Abstract
The spirit and practice of capitalism emerged from non-capitalist structures and processes and were nourished by them for a long time. Max Weber illustrated this i. a. in his discussion of the relation between the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism; Joseph Schumpeter generalised it and stressed the importance of pre-capitalist élites for the emergence and maintenance of the bourgeois capitalist economic and social systems. Many others have taken up the same idea, developed it further, differentiated and supplemented it. It would seem appropriate to examine it in terms of the relation between the family and (industrial) capitalism.1
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References
M.Weber: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus. Here quoted from ibid.: Die protestantische Ethik, ed. J. Winckelmann. Siebenstern Taschenbuch 53, Munich, Hamburg, 1965, pp.29–114;
J. A. Schumpeter: Kapitalismus, Sozialismus und Demokratie. Munich, 19723;
E.J. Hobsbawm: Die Blütezeit des Kapitals. Eine Kulturgeschichte der Jahre 1848–1875. Munich, 1977, pp.284–299.
The basic idea is developed in: J. Kocka: Family and Bureaucracy in German Industrial Management, 1850–1914: Siemens in Comparative Perspective, in: Business History Review, Vol. 45 (1971), pp.133–156.
For an introduction see M. Mitterauer and R. Sieder: Vom Patriarchat zur Partnerschaft. Zum Strukturwandel der Familie. Munich, 1977.
D. Schwab: Art “Familie”, in: O. Brunner et al. (ed.): Geschichtliche Grundbegriffe. Historisches Lexikon zur politisch-sozialen Sprache in Deutschland, Vol.2, Stuttgart, 1975, pp.253–301.
On the family in the nobility: H.-G. Reif: Westfälischer Adel 1770–1860. Vom Herrschaftsstand zur regionalen Elite. Göttingen, 1979.
On the older craft families especially: H. Möller: Die kleinbürgerliche Familie im 18.Jahrhundert. Verhalten und Gruppenkultur. Berlin 1969.
See also material in: H. Rosenbaum (ed.): Familie und Gesellschaftsstruktur (seminar). Frankfurt 1978.
The opposite argument predominates in some of the literature on the history of enterprises and modernisation, e.g. Th. C. Cochran: The Entrepreneur in Economic Change, in: Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, Vol. 3, 1965/66, pp.25–38, esp. pp.26f., 28, 36 (on the dis-functional role of the family in economic growth);
D.S. Landes: French Business and the Businessman (1951), in: H. G. Aitkens (ed.): Exploration in Enterprise, Cambridge/Mass., 1965, pp.184–200.
Generally on the negative assessment of ascriptive and traditional elements in economic growth: B.F. Hoselitz: Wirtschaftliches Wachstum und sozialer Wandel. Berlin, 1969, esp. pp.16ff., 114ff.
See J. Kocka: Entrepreneurs and Managers in German Industrialization, in: CEHE, Vol. VII/I, Cambridge 1978, pp.527–536.
On principle issues: Schumpeter: Kapitalismus, in: CEHE, Vol. VII/I, Cambridge 1978, p.258ff.;
see also: H. Schelsky: Wandlungen der Familie in der Gegenwart. 2nd edition, 1954, p.154;
F. Oeter: Familie und Gesellschaft unter dem Einfluß des Industriekapitalismus, in: Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol.77, 1957, pp.513–546, esp. p.519. For Siemens cf. below p.75.
On Krupp: H. Witt: Die Triebkräfte des industriellen Unternehmertums vor hundert Jahren und heute. Hamburg, 1929, p.97.
For a summary of the origin of the first generation of industrial entrepreneurs see Kocka: Entrepreneurs and Managers, 1929. pp.510–11, 516–527.
Particularly Möller: Kleinbürgerliche Familie, 1929,
R. Stadelmann and W. Fischer: Die Bildungswelt des deutschen Handwerkers um 1800, Berlin, 1955.
H. Kelleter: Geschichte der Familie J. A. Henckels in Verbindung mit einer Geschichte der Solinger Industrie. Solingen, 1924, p.l25ff.;
on G.T. Bienert (1813–1894) see E. Dittrich (ed.): Lebensbilder Sächsischer Wirtschaftsführer. Leipzig, 1941, pp.58–73.
On education also: H. Beau: Das Leistungswissen des frühindustriellen Unternehmertums in Rheinland und Westfalen, Cologne, 1959, pp.25ff.;
see also G. Tietz, Hermann Tietz: Geschichte einer Familie und ihrer Warenhäuser. Stuttgart, 1965, p.20f., on the great importance of the family of a small Jewish carter for the education and training of the son, the later founder of a department store, Oscar Tietz.
Cf. P.E. Schramm: Neun Generationen 1648–1948. Dreihundert Jahre deutscher Kulturgeschichte im Lichte der Schicksale einer Hamburger Bürgerfamilie (1648–1948). Vol. I, Göttingen, 1963. Esp. p.206ff., p.238ff.;
R.v. Carstanjen: Geschichte der Duisburger Familie Carstanjen, Cologne, 1934;
B. Nadolny: Felix Heinrich Schoeller und die Papiermacherkunst in Düren. Ein Lebensbild aus der Gründerzeit. Baden-Baden, 1957.
F. Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer 1834–1879. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des deutschen Bürgertums im 19. Jahrhundert. Cologne-Opladen, 1962, esp. pp.69ff., 111ff.;
and F. Decker: Die betriebliche Sozialordnung der Dürener Industrie im 19.Jahrhundert. Cologne, 1964, esp. pp.115ff.;
L. Beutin: Die märkische Unternehmerschaft in der frühindustriellen Zeit, in: Westfälische Forschungen. Vol. 10, 1957, pp.64–74, esp. p.69;
W. Köllmann: Sozialgeschichte der Stadt Barmen im 19. Jahrhundert. Tübingen, 1960, p.111ff.
W. Stahl: Der Elitekreislauf in der Unternehmerschaft. Eine empirische Untersuchung für den deutschsprachigen Raum. Frankfurt/Zurich, 1973, p.287f.
See Beau: Leistungswissen, 1973, pp.13–15.
In addition to the works by Beau already mentioned (esp. pp.13–27), Beutin (p.70f.), Decker (p.114f.), Köllmann (p.112), Schramm (p.177, 238f.) and Zunkel (p.72ff.) see also F. Hellwig: Unternehmer und Unternehmungsform im saarländischen Industriegebiet, in: Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, Vol. 158, 1943, pp.402–430, esp. p.408;
A. Eyberg: Umwelt und Verhalten der Unternehmer des Oberbergischen Kreises im 19. Jahrhundert. Thesis, Cologne, 1955, p.125f.;
Witt: Triebkräfte, Thesis, Cologne, 1955, p.103ff.;
F. Redlich: Der Unternehmer. Göttingen, 1964, p.328.
Generally J. Kocka: Stand — Klasse — Organisation. Strukturen sozialer Ungleichheit in Deutschland vom späten 18. bis zum frühen 20. Jahrhundert im Aufriss, in: H.-U. Wehler (ed.): Klassen in der europäischen Sozialgeschichte. Göttingen, 1979, p.140f.
See H. Kaelble: Berliner Unternehmer während der frühen Industrialisierung. Herkunft, sozialer Status und politischer Einfluß. Berlin, New York, 1972. p.55, 123 (the figures on Thuringia are from W. Huschke).
Examples in P. Coym: Unternehmensfinanzierung im frühen 19. Jahrhundert. — dargestellt am Beispiel der Rheinprovinz und Westfalen. Thesis, Hamburg, 1971, p.37f.;
L. Baar: Die Berliner Industrie in der industriellen Revolution, Berlin, 1966, p.144f. and in most entrepreneurial histories.
See e. g. H. Mönnich: Aufbruch ins Revier. Aufbruch nach Europa. Hoesch 1875–1971. Munich, 1971, p.61ff., 91ff.;
H. Kelleter and E. Poensgen: Die Geschichte der Familie Poensgen. Düsseldorf, 1908, p.119 (the move by old entrepreneurial families from the Eifel or Düren to Dortmund and Düsseldorf in the middle of the nineteenth century).
Figures from W. Herrmann: Entwicklungslinien montanindustrieller Unternehmungen im rheinisch-westfälischen Industriegebiet. Dortmund, 1954, p.15;
A. Schröter and W. Becker: Die deutsche Maschinenbauindustrie in der industriellen Revolution. Berlin, 1962, p.72;
E. Klein: Zur Frage der Industriefinanzierung im frühen 19. Jahrhundert, in: H. Kellenbenz (ed.): Öffentliche Finanzen und privates Kapital im späten Mittelalter und in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1971, p.118–128, esp. 119f.
From figures and calculations by Stahl: Elitenkreislauf, in: H. Kellenbenz (ed.): Öffentliche Finanzen und privates Kapital im späten Mittelalter und in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1971, p.309f.
On the marriage ties between great entrepreneurial families see below. On the accumulation of capital through marriage generally see the study of Boston merchants in the 18th century: P. D. Hall: Family Structure and Economic Organization. Massachusetts Merchants, 1700–1850, in: T. K. Hareven (ed.): Family and Kin in Urban Communities 1700–1930. New York/London, 1977, p.38–61, here p.41ff. More detailed studies on the marriage and investment policy of the great commercial families and the practices and effects of inheritance which go beyond studies of indiviual cases are urgently needed for Germany as well.
S. and C. Griffen: Family and Business in a Small City: Poughkeepsie, New York, 1850–1880, in: Hareven (ed.): Family and Kin, p.144–163, here p.150. A few German cases in Coym: Unternehmensfinanzierung, loc. cit., p.38ff.
See the examples in W. Berdrow: Die Familie Krupp in Essen 1587–1887. Essen, 1932, p.247f. (Retraction of a contract handing over property to Friedrich Krupp by his mother and grandmother); pp.296, 313. When Friedrich Krupp, aged 61, quite unexpectedly married a 21-year old girl considerable sums which had been lent by his in-laws were demanded back, completely ruining him.
On this problem generally and on lawsuits between members of families see Griffen: Family and Business, 1932, p.153f.
Whether state credits could have helped here is doubtful. In practice they played a very minor role. See Coym: Unternehmensfinanzierung, 1932. p.113ff.;
H. Winkel: Kapitalquellen und Kapitalverwendung am Vorabend des industriellen Aufschwungs in Deutschland, in: Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 90/1 (1970), p.275–301, here p.86ff. (with a rather more favourable verdict).
Around 1820 the Solingen knife-manufacturer Henckels needed between two and three weeks for his trip to Berlin, where he had set up a sales branch which was soon taken over by his son (Kelleter: Henckels, p.127). In 1854 a letter from Berlin to St. Petersburg took a fortnight. The head office of Siemens & Halske was in Berlin and the company had set up a branch in St. Petersburg, which was soon taken over by the brother of the founder. See the letter from Werner Siemens, 16.6.1854, in: F. Heintzenberg (ed.): Aus einem reichen Leben. Werner von Siemens in Briefen an seine Familie und an Freunde. Stuttgart, 1953, p.90.
See J. Kocka: Unternehmensverwaltung und Angestelltenschaft am Beispiel Siemens 1847–1914. Stuttgart 1969, p.82f.;
Decker: Betriebliche Sozialordnung, 1969. p.19 (on cases in Düren);
an impressive account of the establishment of a department store “concern” on a family basis is in Tietz: Hermann Tietz, Betriebliche Sozialordnung, 1969, p.19–33;
Kaelble: Berliner Unternehmer, 1969, p.57f.;
G. Goldbeck: Kraft für die Welt, 1864–1964. Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG. Düsseldorf/Vienna, 1964 (cases of relatives travelling for the firm);
for similar material: H. Kelleter and E. Poensgen: Geschichte, 1964, p.110.
And: Mönnich: Aufbruch ins Revier, 1964, pp.62 and 91 (on Hoesch);
Kelleter,: Henckels, 1964, p.129ff.;
Berdrow: Familie Krupp, 1964, pp.296, 306f., 310, 349ff.
see Schramm: Neun Generationen, 1964, p.272, 365 — the de-centralisation of a business into two legally independent units in 1805/6 and its re-unification soon after on a family basis.
On management organisation on family lines in British industry see S. Pollard: The Genesis of Modern Management. London, 1965, p.145ff.;
in general: W.A. Lewis: Die Theorie des wirtschaftlichen Wachstums, Tübingen 1956, p.125f.;
A. Marshall: Industry and Trade. London, 1959, p.326.
See Kocka: Unternehmensverwaltung, 1959, pp.76, 82, 132f., 207, 253;
S.v. Weiher: Die Entwicklung der englischen Siemens-Werke und des Siemens-Überseegeschäftes in der zweiten Hälfte des 19.Jahrhunderts. Thesis, Freiburg, 1959;
S.v. Weiher: Carl von Siemens 1829–1906. Ein deutscher Unternehmer in Russland und England, in: Tradition, Vol. I, 1956, pp.13–25.
Griffen: Family and the Kin, in: Tradition, Vol. I, 1956, p.156f.
According to Beau: Leistungswissen, in: Tradition, Vol. I, 1956, p.69, of 400 enterprises in North Rhine-Westphalia between 1790 and 1870 266 were headed by a technician and a merchant (partnerships) together.
In the sample given by Stahl (Elitenkreislauf, in: Tradition, Vol. I, 1959, p.241), owner-entrepreneurs of the second or a later generation became shareholders in a family business on average at the age of 24. See below and Note 62.
See Hellwig: Unternehmer, in: Tradition, Vol. I, 1959, p.429 for cartel-like agreements in the Saarland.
See also Decker: Betriebliche Sozialordnung der Dürener Industrie, in: Tradition, Vol. I, 1959, p.113f.: “In 1754 Anna Katharina Deutgen, daughter of the iron manufacturer Eberhard Deutgen, married Hugo Ludolf Hoesch, the head of the Düren Hoesch family. The Deutgen family was also linked by marriage with the Schüll and Wergifosse families. There were also many links between the Hoesch and Schüller families. Marriages between the Düren industrialists’ families had become so frequent in the course of the centuries that industry in Düren in the nineteenth century can be described as one huge family concern. Indeed family relations worked like business relations, and in many cases they gave rise to groups of companies which functioned like concerns and included plants both in the same and different industries. One of these groups was formed by the marriages of the five daughters of Hugo Ludolf Hoesch, all of whom married leading industrialists in the metal industry. In the second half of the nineteenth century further families joined the network. Often these were young technicians and merchants, like Gustav Renker, Ernst Grebel, Richard Rhodius and so on who obtained work in Düren and then married the daughters of industrialists.”
See A. Gerschenkron: Social Attitudes, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, in: Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, Vol.6, 1953/4, pp.1–19, here p.13: the view of the entrepreneur as particularly lacking in tradition and relations.
See Redlich: Der Unternehmer, in: Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, Vol.6, 1953/4, p.186;
R. Engelsing: Bremisches Unternehmertum, in: Schriften der Wittheit zu Bremen II, Bremen, Hannover, 1958, pp.7–112, here p.49. This is the great economic significance of belonging to religious minorities which were socially closely linked but geographically widely distributed.
Cf. on the Jewish case D.S. Landes: The Bleichröder Bank: An Interim Report, in: Publications of the Leo Baeck Institute. Year Book 5, 1960, pp.201–220 and a major study by Werner E. Mosse on the German-Jewish bourgeoisie in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to be finished shortly. See also below Note 50.
See H. Zwahr: Zur Klassenkonstituierung der deutschen Bourgeoisie, in: Jahrbuch für Geschichte, Vol. 18, 1978, pp.21–83, here p.28 (figures on Leipzig);
the Bielefeld figures are calculated by K. Ditt; also cf. J. Kocka et al.: Familie und soziale Plazierung, Opladen 1980,
Berlin figures from Kaelble: Berliner Unternehmer, 1980, p.185.
The history of every enterprise, which does not completely ignore family relations, contains a large number of such cases. Cf. B. Berdrow: Familie Krupp, on the 7th and 8th generation (Fried-rich und Alfred Krupp), esp. pp.240, 245f., 276f., 282ff., 287f., 290, 293f., 296f. (for a crisis in these relations), 299, 300f., 305f., 309ff., 316ff., 349ff., 352.
See Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, pp.110ff.; Zwahr: Klassenkonstituierung, loc. cit., pp.41f. (on Saxony); M. Barkhausen: Der Aufstieg der rheinischen Industrie im 18. Jahrhundert und die Entstehung eines industriellen Großbürgertums, in: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter, Vol. 19, 1954, pp.135–178, esp. p.174.
The expansion beyond local areas is stressed by Zunkel after the second half of the nineteenth century. Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, M. Barkhausen: Der Aufstieg der rheinischen Industrie im 18. Jahrhundert und die Entstehung eines industriellen Großbürgertums, in: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter, Vol. 19, 1954, p.19f., P. 13–22 contain a survey of important dynasties in the West German commercial bourgeoisie after the early modern age and shows that these generally successfully survived the first phase of industrialisation. One example of a close marriage network which extended beyond one industry but was geographically limited (for Hamburg up to the 1770s) is in Schramm: Neue Generationen, esp. p.296 and pp.252f., 272 and 365.
A case extending beyond regional boundaries from the same period is in Barkhausen: Aufstieg, in: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter, Vol. 19, 1954, p.174, Note 27.
For the marriage patterns of leading Leipzig industrialists, which went beyond regional limits but were concentrated in Saxony see Zwahr: Klassenkonstituierung, in: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter, Vol. 19, 1954, pp.36–42.
Hellwig: Unternehmer, in: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter, Vol. 19, 1954, p.408–13, esp. p.409 concentrates on the expansion of the marriage policy of industrialists in the Saar to the whole of the south west of Germany.
See Schramm: Neun Generationen, in: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter, Vol. 19, 1954, pp.176, 255ff.; Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, p.21; similarly for the Saarland Hellwig: Unternehmer, p.408.
See G. Adelmann: Die wirtschaftlichen Führungsschichten der rheinisch-westfälischen Baumwoll- und Leinenindustrie von 1850 bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg, in: H. Helbig (ed.): Führungskräfte der Wirtschaft im neunzehnten Jahrhundert 1790–1914, Part II, Limburg/Lahn, 1977, pp.177–99, here p.183;
E. Dittrich: Vom Wesen sächsischen Wirtschaftsführertums in: H. Helbig (ed.): Lebensbilder sächsischer Wirtschaftsführer. Leipzig, 1941, p.1–56, here p.48f. (on the textile industry). In Bielefeld they used to say “Linen to linen”.
See Berdrow: Familie Krupp, pp.284, 308. Generally on this social phenomenon see also Mitterauer/Sieder: Vom Patriarchat, E. Dittrich: Vom Wesen sächsischen Wirtschaftsführertums in: H. Helbig (ed.): Lebensbilder sächsischer Wirtschaftsführer. Leipzig, 1941, p.1–56, p.27.
See Schramm: Neun Generationen, in: H. Helbig (ed.): Lebensbilder sächsischer Wirtschaftsführer. Leipzig, 1941, p.264;
Köllmann, Barmen, Schramm: Neun Generationen, in: H. Helbig (ed.): Lebensbilder sächsischer Wirtschaftsführer. Leipzig, 1941, p.112.
See Kocka: Stand — Klasse — Organisation, in: H. Helbig (ed.): Lebensbilder sächsischer Wirtschaftsführer. Leipzig, 1941, p.138f.
See Schramm: Neun Generationen in: H. Helbig (ed.): Lebensbilder sächsischer Wirtschaftsführer. Leipzig, 1941, pp.248, 253;
see also J. V. Bredt: Haus Bredt-Rübel: Geschichte des Hauses und seiner Bewohner. Wuppertal-Elberfeld, 1937. p.43ff.: the exclusion of two ne’er-do-well nephews from an inheritance, a decision which was to be re-examined and if possible revoked after six years.
The German concepts are “ganzes Haus” and “Hausgemeinschaft”, translated here by “household”, resp. “bürgerliche Familie”, translated by “middle class family”. On the choice of concepts see Mitterauer/Sieder, pp.18–23, esp. p.22f.; O. Brunner: Das “Ganze Haus” und die alteuropäische “Ökonomik” in O. Brunner: Neue Wege der Verfassungs- und Sozialgeschichte, 2nd edition, Göttingen, 1968, pp.103ff.
An example of a widow who carried on the business until her son could take it over in R.L. Mehmke: Entstehung der Industrie und Unternehmertum in Württemberg, in: Deutsche
Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftskunde, Vol.4, 1939, p.113. See also E. Schmieder: Die wirtschaftliche Führungsschicht in Berlin 1790–1850, in: Heibig (ed.): Führungskräfte, pp.1–58, here p.57.
Quotations from letters by Werner Siemens to his financée and later wife in the 1850s, in: Heintzenberg (ed.): Aus einem reichen Leben, pp.50, 77. On the way the “middle class family” of the nineteenth century saw itself see Schwab: Axt “Familie”, loc. cit., p.293ff. See Bredt: Haus Bredt-Rübel, p.77 for a case in which the family of the younger son shared the same house but not the same household as the mother.
From Zwahr: Klassenkonstituierung, p.28.
Of 148 entrepreneurs in employment examined by Stahl (Elitenkreislauf, loc. cit., p.302) in the 19th and 20th centuries only 7 were unmarried. On the present over-representation of married persons among entrepreneurs see B. Biermann: Die Sozialstruktur der Unternehmerschaft. Demographischer Aufbau, soziale Herkunft und Ausbildung der Unternehmer in NRW. Stuttgart, 1971, pp.69–71.
From the family tree in Kelleter: Henckels, 1971, pp.69–71.
More precisely “full marriages”, those where the couples remain together until the end of the presumed fertility period of the wife (45 years of age). See A. von Nell: Die Entwicklung der generativen Strukturen bürgerlicher und bäuerlicher Familien von 1750 bis zur Gegenwart. Thesis, Bochum, 1973, p.29.
For contrast see the extremely active, almost independent role played in the enterprise by the wife of Henckels in Solingen around 1815: Kelleter: Henckels, Thesis, Bochum, 1973, p.129; the same applied to the wives of Hamburg merchants in the late 18th century: Schramm: Neun Generationen, p.206;
on the active roles played by the mother and grandmother of Alfred Krupp around 1800 see Berdrow: Familie Krupp, Thesis, Bochum, 1973, p.247f., 276.
On the patriarchal role played by the father of the family in entrepreneurial households in the second third of the 19th century: Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, Thesis, Bochum, 1973, p.73f.;
Köllmann: Barmen, Thesis, Bochum, 1973, p.118;
on the tradition of the patriarchal and autocratic head of the household: Möller: Kleinbürgerliche Familie, p.10ff. On the change in the role of women during the transition from the 18th to the 19th century see esp. K. Hausen: Die Polarisierung der “Geschlechtscharaktere” — eine Spiegelung der Dissoziation von Erwerbs- und Familienleben, in: W. Conze (ed.): Sozialgeschichte der Familie in der Neuzeit Europas. Stuttgart, 1976, pp.367–93.
See the examples in Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, in: W. Conze (ed.): Sozialgeschichte der Familie in der Neuzeit Europas. Stuttgart, 1976, p.71, 73; Berdrow: Familie Krupp, p.284 (on the christening of Alfred Krupp in 1812); Schramm: Neun Generationen, p.206ff.
See G. Hahn: Untersuchungen über die Ursachen von Unternehmensmißerfolgen. Thesis, Cologne, 1956, p.37f.;
Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, Thesis, Cologne,1956, p.73. On the objective limitations on the role of the family as support during the Napoleonic wars from 1806–15 see Schramm: Neun Generationen, p.365. When Friedrich Krupp lost his house and his position in 1809 the young family moved into the mother’s house, where other married brothers and sisters were living (Berdrow: Familie Krupp, p.249). Paul Bredt moved back into his parents’ house with his five children in 1879 when his wife died suddenly. See Bredt: Das Haus Bredt-Rübel, p.85.
For an example of one of the rare unmarried entrepreneurs: Gottfried Henckels, 1804–58, for whom obviously his relations with the Gichtelianer sect sufficed, fulfilling the role the family would otherwise have taken, even aiding the recruitment of senior staff (Kelleter: Henckels, pp.138ff., 153). Werner E. Mosse assumes that there was less long-term cohesion in Jewish families, although there are spectacular cases of the contrary, than in comparable non-Jewish families. C. Wilson points out that the solidarity of non-conformist religious sects in England furthered economic growth. He goes on: “The Meeting House or Chapel extended the ties of the family, and you lent or borrowed within your known community with a confidence hardly yet to be extended beyond such limits.” (The Entrepreneur in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, in: Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, Vol. 7, 1954/5, pp.129, 45, here 131).
There are many instances from Hamburg in the later 18th and early 19th century in Schramm: Neun Generationen, e. g. pp.202, 206ff., 381. On the relation between Werner Siemens and his fiancée and later wife Mathilde, daughter of a professor, in the 1850s see the correspondence between them in Heintzenberg: Aus einem reichen Leben, pp.48–98, esp. pp.50, 51, 52, 62, 63, 70, 72, 82f., 85, 87; on the close relation between Werner Siemens and his brothers and its importance for the business pp.13, 14f., 19, 33, 64, 68, 320. Werner Siemens, the elder, had promised his mother shortly before her death to provide for his younger brothers and sisters, (pp.60, 95). A similar promise was given by three brothers on the death-bed of their widowed mother in 1855: Schramm: Neun Generationen, p.217. For the issues under discussion here the relations between brothers and sisters were more important than those between married couples.
Werner to Carl Siemens 4.11.1863 in: C. Matschoss (ed.): Werner Siemens. Ein kurzgefaßtes Lebensbild nebst einer Auswahl seiner Briefe. Vol. 1, Berlin, 1916, p.218;
similarly on 25.12.1887, C. Matschoss (ed.): Werner Siemens. Ein kurzgefaßtes Lebensbild nebst einer Auswahl seiner Briefe, Vol. 2,1916 p.911, and to his son Wilhelm, his successor in the business, on 22.12.1883,
in: Heintzenberg (ed.): Aus einem reichen Leben, 1916, p.320.
See H. Siemens: Stammbaum der Familie Siemens. Munich, 1935, p.26 (quotation), p.18. Eligible acc. to §2 of the statutes were those persons numbered in the family tree and their legitimate offspring, but not adopted children.
See Schramm: Neun Generationen, 1935, p.429 (portraits), 238 (the tradition of handing on names, which after the early 19th century gradually gave way to the desire for greater individualisation);
Moennich: Aufbruch ins Revier, 1935, p.61 (family legends). The family Bible with its entries was used as a source by Bredt: Haus Bredt-Rübel.
See R. Braun: Sozialer und kultureller Wandel in einem ländlichen Industriegebiet (Zürcher Oberland) unter Einwirkung des Maschinen- und Fabrikwesens im 19. u. 20. Jahrhundert. Erlennach/Zurich/Stuttgart, 1965, pp.106f. This shows how small families which were differently structured and had particularist inclinations rather hindered the development of larger enterprises and groups of enterprises.
See e.g. Adelmann: Führungsschichten, p.181.
Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, p.73; Schramm, loc. cit., also mentions family days, p.253.
Berdrow: Familie Krupp, p.258.
See Möller: Kleinbürgerliche Familie, p.305f.
On these claims and this idealisation of the bourgeois family of the time: Schwab: Art “Familie”, loc. cit., p.291–97; Mitterauer/Sieder: Vom Patriarchat, p.160.
Von Nell: Entwicklung loc. cit., p.74, 75; for comparative figures see pp.72, 107, 108. The Bielefeld data is from a random sample of 14 marriages from 1830 to 1910, by K. Ditt (Note 30).
See Stahl: Elitenkreislauf, loc. cit., p.242. Heirs generally began to take over their father’s business on average a year earlier (at 29).
With the effect of putting off his marriage from Werner Siemens in a letter of 13.3.1852, in: Heintzenberg: (ed.): Aus einem reichen Leben, p.60. Several authors have noted that the tendency of the bourgeoisie not to marry until a certain degree of commercial success had been achieved was apparent at the end of the 18th century as well. See Möller: Kleinbürgerliche Familie, loc. cit., p.171, esp. Note 6.
See Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, loc. cit., p.73, esp. Note 46; see also Schramm: Neun Generationen, loc. cit., p.248 and on Charlotte Wilhelmine Honsberg in Wuppertal around 1800, “weak in the head but very anxious to marry” Bredt: Haus Bredt-Rübel, loc. cit., p.45f.
See examples ibid., pp.381f. (1813/14); Kelleter: Henckels loc. cit., p.154f. on the marriage of one of the heirs in 1840; Mönnich: Aufbruch, loc. cit., p.95; the letters from Werner Siemens to his fiancée, later wife (Note 51 above). One often has the impression that there were economically more rational alternatives for the entrepreneur in some cases. This also applies to Alfred Krupp’s late marriage to Bertha Eichhoff, daughter of a public servant, and certainly to that of his son Friedrich Alfred to Margaretha von Ende in 1882 which the father had prevented for years (Berdrow: Familie Krupp, pp.316, 369f.).
See also H. Münch: Adolph von Hansemann. Munich, Berlin, 1932: Bredt: Haus Bredt-Rübel, p.73.
For an example see W. Kurschat: Das Haus Friedrich & Heinrich von der Leyen in Krefeld. Thesis, Bonn, 1933, p.32.
Werner Siemens seems to have taken it for granted that his eldest son Arnold, born in 1853, would take on the business. His second son, Wilhelm, born in 1855, was apparently first intended to go into parliament or act as the “scientific spirit of the business”. The third, Carl Friedrich, was not born until 1872, in the father’s second marriage and was too young to be considered for the succession, which was decided in the early 1880s. However, the eldest son proved little suited to the task. The succession then came to the second son, whose diary entries during his youth show considerable torments of self-doubt. Nevertheless, he went into the business in 1879 (without finishing his studies), where he took over various functions (with interruptions due to illness) and took over the direction of the firm in 1890. The founder, born in 1816, had therefore to carry on as head of the firm, which was growing rapidly and increasingly over-straining him, for a few years longer than he intended. See A. Roth: Wilhelm von Siemens. Berlin, Leipzig, 1922; and the diary of Wilhelm von Siemens in the Werner von Siemens Institut (Archiv) 4/Lf 775.
For an example of a hard education as heir to a business which went ruthlessly over the boy’s preferences, see that of Friedrich Krupp, son of Alfred Krupp: N. Mühlen: Die Krupps. Frankfurt, 1965, p.59f.
On the other hand it must be borne in mind that industrial enterprises and capital are on principle easier to divide than the land owned by the nobility and the rights this brings. See the excellent discussion of these problems by H. Reif, in: J. Kocka et al.: Familie und soziale Plazierung, Opladen 1980, p.34–44.
He also discusses the case of the nobility J. Kocka et al.: Familie und soziale Plazierung, Opladen 1980, pp.67–126, and in his book (see Note 2).
See W. Berdrow: Alfred Krupp, Vol. I, Berlin, 1927, pp.221–7;
on brother Friedrich W. Berdrow: Familie Krupp 1927, p.361f. See also Note 78 below.
See the figures in Stahl: Elitenkreislauf, p.284.
For instance in the Düren paper industry: Decker: Betriebliche Sozialordnung, p.31, 104, 105 (esp. Note 43).
For examples see H.A. William: Carl Zeiss 1816–1888. Munich, 1967, p.91–102;
on obligationslaid on sons and grandsons see Kurschaft: Haus von der Leyen, 1967, p.17 for the will made by Heinrich von der Leyen (Krefeld) in 1782.
See S. Haubold: Entwicklung und Organisation einer Chemnitzer Maschinenfabrik. Thesis. Bonn, 1939, pp.32ff.;
H. Rachel & P. Wallich: Berliner Großkaufleute und Kapitalisten. Vol.2, Berlin, 1967, pp.222, 223; Witt: Triebkräfte, p.97.
See Herrmann: Entwicklungslinien 1967, p.15, for an early example in 1834;
see also Mönnich: Aufbruch 1967, p.91ff. on Hoesch 1871;
Kelleter: Henckels, 1967, p.181 on the change to a partnership limited by shares (1882);
on the possibility of changing the legal form to that of a “GmbH” and Stumm’s influence on the 1892 legislation: Hellwig: Unternehmer, 1967, p.423f.;
on the frequency of the change even in the second generation Stahl: Elitekreislauf, 1967, p.258.
For an example see the “Siemens’sche Vermögensgemeinschaft” of 1897 (or earlier) which collected the family capital, had statutes, and was administered by two employees. Clearly this was the only way to handle the family’s claim to disposition and management, which was anchored in shareholdings, in view of the size of the enterprises, their spread and the capital involved. So a semi-public sphere developed between the level of the enterprise and the really private sphere of the individual members or branches of this huge family. See Kocka: Unternehmensverwaltung, 1967, p.453.
I. e., if the enterprise was not sold to satisfy the claims of the heirs.
See A. Paulsen: Das ‘Gesetz der dritten Generation’. Erhaltung und Untergang von Familienunternehmungen, in: Der praktische Betriebswirt. Jg. 21, 1941, pp.271–280, here 278f., and above.
From 1870 to 1879 in Henckels: Kelleter,, in: Der praktische Betriebswirt. Jg. 21, 1941, p.175ff. After the death of the father there were law-suits over the inheritance. For a time the widow thought of selling to meet the various claims.
In the 1880s at Siemens. See J. Kocka: Siemens und der aufhaltsame Aufstieg der AEG, in: Tradition, Jg. 17, 1972, pp.125–42.
Leopold Schoeller & Söhne in 1862 in Düren. See Decker: Betriebliche Sozialordnung, in: Tradition, Jg. 17, 1972, p.31.
Examples from Krupp and Siemens in Berdrow: Familie Krupp, p.349ff. Kocka: Unternehmensverwaltung, in: Tradition, Jg. 17, 1972, p.352ff.
See R. Braun: Sozialer und kultureller Wandel, p.106f.; H.J. Habakkuk: Industrial Organisation since the Industrial Revolution. Southampton, 1968, p.12;
D. S. Landes: The Structure of Enterprise in the Nineteenth Century, in: XIe Congrès International de Science Historique. Stockholm, 21.–28th August, 1960).
Rapports V. Upsala, 1960, p.115. See also the scepticism of the Stinnes brothers and sisters with regard to the joint stock company: they were only prepared to accept this in 1848 as an emergency and transitional arrangement until the family business could be re-established: Hermann: Entwicklungslinien, in: XIe Congrès International de Science Historique. Stockholm, 21.–28th August, 1960, p.14f.
See Braun: Sozialer und kultureller Wandel, in: XIe Congrès International de Science Historique. Stockholm, 21.–28th August, 1960, p.106.
Exact dating is not possible of course here. But roughly the reference is to the last decades of the 19th century and the 20th.
Weber: Protestantische Ethik, loc. cit., p.188.
Stahl’s quantitative examination (Elitenkreislauf loc. cit., p.255f.) of management through successive generations would appear to confirm this “law of the third generation”, which certainly did not apply in the pre-industrial age: in or immediately after the third generation direction of the enterprise often passed out of the family’s hands (esp. p.264). Examples of the collapse of entrepreneurial families, which had been successful for generations or their retirement from business life around the middle of the 19th century can be found in Zunkel: Der rheinisch-westfälische Unternehmer, p.112ff.; see also Kurschat: Hans von der Leyen, p.90ff., 135f. Hypotheses in Paulsen: Das ‘Gesetz der dritten Generation’, esp.274f. (the dangers of success) and p.278f. (inheritance problems).
Familientradition im Maschinenbau. Untersuchungen über die Lebensdauer von Unternehmungen, in: Wirtschaftskurve. Jg. 1939, Heft 1, pp.29–50, here pp.32, 34.
Examples from the Wilh. Reich in Kocka: Entrepreneurs and Managers, loc. cit., p.583f. H. Böhme, Emil Kirdorf: Überlegungen zu einer Unternehmerbiographie in: Tradition, Vol. 13, 1968, p.294.
See Schumpeter: Kapitalismus, in: Tradition, Vol. 13, 1968, p.258ff.
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Kocka, J. (1981). The Entrepreneur, the Family and Capitalism Some Examples from the Early Phase of Industrialisation in Germany. In: Engels, W., Pohl, H. (eds) German Yearbook on Business History 1981. German Yearbook on Business History 1981, vol 1981. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68372-5_4
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