ABSTRACT
Recent scholarly endeavours to explain the ‘peculiarities’ of German history, in particular the National Socialist state system have recognized the shortcomings of earlier approaches that stopped historical enquiry at the factory gates. Scholars like George L.Mosse, Michael Geyer, Tim Mason and the East German Jürgen John point to competition, struggle and social darwinism as essential and formative principles of Nazi rule and stress the need for a materialist history that, according to Tim Mason, ‘sees that subject in terms of economic forces and institutional power, in terms of social and economic practice and individual behavior (intentions)’.1 This urge for a materialist history that combines a structural approach with historical analysis of ideas and the decision-making processes of individuals in the realm of ‘low’ and ‘high’ politics opens up a new and challenging approach to business history that concentrates on economic practice and social interests, on everyday life experiences and their repercussions on the shaping of macro-politics.
