitalistische Marktwirtschaft gelöst hat - und nur diese. Denn "der" Kapitalismus ist kein System, sondern eine Art der Wirtschaft, bei der der Konsum im Mittelpunkt steht - und zwar der Konsum gerade der wenig vermögenden Menschen, die jahrhundertelang ihrem Schicksal überlassen waren. Nur so ist die ökonomisch erfolgreiche Massenproduktion möglich. Das hat früh Kritik auf sich gezogen, aber Plumpe zeigt, wie die kapitalistische Art des Wirtschaftens darauf reagiert hat, sich immer wieder wandelt.Der Kapitalismus ist folgenreich wie wenige andere Ideen, und wir entkommen ihm nicht, nicht mal in der Verweigerung. Ihm liegt weder ein böser Wesenskern zugrunde, noch ist er die Summe missliebiger Begleiterscheinungen unseres Gesellschaftssystems. Plumpe zeigt den Kapitalismus als immerwährende Revolution - als eine Bewegung ständiger Innovation und Neuerung, die so gut oder schlecht ist, wie wir sie gestalten. Der Kapitalismus ist und war schon immer das, was wir aus ihm machen. "Der Kapitalismus hat einen schlechten Ruf. Das System gilt als korrupt, verbrecherisch und gierig. Aber stimmt das überhaupt? Der Wirtschaftshistoriker Werner Plumpe setzt dem Vorurteil eine Geschichte des Kapitalismus entgegen und zeigt in fünf großen Kapiteln, warum sich die viel geschmähte Marktwirtschaft immer wieder durchsetzt – und weshalb sie so gut funktioniert" (Platz 5 der Sachbuch-Bestenliste für April 2019)

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.

Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1: German Economic and Business History from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day: Introductory Remarks -- Part I: Economic Ideas -- 2: Economic Thought and Economic Development: On the Linkage of Economic History and the Historical Semantics of the Economy -- The Issue -- The Economy as a Complex of Semantics, Institutions, and Practices -- The End of the Old European Economic System and the Capitalist Revolution in Prussia -- Summary

The essays in this volume examine successful entrepreneurs from different industries and time periods. They show that at least in terms of Schumpeter's model, entrepreneurship must be regarded as an individual quality, for no specific defining characteristic can be found, including social background, that suggests the existence of a specific 'entrepreneurial' type

Abstract
On the whole, the question as to the historical possibility of entrepreneurship has not been posed. Entrepreneurship has since Schumpeter simply been assumed; translated into a kind of mechanics of leadership in modern management literature in which individual characteristics rescind behind the role expectations for managers. This is logical insofar as a theory of the entrepreneur can at best only exist in a trivial form, such as in the sense of a theory of right or wrong decisions, while the entrepreneur as an individual eludes a theoretical approach in categorical terms. So while these theoretical restrictions make a theory of the entrepreneur unattainable, typological statements can still be made about the historical phenomenon of "entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial behaviour". This is the starting point of the following article. Characteristics, behavioural patterns and lifestyle details are extracted from entrepreneurial careers of undisputed relevance in German economic and business history between roughly 1850 and 1930: these are then brought together and generalised into an "ideal type" entrepreneur. It will become apparent that entrepreneurship is ultimately based on circumstances, preconditions and attributes which economic or decision theories can only insufficiently grasp: in fact, specific aspects of each individual personality – some of which only fully develop in the course of entrepreneurial practice – determine behaviour and these are themselves again very individual. In a certain sense, entrepreneurship represents a kind of "doer type", a quality which calls for a whole breadth of influences which in turn cannot be deduced in economic terms.