Research Abstract |
The economic system of German National Socialism is characterized as a system of controls in almost all spheres of economy, in which the regulations, of enterprises is regarded as especially important. The object of this research project is to examine the control of business and regulation of profits of enterprise in Germany under National Socialism. Nazi business control was described often as total. According to L.Hamburger, How Nazi Germany Has Controlled Business (Washington, 1943), it could not be identified with any pattern of control of business known to have existed in the past in view of this totality. But later studies of economic policy of National Socialism, such as that of W. Fisher, colored Nazi control of economy as vague and inconsistent. The views of authors about the problems, which this research is to deal with, are so quite different. The researcher made at first a survey of past studies of governmental control of economic activities by National Socialism, and found
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that the contemporary Japanese scholars in 1930s, such as Sakae Wagatsuma, Tetsuji Kaga and Moriyoshi Cho, researched very exactly the Nazi business control, and their studies are highly important from the viewpoint of today. The article of the investigator of this project, "Senzen Nihon ni okeru Nazis-Keizai-shiso no kenkyu" (Meiji University Seikei Rouso, Vol. 71, No. 1-2, Dec.2002) is a result of this survey. Then the researcher examined the economic principle of Nazis : Gemeinnutz geht vor Eigennutz, that was very important as the basic viewpoint for the state regulation of enterprise and of the business activities for profits. At the same time National Socialism appreciated positive activities of enterprise and businessmen. In the views of National Socialism, therefore, there is a dualism of state regulation and private initiative of business, which were often in conflict in policy making. The investigator analyzed then the Nazi policy for the regulation of corporations, and pointed out that the creative activities of enterprise was regarded as valuable and the position of directors was esteemed more than shareholders of corporation. This view was connected with Nazi principle of Fuhrerprinzip. The regulation of rates of stocks-dividend made therefore a controlling policy of profits by National Socialism, which was not anti-capitalistic, but reformative for capitalism. Less
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