ABSTRACT
There has been renewed interest in how political risk affects multinationals that operate under dictatorial regimes. For obvious reasons, much of this research has focused on the relationship between companies in Germany during the Second World War and the Nazi regime. But because existing studies lack data about central decision-making processes, they have been able to offer only tentative conclusions about the relationship between dictatorship and political risk.1 Documentation of discussions within the company, especially at the highest levels, is in many cases absent, leaving only indirect evidence about business strategy in relation to political risk.2 In this chapter, by contrast, I draw on the minutes of board meetings of a major Danish multinational to show how day-to-day decisions dealt with the opportunities and risks of working in Nazi Germany. I examine how Christiani & Nielsen became involved in large-scale building projects in German-occupied Europe, focusing on the strategic planning of its management. The question in focus in this chapter is day-to-day business decisions and the strategies employed by a multinational company to overcome political obstacles on the European market that were implicit in the German New Order. The formation of what became known as Grossraumwirtschaft was a result of a coincidence between the ambition of independence and expansion. The goal of the German side was to meet Hitler’s desire for a blockade-free economic area in Europe, which should ensure Germany further supplies of strategic materials and commodities such as rubber, aluminium, steel, synthetic oil, coal and food supplies and access to manpower reserves.3
