German Non-Fiction Prize for Konstantin Richter: The German economy can also be entertaining

“Three hundred men,” Richter quotes from Rathenau’s essay “Business Offspring,” “everyone of whom knows each other, guide the economic fortunes of the continent.”

Just as Rathenau thought of the three hundred Spartans who were able to survive in the Battle of Thermopylae against a much larger Persian army, Richter bases his book on, among other things, Rathenau’s father Emil and his son Walther. As an entrepreneur, Emil Rathenau experienced rapid rise in the 1980s, only to be provided with capital by Deutsche Bank when his electricity and light bulb company ran into trouble. This was followed by closer ties with competitor Siemens and the founding of AEG.

Richter’s book about the “rise and fall of Deutschland AG”, as the subtitle says, begins with the beginnings of German corporate culture in the imperial era from 1870, deals of course with the role of companies in National Socialism and then extends through their economic miracle heyday in the fifties and sixties to the dissolution of the structure of these closely linked financial and industrial groups in the last two decades.

“From today’s perspective, the demise of these networks seems almost inevitable,” writes Richter in his foreword. “The three hundred men no longer fit into the times; they might not have an answer to the pressing problems of the globalized present.”

Obituary for Deutschland AG

The Berlin author and journalist, who was born in 1971, describes his book as an “obituary”, which does not have any answers as to what will happen to the German economy in the future, but is seen as a historical non-fiction book.

For this, Richter received the German Non-Fiction Prize worth 25,000 euros in Hamburg on Monday evening. The jury tried to emphasize the contemporary nature of their choice: “To this day, Deutschland-AG determines our self-image as a successful economic nation. Konstantin Richter shows in his history of the German economy since early industrialization how little the associated ideas and concepts still apply to the present.”

And further: “In artful montage” he shows how influential the three hundred men were economically, politically and personally for Germany: “That had its price. Nostalgia doesn’t help. Konstantin Richter makes visible what lies behind the abstract image of the ‘German economy’ – and thus provides a basis for drawing the right conclusions for the future.”

Masterfully arranged

What the jury didn’t particularly emphasize: how easy the book is to read, even though it’s about the German economy. “In masterfully arranged episodes, he lets their world become ours,” the publisher celebrates. Richter has written a narrative non-fiction book with an emphasis on “telling”. This is evident right from the start, as it is primarily about Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, and therefore the “German sound”, which no longer exists and, at the same time, no longer exists in the German economy.

Richter mentions and describes the Rathenau painting by Max Liebermann or talks about the Auschwitz survivor Hans Mayer, who later became Jean Améry as a writer and who was not comfortable “in this peaceful, beautiful country inhabited by efficient and modern people”. He quotes a poem by Günter Eich, and in connection with the Volkswagen Group and its recovery after the oil crisis, Florian Illies is also honored with “Generation Golf”.

In general, Illies: The way Richter composed his book is reminiscent of the books about 1913 that Illies wrote, with their constantly changing settings in that momentous year. Except that “Three Hundred Men” renounces any fictional empathy and remains beautifully factual.