Governing Postwar Germany

Breaking through the postwar coverup of Nazi doctors in Germany.

When a dictatorial regime collapses the former power elite, the perpetrators, helpers and collaborators of the old regime do not vanish but, as history has repeatedly shown, manage to survive quite agreeably. This survival is made the more likely by the fact that many of them are, or make themselves, irreplaceable and indispensable as professionals. Such was the situation in Germany after the l...

Transition Dynamics in Vintage Capital Models: Explaining the Postwar Catch-Up of Germany and Japan

We consider a neoclassical interpretation of Germany and Japan’s rapid postwar growth that relies on a catch-up mechanism through capital accumulation where technology is embodied in new capital goods. Using a putty-clay model of production and investment, we are able to capture many of the key empirical properties of Germany and Japan’s postwar transitions, including persistently high but decl...

The "IBM Family": American Welfare Capitalism, Labor, and Gender in Postwar Germany

This article examines corporate labor and gender relations in transatlantic perspective. It is argued that the gendered communication of IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr. shaped labor relations in his company’s West German subsidiary. In the United States, Watson acted as a business progressive, expanding internationally, opening professional careers to young women, and implementing welfare capitalist m...

Skills , computerization , and earnings in the postwar

Robotic Upgrading of Postwar Social Dwelling Envelopes

The article discusses the possibility of automation in refurbishment processes of social dwelling built from 1950 to 1970. These massively produced buildings were mostly designed prior to the law enforcement regarding thermal insulation or accessibility. Nowadays, many of these buildings are being retrofitted. The article focuses on the works in the external envelope. The task of renewing the w...