Abstract

In the 1920 and early 1930s, the German semi-synthetic fibre industry was dominated by a duopoly of two big players. The incumbent firms were not willing to expand their staple fibre capacities to the extent demanded by the new Nazi government, which prepared for autarky and war. Hence the government encouraged other private companies, especially spinning mills, to found eight regional staple fibre plants and protected them against the incumbents who were technologically superior. The Nazis’ infant company protection policy enabled the ­newcomers to become competitive both in economic and technological terms within a few years. After the war and without protection, these firms flourished on the world market. While the big players left the market, two of the newcomers founded in the second half of the 1930s are today the last European producers of staple fibre. We analyse in detail why companies founded for protectionist reasons by a non-benign government became successful firms competing on the world market.

摘要

在 1920 年代和 1930 年代初期，德国的半合成纤维行业被两大巨头垄断。现有公司不愿意将短纤维产能扩大到新纳粹政府要求的程度，新政府为自给自足和战争做准备。因此，政府鼓励其他私营公司，尤其是纺纱厂，建立八家区域性短纤维工厂，并保护它们不受技术优势的在位者的影响。纳粹的幼稚公司保护政策使新来者在几年内在经济和技术方面都具有竞争力。战后，在没有保护的情况下，这些公司在世界市场上蓬勃发展。当大玩家离开市场时，成立于 1930 年代后半期的两个新成员如今已成为欧洲最后的短纤维生产商。我们详细分析了为什么由非仁慈的政府出于保护主义原因而成立的公司成为在世界市场上竞争的成功公司。