A History of Decline? Print E-mail
The Steel Industries in Divided Germany and the United States since the 1970s

Stefan Hördler

The steel industry was among the most important branches of the economies of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, and the United States into the 1970s. The reconstruction of the steel industry in the two German states after 1949 was both a practical and an ideological decision. An essential element of both states' strategies to achieve autarky and economic power, it also had a lasting influence on society and everyday life. The establishment and expansion of the steel industry led to new forms of infrastructure, city planning, and supply, as evidenced, for example, in Eisenhüttenstadt (GDR). In the Federal Republic such centers dated to the Nazi era (e.g., Salzgitter), in the United States (Pittsburgh) to the late nineteenth century. The industrial and urban mono structures of the steel centers gave rise, in turn, to new forms of community and new forms of identity.

My project extends from the steel industry's boom years of the early 1970s to the crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s and concludes with the transformation of the steel industry following the end of the Cold War. The structural crises and loss of competitiveness in Germany and the United States meant not only declines in steel production and massive job losses but also a symbolic loss of economic might. These changes were accompanied by wide-reaching and closely interrelated structural changes at the national and regional level. My comparison will focus on the political, economic, and social responses to the steel crisis, and it will also consider the transfer of knowledge and the communication of strategies for addressing the crisis.

Confronted with declining competiveness, industry lobbyists in both the U.S. and the Federal Republic pushed for measures to stop the "flood" of imported steel above all from Japan, which by 1977 held a 20-percent market share in the U.S. The Federal Republic also faced a clear increase in illegal steel imports from the GDR during the 1980s. In my project, I will explore the points of similarity and divergence in the three states' political oversight of the steel industry. How far were price controls, import-export limits, constraints on competition, and government subsidies able to preserve domestic steel production? How much power did the steel companies have? How much room for maneuver did governments have? How did the unions respond to the steel crisis and to industry or government protectionist initiatives?

Steel production was part of the self-identity of the two German states and the U.S. until 1989. Because the centers of steel production were such an important element in national identity, the downturn of the steel industry became an "existential" crisis for the GDR, the Federal Republic, and the U.S. My project will thus analyze the social consequences of the steel crisis, the fears of loss and sense of crisis it engendered, and public perceptions of the steel industry's troubles.

After 1990, East Germany's steel mills and the cities and mono structures built around them became centers of experimentation in economic restructuring. My working thesis is that they served as test labs where western steel companies could sample reorganization strategies for possible use at home.