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Copyright of Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Historische Zeitschrift is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The general assumption in our profession is that history it analyzed and written by qualified historians. Companies, industrialists and associations, however, are and were active in especially writing business history as well. It is evident that they commissioned commemorative publications for different reasons than historians wrote business history. By aiming to apply their business history frequently for political reasons of the present time, it turned out to be useful for them to hide the fact that the publications were commissioned working projects. By exemplifying the biography of Emil Kirdorf, written and published in 1936 by Walter Bacmeister, the article draws attention to the ambitions that motivated the industrialists to merchandise Emil Kirdorf's life during the 1930s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German business history currently experiences a boom of commissioned company histories that comes close to a similar high in the 1990s, when German companies started to address their Nazi-past more critically. However, the current interest goes far beyond the period between 1933 and 1945. Apparently, the companies discovered history as an instrument for marketing purposes. By placing «Politics of the Past in Business History» at the center of attention, we aim to bring together contributions of a field that has been filled mainly by an exterior perspective, esp. by journalists. The special issue of ZUG is dedicated to the question, how corporations tried to control their public history. Whether companies organized their history for political purposes beside the anniversaries and how this was conducted is widely neglected by business history so far and is addressed with the special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State intervention was characteristic of most industries after the outbreak of WWI. This contribution draws attention to the contractual effects of state intervention in the coal industries of Germany and the Netherlands. While Germany, foremost with the Coal Syndicate, was an exporter of coal, the Netherlands were traditionally dependent on German coal imports. Although both states intervened in the structure of their coal industries, the outcomes of intervention were unexpected and clearly deviated from the objectives defined by the states. As a result, the close relationship between the Coal-Syndicate and its Dutch Trading Association allowed advantages to be taken from state intervention in terms of their own profit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]