Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, Fall 2010, 47
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Bulletin of the German Historical Institute 47 | Fall 2010 03 Preface FEATURES 07 Writing the History of Capitalism Jürgen Kocka 25 Why Write a Book? From Lived Experience to the Written Word in Early Modern Europe Pamela H. Smith 51 Religion and Violence in a Globalized World Wolfgang Huber GHI RESEARCH 69 Immigrant Entrepreneurship: The German-American Business Biography, 1720 to the Present Hartmut Berghoff and Uwe Spiekermann HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY 85 How Do the Humanities Help Us Master the Globalization Process? Annette Schavan CONFERENCE REPORTS 93 Understanding Markets: Information, Institutions, and History Uwe Spiekermann 102 Cultures of Credit: Consumer Lending and Borrowing in Modern Economies Jan Logemann 107 Lives Beyond Borders: Toward a Social History of Cosmopolitans and Globalization, 1880–1960 Milena Guthörl 113 The Peace Movement and Second Cold War: European and Transatlantic Perspectives Philipp Baur 119 The Stasi and Its Foreign Intelligence Service Uwe Spiekermann 125 16th Transatlantic Doctoral Seminar: German History in the Twentieth Century Richard F. Wetzell 130 Archival Summer Seminar in Germany, 2010 Ines Prodöhl 137 GHI NEWS New GHI Publications Library Report Die Abendschule Staff Changes Recipients of GHI Fellowships GHI Fellowships and Internships GHI Research Seminar, Spring-Summer 2010 GHI Doctoral Seminar, Spring-Summer 2010 Other GHI-Sponsored Events, Spring-Summer 2010 GHI Lecture Series, Fall 2010 GHI Calendar of Events 2010/2011 2 BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 47 | FALL 2010 PREFACE This year’s fall issue refl ects the German Historical Institute’s new research focus on economic and social history as well as the continu- ing diversity of its research and programs. This issue’s fi rst article is devoted to a key topic in modern economic history: the history of capitalism. Although the term “capitalism” has fallen out of usage among economists and economic historians for some time, Jürgen Kocka’s article demonstrates that capitalism remains a powerful cat- egory of historical analysis. His magisterial refl ections on the history of the concept, practice, and crises of capitalism shed new light not only on the past two centuries of social and economic history but also on the current economic crisis. His article was fi rst delivered as the inaugural Gerald D. Feldman Memorial Lecture this past spring. The Feldman Lectures, which are to take place annually, commemorate Berkeley historian Gerald D. Feldman, who was a major contributor to the fi eld of economic history and a stalwart supporter of the GHI. To ensure the continuation of the lecture series, the Friends of the GHI are raising funds for a Gerald D. Feldman Memorial Lecture Endowment. We thank everyone who has already contributed for their generous support, and encourage potential donors to visit our homepage www.ghi-dc.org for further information. The Institute’s research concentration in a broadly-conceived economic history that includes cultural and social perspectives is also refl ected in this issue’s “GHI Research” section. It introduces readers to the GHI’s new collaborative research project “Immigrant Entrepreneur- ship.” By researching the biographies of about 250 German-American entrepreneurs from 1720 to the present, this project seeks to open up new connections between economic history and the history of migration that should provide new insights in American, German, and transnational history. The remainder of the articles in this issue refl ect the continuing diversity of the Institute’s scholarly interests and public outreach. Pamela Smith’s article “Why Write a Book?” explores the connec- tion between lived experience and the written word in early modern European books. What makes her article so engrossing is that she brilliantly connects the history of the book to early modern European intellectual history, the history of science, and economic and social history. Smith’s essay refl ects the GHI’s continued commitment to the PREFACE 3 history of early modern Europe; next year’s Transatlantic Seminar will also be devoted to the early modern era. Both Pamela Smith’s and Wolfgang Huber’s articles also illustrate the diversity of the coopera- tive ventures that the GHI is engaged in: Smith’s lecture was delivered at the Grolier Club in New York City at the opening of an exhibit of rare books and manuscripts from the Leipzig University Library, titled “In Pursuit of Knowledge,”which was part of the celebrations of the 600-year anniversary of the founding of the University of Leipzig. Huber’s article makes available the GHI’s Eleventh Gerd Bucerius Lecture, which he delivered this past June. The Bucerius Lectures, generously sponsored by the ZEIT Foundation Gerd and Ebelin Bucerius, are part of the GHI’s eff ort to foster transatlantic dialogue by inviting prominent public fi gures from Germany to Washington for public lectures and discussions. Huber, the former chair of the governing body of the Protestant Church in Germany, who has taken a leading role in inter-faith dialogue, spoke on the timely topic “Reli- gion and Violence in a Globalized World.” The theme of globalization is also taken up in the refl ections on the role that the humanities should play in the globalization process that Annette Schavan has contributed from her pivotal vantage point as Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research. Her remarks were presented during her visit to the German Historical Institute this past spring. We hope that readers will also enjoy this issue’s conference reports and GHI news, which document the GHI’s commitment to support- ing outstanding research on a great variety of historical topics. Please also check our website www.ghi-dc.org for a remarkable lineup of events and conferences during the coming year. If you live in the Washington metropolitan area, we hope to see you at one of our public events. Hartmut Berghoff, Director 4 BULLETIN OF THE GHI | 47 | FALL 2010 Features Features GHI Research History & Society Conference Reports GHI News WRITING THE HISTORY OF CAPITALISM FIRST GERALD D. FELDMAN MEMORIAL LECTURE DELIVERED AT THE GHI WASHINGTON, APRIL 29, 2010 Jürgen Kocka FREE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN I. Gerald D. Feldman, whom we remember and honor with this lecture, did pathbreaking research on German businessmen, their motives, strategies, and achievements. Take his outstanding biography of Hugo Stinnes, for example. He analyzed the changing structures and strategies of fi rms, particularly of large-scale managerial corpora- tions. Take his impressive monograph on the Allianz and the German insurance business during the Nazi period as a case in point. Gerald Feldman analyzed the communication, competition, and cooperation between market actors, he dealt with prices and markets, their expan- sion and their organization. He wrote about capital accumulation, innovation, and market success as well as about market failures, market crises, and government interventions which tried to regulate and even to replace the market, for instance in World War I. Consider his seminal Army, Industry and Labor. Gerald Feldman knew a lot 1 Gerald D. Feldman, Hugo about social, cultural, legal, and political conditions of markets and Stinnes. Biographie eines In- fi rms. He also dealt with noneconomic consequences of economic dustriellen 1870-1924 (Munich, 1998); idem, processes, that is, with class relations or with the political impact Army, Industry and Labor of economic disturbances. Consider his comprehensive analysis of in Germany, 1914-1918 (Princeton, 1966); idem, the German infl ation and its devastating impact on German society The Great Disorder: Politics, between 1914 and 1923.1 Economics, and Society in the German Infl ation, 1914-1924 (New York, 1993). A good The relations between business and the state, but also between eco- introduction into Feldman’s nomic calculation and morality, were central to his work as a historian work is Gerhard A. Ritter, “Nachruf auf Gerald and his concerns as a person. In his penetrating study on German D. Feldman (24.4.1937- 31.10.2007),” Geschichte and Austrian banks and insurance companies during the Third Reich, und Gesellschaft 34 (2008): he analyzed the diff erences and tensions between businessmen and 129–50. See Jürgen Kocka, “Der Historiker Gerald Nazi rulers, as well as the convergence and cooperation between D. Feldman 1937 bis 2007. them. He made clear that there were many diff erent characters, mo- Eine Würdigung,” in Wirtschaft im Zeitalter der tives, and preferences involved. The degree of cooperation between Extreme. Beiträge zur businessmen and political rulers varied. Individual cases diff ered Unternehmensgeschichte Österreichs und Deutschlands. and latitudes existed, though within politically defi ned constraints. Im Gedenken an Gerald D. But Feldman also made very clear, in his concrete, detailed, sober, Feldman, ed. Hartmut Berghoff et al. (Munich, and sometimes sarcastic way, that business and Nazi rule were 2010), 11-18. KOCKA | HISTORY OF CAPITALISM 7 basically compatible and structurally complicit. In his last lecture, at the University of Glasgow in January 2007, he quoted the German banker Hermann Josef Abs, who wrote in 1942: “… we will always do that which is politically determined and economically wise.” Feldman showed in detail how even the most immoral purposes could be pursued and enacted in a cool, correct, “rational” business way. He concluded his lecture with the words: “For the banks and bankers what was front and center was not the forced or slave labor that