Cartel seat (monument)

Cartel seats as monuments were the headquarters or other premises of historical, no longer existing cartels in the sense of a group of cooperating, but potentially also rival enterprises. Often, these associations had been syndicate cartels, being an advanced form of entrepreneurial combination because of their tight organization with a common sales agency. The cartel buildings had been used for secretariats, meeting rooms, sales offices, advertising agencies, research departments and further more. Many such historical buildings can still be found in Europe and the United States.

Cartel buildings as architectural remains

In the decades between 1870 and 1945, cartels had been widespread as organizational forms of the economy. While loose price cartels and other more or less informal gentlemen's agreements" did not impose any requirements relating to fixed permanent premises, this was particularly the case with “syndicate cartels" being entrepreneurial combinations with centralized sales offices. Hundreds of administrative employees could work in such cartel establishments. The respective buildings were regularly stately, often representative and richly decorated with façade ornaments. In Europe, despite substantial war losses and demolitions, many of these cartel buildings are still preserved. Mostly, however, they have become simpler in their appearance, because later owners did not restore the original ornaments (easily recognizable at the headquarters of the Potash Syndicate (Stassfurt and Berlin, Germany) and of the Comptoir de Longwy, France). To the monument category of large cartel seats, one could add the buildings also of historic economic planning associations, which are considered to be similar to a cartel. They existed mainly before and during the Second World War.

Recognition as cultural monuments

From their heritage value, historic cartel buildings could be equated with historic headquarters of large companies or corporate groups. However, this has not been put into practice: A number of buildings around the world have been designated and protected as historical corporate headquarters, but not a single former cartel seat has been signposted as such. If historic cartel buildings are actually under heritage protection, they are listed for other reasons of remembrance. Conversely, stately buildings have been demolished in the past, without any regard to their historical importance as cartel seats. The cartel specialist Holm Arno Leonhardt pointed out in 2013 how important certain cartels had been for economic development in the 19th century, such as the sales organizations for coal and steel in the Rhine-Ruhr-area of Germany:[1] The Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and the German Stahlwerksverband. For this reason he pleaded for the distinct „regionalwirtschaftliche Organisationskunst" (= expertise for regional economic development) of the syndicate cartels to be an intangible cultural heritage and put under UNESCO world cultural heritage protection before being forgotten. Suitable places of remembrance in Germany were Düsseldorf (steel sales) and Essen (coal sales). Significant memorial plaques were to be set up at both locations. The reasons for the conspicuous reluctance of the historic preservation authorities and the established historians in relation to historical cartel buildings can be found in the taboo, which after the Second World War was installed by the general

Examples of historical cartel buildings

Austria (Vienna)

The Austrian cartel system was definitely dominated by the city of Vienna as the political and administrative center of Austria-Hungary or of the republican Austria. The historical Viennese cartel landscape[3] was characterized by a graduated geographical scope of the recognizable cartels. The responsibility of these associations ranged from the wider town area (in most cases craft cartels) via Lower Austria, crownland/republic Austria, the Austrian part of the Habsburg monarchy, the whole Austria-Hungary up to an international or global reach. In terms of architecture, the Viennese cartel residences don't stand out: They feature the same pomp style as the neighboring buildings and are not marked with specific trade symbols. Removals of cartel seats, mainly of smaller administrations, which fitted into large apartments, can be ascertained.

International

International Ferrosilicon Company in Vienna, Universitätsstr. 11 (up to 1930) and (since 1931) in Hegelgasse 13 (both Inner City), obviously only in rented flats.

Imperial Austrian-Hungarian

External links

Rheinisches Braunkohlensyndikat, Zweigniederlassung Mannheim (Website des Vereins Rhein-Neckar-Industriekultur e.V.)

Literature

Compass Čechoslovakei. Finanzielles Jahrbuch (1937/38). Compass-Verlag, Wien.
Compass [Austria]. Finanzielles Jahrbuch (1938 [1937]). Compass-Verlag, Wien.
Compass [Austria-Hungary]. Finanzielles Jahrbuch (1913). Compass-Verlag, Wien.
Adolph Lehmann: Lehmanns Wohnungsanzeiger [of Vienna]. Wiener Adressbuch. Wien (1914–1942).
Présidence du conseil (France): Les cartels internationaux. Vol. 2. Paris 1956.
Holm Arno Leonhardt: Kartelltheorie und Internationale Beziehungen. Theoriegeschichtliche Studien, Hildesheim 2013.
Holm Arno Leonhardt: Regionalwirtschaftliche Organisationskunst. Vorschlag zur Ergänzung des NRW-Antrags zum UNESCO-Welterbe, in: Forum Geschichtskultur Ruhr 2013, p. 41–42.

References

Holm Arno Leonhardt: Regionalwirtschaftliche Organisationskunst. Vorschlag zur Ergänzung des NRW-Antrags zum UNESCO-Welterbe, in: Forum Geschichtskultur Ruhr 2013, p. 41–42.^
Ehemaliges Verwaltungsgebäude des Rheinischen Braunkohlensyndikats in Mannheim | Rhein-Neckar-Industriekultur e.V Rhein-neckar-industriekultur.de, retrieved January 6, 2020^
Lehmann, Adolph (1859–1942): Lehmanns Wohnungsanzeiger [of Vienna]. Wiener Adressbuch. Wien: Scherl.^

Germany

the Ruhr cartel cluster in Northwest Germany: Since the end of the 19th century, the extended Ruhr region (including the northern Rhineland and neighboring low mountain ranges) was the area with the world's most intense cartelization.[10] Cartels in coal mining, in iron smelting and steel refining, and further processing industries were typical of the region. In addition, there were cooperative producer associations in numerous other branches of industry such as glassmaking, pulp production, etc. Alone in the iron and steel industry at the beginning of the 20th century there were 13 cartels or cartel establishments in Düsseldorf; in Hagen there were even more: 15, in Cologne 8, in Essen, Siegen, Solingen and Velbert 2 each.[11] Proof of the diverse cooperation structures in and between cartels could provide a more accurate topography of the earlier cartel economy on the Rhine and Ruhr.

the Berlin cartel cluster:[12] As early as the beginning of the 20th century, Berlin was a sought-after location for cartel headquarters or selling agencies. In the iron and steel industry alone, 9 cartels were established in Berlin at the beginning of the 20th century.[11] – and this, although Berlin was not a location of coal and steel production. Since the First World War, more and more cartel functions were exercised throughout the German empire. In Berlin during the inter-war period and the Second World War, there was a veritable agglomeration of cartel seats, later of economic control agencies ("Reichsstellen"). These centers were networked into the rest of the Reich territory and increasingly also with government and politics. Due to its convenient situation, the surroundings of the Anhalter Bahnhof (a railway station) were particularly popular for nationwide organized sales cartels. Already before the First World War, they started to take residence there. For example, the Anhalter Bahnhof was within walking distance of a number of important headquarters (such as of the salt industries). Other cartel districts existed near the political offices Wilhelmstraße (Berlin-Mitte) and Friedrichstrasse. Later settlements of the economic control agencies ("Reichsstellen") from the 1930s to the early 1940s favored the bourgeois districts in West Berlin, e.g. Berlin-Charlottenburg and Berlin-Wilmersdorf.

the buildings of the Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and its successor organizations, Essen. Importance: the essential fuel supplier for Germany until the 1960s, the strategic supplier in Western Europe for coke needed for steel processing, the main fuel supplier for the Central and Axis powers in the world wars. There were two buildings: the original Syndicate building (1894–1943) and the “Ruhrkohlehaus” (Ruhr coal house) from 1952 onwards. The first one was bombed in 1943 (except for one wing), the latter demolished in 1997. In the street scene of Essen nothing reminds (no plaque) of the former „the model German cartel“[13] or „ideal cartel of the world", thus an organizational celebrity.

Cartel seat (monument)

Cartel buildings as architectural remains

Recognition as cultural monuments

Examples of historical cartel buildings

Austria (Vienna)

International

Imperial Austrian-Hungarian

External links

Literature

References

Cisleithanian

Austrian (crownland or republic)

Lower Austrian

Urban Viennese

International

Imperial Austrian-Hungarian

Cisleithanian

Austrian (crownland or republic)

Lower Austrian

Urban Viennese

Belgium

Czechia

France

Germany

Great Britain

Luxembourg

Netherlands

Poland

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Slovakia

United States