Of Mettle and Metal

An economic enterprise enduring for more than six generations can be regarded as a rare phenomenon. De Vries' study, describing and analyzing various businesses spanning ten generations may therefore be considered truly outstanding. The author leads the reader from the humble activities of Jewish tradesmen in the war-plagued Holy Roman Empire of the 17th century, a time of persecutions and expulsions from one German country to another, to their ascent to the unofficial but important status of Court Jews, to the establishment of an independent banking- and trading house - and, finally, to the development of several world-wide business conglomerates. Each and every period of this evolution is marked by achievements as well as adversities. De Vries relates all these vicissitudes, placing them within their broader contexts and discussing themes such as the struggle for existence of the Jewish tradesmen, the precarious position of the court Jews, the protracted struggle for political and social emancipation, as well as - particularly in the 19th century - the causes and consequences of the economic competition and failures in leadership. This situation required radical structural, technical and personal innovations. The author, dealing with a broad array of at times sharply divergent opinions, does not shy away from controversies. Some historians, for example, have proclaimed the Court Jews forerunners of modern capitalism or hailed them as harbingers of Jewish emancipation (even though most of them studiously adhered to the Jewish precepts of faith). Others, however, described them as prototypes of the homo economicus - if not personifications of Mephistopheles. The most prominent Hanover Court Jew in the study was compared to Shylock. The ambitious Dukes of Hanover, like other princes, eagerly exploited their Court Jew for dealings of the most varied kind: the supply of goods, the provision with loans, but also fot their resourcefulness in the field of economics and foreign political machinations. Even such meritorious services were unable to prevent the downfall of the Court Jews of Hanover. The book deals with the moot argument regarding the role of the Jews - some of them descendants of Court Jews - in the German metal industry and, more generally, Germany's Industrial Revolution. This part of the study, documented by archival and oral historical sources, focuses on Frankfort on the Main, Germany's foremost commercial centre. The city, traditionally important for the trade in metal products, became the seat of a number of banking houses and worldwide metal companies - in part a consequence of the contacts of the Hanover Court Jews and their descendants with the silver, lead and copper mines of the Harz region. At this point the fascinating narrative about the evolution of the -metal chain through three and a half centuries comes to an end - but only in De Vries' book since two of the three resulting global concerns continue to exist and prosper till today. Using scattered bits of information the author revives the development of the third concern and its fall during the Nazi era.