Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
In 1945, a group of zealous American trustbusters, freshly groomed in the Brandeisian tradition of “anti- Bigness,” descended on the smoldering ruins of Germany, eager to identify and then nullify the culprits behind Hitler’s rise to power. Their eyes were fixed on the enormous industrial combines and cartel organizations that had sprung up in the German economy since the time of Bismarck, grown exponentially during the Weimar era, and then served as the economic infrastructure of the Third Reich. To the trustbusters in the Office of Military Government US (“OMGUS”) Decartelization Branch, the monopolies and trusts were the prime culprits and their elimination was of paramount importance to Germany’s peaceable future. The trustbusters understood their mission as not just economic reordering, but as training in democracy. According to their mission statement, the Decartelization Branch must “teach the German people that political democracy cannot long survive the disappearance of economic democracy.”
Publication Information & Recommended Citation
Crane, Daniel A. "De-Nazifying by De-Cartelizing: The Legacy of the American Decartelization Project in Germany." In Antimonopoly and American Democracy, edited by Daniel A. Crane and William J. Novak, 249-277. Oxford University Press, 2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197744666.003.0007
Comments
This material was originally published in Antimonopoly and American Democracy edited by Daniel A. Crane and William J. Novak, and has been reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. For permission to reuse this material, please visit http://global.oup.com/academic/rights