The Evolution of the German Corporate Network (1896-1933)

This article provides a structural analysis of corporate interlocks in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. The main goal is, first, to point out that dense interlocking goes along with a socio-economic concentration process originating in the German Empire, and is "freezing" as a proved institutional solution during the Weimar Republic (Abelshauser, 2005; Streeck et al., 2001). Second, a special contribution is to highlight the mechanism behind the network evolution: multiple interlocking of "preferred" actors, thus, creating a core-periphery structured network. Reconstruction of social forces behind these patterns provides an insight into the diverse opportunity structure gained by core corporations. Results demonstrate that the German variety of economic modernization was not only a macro-phenomenon as aggregation would indicate. Actors were quite differently guided by these macro signals. The specific structure of German interlocks is due to selection processes at the micro-level which finally created a hegemonic network different than expected.