Book publications

European Investment in Greece in the Nineteenth Century. A Behavioural Approach to Financial History

Banking historiography often does not sufficiently take into account bankers’ deliberations of their decision making, but rather limits investigation to considerations of profit maximisation. This book shows that the decision-making processes of nineteenth-century bankers contemplating high-risk financial markets like Greece are just as complex as present-day investment decisions.

The book, now published in English after a first German edition, offers in-depth studies of decision making in concrete historical situations, considering political and economic circumstances and also the individual background of the actors concerned, including a reflection on the influence of cultural movements such as Philhellenism. Employing methodological inspirations from the field of behavioural finance, the book analyses a broad range of published and unpublished English, French, Greek, German and Swiss sources on European investment in Greece between 1821 and the Balkan wars. Additionally, rich insights into Greek economic history, the economic integration of the country into Europe and long-lasting European stereotypes of Southern Europe and Greece are provided; this furthers understanding of the historical background of the Greek financial crisis after 2009.

In combining the perspectives of financial, economic, political and cultural history, this book is primarily significant for students of various fields of historiography. Due to its strong awareness of methodological questions, it is also of great interest to academic historians. In addition, the strong public interest in the Greek financial crisis after 2009 and its consequences for Europe will, thirdly, attract the interest of a broader public.

For more Information visit the Publisher's Website Routledge

Financiers' desired spaces. European banks and Greece in the 19th century (Habilitation)

International banking networks contributed importantly to the financing of industrialization in the 19th century. But how were decisions for certain projects taken within the banks? The book researches the decision taking process in banks with Greece as a case study. Her war of independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821-1830) was the subject of highly emotional discussion in most European countries. Donations, loans, but also investment from all over Europe started to arrive in Greece. When the country was finally able to become an independent nation state in 1830, it was henceforward seen as an emerging but high risky investment market by bankers from Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany. The investigation sheds light on the complexity of these bankers' investment decisions between 1821 and 1911: Why did they decide to transfer their funds to the new Hellenic nation state? Which financial, ideological, familial and political aspects worked together to motivate them to invest in Greece? The project applies a combination of methods from economic, political and cultural history, questioning traditional rational choice approaches. Attention is focused on the risk perception, the risk management techniques and the constitution of confidence behind the involvement of International banking networks contributed importantly to the financing of industrialization in the 19th century. But how were decisions for certain projects taken within the banks? The book researches the decision taking process in banks with Greece as a case study. Her war of independence from the Ottoman Empire (1821-1830) was the subject of highly emotional discussion in most European countries. Donations, loans, but also investment from all over Europe started to arrive in Greece. When the country was finally able to become an independent nation state in 1830, it was henceforward seen as an emerging but high risky investment market by bankers from Great Britain, France, Switzerland and Germany. The investigation sheds light on the complexity of these bankers' investment decisions between 1821 and 1911: Why did they decide to transfer their funds to the new Hellenic nation state? Which financial, ideological, familial and political aspects worked together to motivate them to invest in Greece? The project applies a combination of methods from economic, political and cultural history, questioning traditional rational choice approaches. Attention is focused on the risk perception, the risk management techniques and the constitution of confidence behind the involvement of European bankers and investors in Greece.

The project was funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundationand finished during a scholarship at the Historical College in Munich.

The book was awarded the price "Humanities International". Due to this translation funding the book will be pulished in English (Routledge) soon.

For more information see the publisher Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Decision Taking, Risk Management and Confidence in Banks from Early Modernity until the 19th Century (Conference volume in English)

How do bankers make their decisions? How do they perceive risks and what does their risk managemnt look like? How is confidence built up and how does it work in everyday banking praxis? The volume, originating from a workshop at the KWI Essen in February 2015, offers methodological approaches for historical research (from System Theory to Behavioral Finance, from New Institutional Economics to Praxeology, from Convention Theory to Network Analysis). The various methodological approaches are put to the test in case studies based on archive material from five hundred years of banking (from Early Modern European banking networks until International Computerization, with a focus on 19th century banking.) The investment decisions of bankers and their risk management techniques over the course of time are two special interests of the book, besides the decisions connected with the recruitment of partners and personnel in banks. The aim is to connect banking history more closely to political and cultural history.

See also Palgrave MacMillan´s Homepage

Ruhr Area and Istanbul: The economies of urban diversity (Conference Volume in English, together with Monika Salzbrunn and Darja Reuschke)

The Economics of Urban Diversity explores ethnic and religious minorities in urban economies. In this exciting work, the contributors develop an integrative approach to urban diversity and economy by employing concepts from different studies and linking historical and contemporary analyses of economic, societal, demographic, and cultural development. Contributors from a variety of disciplines—geography, economics, history, sociology, anthropology, and planning—make for a transdisciplinary analysis of past and present migration-related economic and social issues, which helps to better understand the situation of ethnic and religious minorities in metropolitan areas today.

The conference volume was published in 2013.

See also Palgrave MacMillan´s Homepage.

Die Börse als Ort von Ressourcenkonflikten im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Ed.)

Since 1975 the Bankhistorisches Archiv ("Archives of Banking History") has provided a forum for German and international research on the history of banking and finance. The journal prints articles, research notes and reviews covering all historical periods and ranging from the development of entire financial systems to individual banks, the loan sector, the history of coinage and money, financial and currency policy, and the public financial sector. It treats questions of economic, social and political history and explicitly promotes diversity in research approaches from descriptive-analytical to quantitative econometric methods.

Schönhärl, Korinna (Mitherausgeberin), Die Börse als Ort von Ressourcenkonflikten im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, Bankhistorisches Archiv 39 (Themenheft 2013) 1. In German.

For more informations see HSozKult and Bankhistorisches Archiv.

More Informations

Knowledge and Visions. Theory and Politics of the Economists in the Stefan George Circle, Berlin 2009 (in German)

After the turn of the century, the symbolist poet Stefan George gathered  a circle of poets and intellectuals around him, with whom he worked and  lived, and whom he supported in their scientific activities. It is initially surprising that, in addition to literary scholars such as Friedrich Gundolf and historians such as Ernst Kantorowicz, some economists also belonged to this "state", although George, who wanted to see all areas of life subordinated to art, was very critical of modern capitalism and was not interested in economic issues. Why did the poet nevertheless fascinate the economists so much, and why did they described him as an enrichment for their scientific work? Edgar Salin, Julius Landmann, Arthur Salz and Kurt Singer took very different positions on practical economic policy issues, ranging from ideas of a strong state to liberal positions. In methodological terms, however, they all profited from the holistic approaches of the George Circle, as worked out by the philosopher Edith Landmann. Salin, for example, developed his "Anschauliche Theorie" on this basis. It provided him with orientation in a phase of methodological uncertainty in German economics after the end of the Historical School.

See also De Gruyter's Homepage

The Ideal of the Aesthetic Life and the Reality of the Weimar Republic. Imaginations of State and Community in the Circle of Stefan George, together with Roman Köster, Werner Plumpe and Bertram Schefold, Berlin 2009 (in German).

The crisis discourse that aroused excitement in the 1920s declared the present problems of the Weimar Republic to be the culmination of a crisis of modernity as a whole. From this perspective, it seemed pointless to reform the conditions; a radical redesign was necessary in order to overcome the structural defects of modernity. This situation forms the historical background against which the contributions
collected in this volume deal with the ideas of state and community in the George Circle. The poet's followers were concerned with confronting a precarious present with the ideal of a "beautiful life" as a remedy against loss of order, social and inner conflicts. The community ideas developed in the George circle aimed to give selected members the opportunity to develop their holistic humanity and develop their aesthetic and intellectual potentials under the guidance of a master, Stefan Georges. The question as to whether the model of such a community could also change society as a whole and create a "New Empire" arose among individual members of the circle even before the First World War, but remained highly controversial. The contributions in the volume also analyse how the ideas of state and community manifested themselves in the thinking, literary and scientific production, and life plans of the members of the circle. Within the framework of the George circle, the ideal of a good order was not left in the realm of the utopian, but tried to be realized in the life and research practice of the circle members.

See also De Gruyter's Homepage