Frankfurt am Main / Bonn: Zwei Kongresse zur Geschichte, Gegenwart und Zukunft des Rheins im November
Frankfurt/Main: Second Transnational Rhine Conference: “The Coal-based Rhine Economy. Development of an Industrial Region from Basel to Rotterdam, 1850-1950” Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main (25-27.11.2010)
From the distant past to the present day, the Rhine region has been the central economic axis of Western Europe. The actual and eminent economic fact is the river itself, being the unchanging and hardly changeable natural condition that shapes the lives, habits, mentalities, and everyday routine of the Rhenish people. The changing structure of the Rhine economy thus must be understood as variations of a given opportunity in accordance with a peculiar path dependency. Since the Middle Ages, a river economy emerged along the Rhine that favoured the development of self-confident cities, long-distance trade, and the accumulation of great fortunes, and thus in turn enhanced the economic potential of the region in a co-evolutionary process. The industrialization in the 19th century marked the beginning of a new phase in the history of the Rhine economy. The new production technologies spreading from Britain and later Belgium, and the following expansion of energy and material consumption, suddenly raised the value of the deposits of the Rhenish-Westphalian coal fields. In order to exploit the coal deposits of the Ruhr effectively, however, both an economical supply of ore and reasonable rates for the transport of the finished or semi-finished products were needed. The traditional division of labour between the Middle and Upper Rhine on the one hand and the Netherlands on the other hand was gradually complemented, and finally substituted, by the trade with coal, ore, and products of the heavy industry. Rotterdam became the seaport of the Ruhr, just as the Ruhr became the factual hinterland of Rotterdam. This division of labour became more differentiated by the emergence of an industrial cluster in the Rhineland and Westphalia, where mechanical engineering and chemical industries soon joined heavy industry. Yet the Netherlands and the Ruhr alone were not the only regions of the 19th-century coal-based Rhine economy. It stretched further, and included the Rhine-Main region, the Rhine-Neckar region, and the industrial cluster around Basel. Via the Rhine, fuel and by-products from coking, that served as raw materials for the chemical industry, arrived, and the river itself served as the necessary source of fresh water as well as a drain. Finished products were shipped back downstream. In addition, there was great demand for cheap food in the ever-growing industrial agglomerations in the Rhine area. Grain, edible fats, and other agricultural produce, however, were not brought in directly from the agricultural Eastern German regions, but were mainly imported from other parts of the world via Rotterdam and the river Rhine. Although it was geographical location and natural conditions that enabled the development of West Europe’s most important economic region, it was entrepreneurs, firms, and cartels that used the given opportunities and created economic realities. Local, national and transnational authorities gave them the freedom to do so, or even took the initiative in some periods, and hindered them in others. The Rhine thereby should not only be seen as a means of water transport, but also as a structuring element of the transnational region, where other means of transport – railways, motorways, and electricity networks – clearly followed the river basin. Moreover, big cities and large industrial centres arose near Europe’s main waterway. As the Rhine crossed borders of several states, with different institutions and conflicting interests, this caused co-operation as well as conflict.
After a fruitful and lively kick-off conference in Rotterdam in November 2009, which aimed to discuss the Transnational Rhine economy from various perspectives in the 1850-2000 period, the second Transnational Rhine Conference will be organized at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main from 25 to 27 November 2010 and focuses on a century when the economic region was shaped by the production of coal, iron ore, steel, and the distribution of these items over the river Rhine. It aims to explore the rise, growth, and fall of a coal based economic region from Rotterdam to Basel in the period 1850-1950. In order to achieve its research programme on these and related issues, the organisers endeavour to build a transnational network, consisting of economists, economic and business historians, as well as historians of technology, in the first place coming from the countries along the Rhine and its delta, however not exclusively. To explore the long-term economic development of the Rhine region the organisers have selected five different themes, i.e. “international coal trade”, “business and financial relations”, “food trade”, “institutions and regional integration”, and “transport and logistics”. The organizing committee has invited scholars to present their papers and others to discuss these, however, those interested to participate in the discussion are encouraged to do so.
For more information please contact Ralf Banken (Ralf.Banken@t-online.de).
Thursday, 25. 11. 2010
17.30-18.00 Introduction: Werner Plumpe, Ralf Banken (Goethe-University of Frankfurt/Main), The Transnational Rhine Economy in the Period of the Coal-based Economy
18.00-19.00 First Keynote Speech: Richard Coopey (Aberystwyth University; London School of Economics), Flowing across boundaries, flowing across history; The economy of rivers since 1800.
Friday, 26.1.2010
9.00-11.00 First Session: Perspectives on Transport and Logistics
Jeroen Euwe (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Changing Traffic Flows along the Rhine during the Weimar Republic.
Vincent Lagendijk (University Leiden), Transnational Dimensions of the Exploitation of International Rivers: A Comparative Approach.
Andreas Kunz (Institute of European History Mainz), The Transport of Coal in the Rhine Economy 1850-1950.
Discussant: Monika Dommann (University Basel)
11.30-13.00 Second Session: Business and Financial Relations
Hein Klemann (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Monetary and Financial Problems in the Rhine States during the Interwar Period.
Alfred Reckendrees (Copenhagen Business School), The Vereinigte Stahlwerke and its Financial Relations to the Netherlands 1926-1933.
Discussant: Christopher Kobrak (ESCP Europe Paris)
14.00-15.00 Second Keynote Speech: Ron Boschma (University Utrecht), How do regions diversify over time? The importance of technological relatedness
15.30-17.00 Third Session: International Coal and the Rhine
Hendrik Fischer (University of Cologne), Boris Gehlen (University of Bonn), The Development of the Rhenish Lignite Industry: Enterprises and Markets 1880-1933.
Ralf Banken (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main), The Coal market between Mannheim and Basel: The Competition between the Saar and Ruhr Coal in the middle and upper Rhine Valley 1850-1914.
Thomas Jovovic (Ruhr University Bochum), The Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and the Concentration of the Ruhr Coal Mining Industry.
Discussant: Dominique Barjot (Paris-Sorbonne-Paris IV) (to be confirmed)
17.00-18.00 General discussion
Saturday, 27.11.2010
9.00-11.00 Fourth Session: Regulating and Regional Integration
Isabel Tölle (University Siegen), Fuming Chimneys under the Bridge: the first non-moveable Bridge over the Rhine as a Hindrance for Shipping.
Francoise Berger (University of Grenoble), Issues and imbalances of an insertion in the Rhine economy: The International Steel Cartel in the Inter-War-Period.
Kurosawa Takafumi (Kyoto University), “The Hydro-powered Industrial Revolution in the High-Rhine: How Historical Inter-industrial Linkages Formed a Transnational "Proto-Economic Region”
Discussant: Peter Lyth (Nottingham University Business School)
11.30-13.00 Fifth Session: Food Trade
Laura Rischbieter (Humboldt University Berlin), Mark Jakob (University of Göttingen), The Trade with Colonial Goods on the Rhine in the Nineteenth Century.
Ben Wubs (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Feeding the Ruhr. How food connected the ever-growing industrial agglomerations with other parts of the world via Rotterdam and the river Rhine.
Discussant: Christian Kleinschmidt (University Marburg)
13.00-13.30 Preliminary conclusions: Harm Schroeter (Bergen University)
13.30-14.00 General discussion
14.00 End of the Conference
Kontakt: Ralf Banken Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, Historisches Seminar, Universität Frankfurt am Main
Ralf.Banken@t-online.de
Bonn:
Internationale Rheinkonferenz ":zukunft rhein"
17. bis 19 November 2010
World Conference Center Bonn [ehem. Deutscher Bundestag]
Ziel der Rheinkonferenz 2010 ist für die Veranstalter die Initiierung eines dauerhaften interkommunalen und interdisziplinären Dialogs zu den gemeinsamen Entwicklungsaufgaben am Rhein – von der Quelle bis zur Mündung. Dabei will sich die Rheinkonferenz auch mit der Frage der Akteursstrukturen und ihrer jeweiligen Aktionsfähigkeit im Kontext multifunktionaler Nutzungungsansprüche und äußerer Einflüsse am Fluss auseinandersetzen. Hierzu sollen erstmalig auch in einer regionalen und thematischen Gesamtschau Projekte, Strategien und Visionen vorgestellt und diskutiert werden, die beispielhaft für das tatsächliche Zusammenspiel zwischen regional integrierten Ansätzen und übergeordneten Vorgaben stehen. Im Zentrum der Rheinkonferenz 2010 steht der Dialog und der Austausch zwischen den Anrainern und Akteuren über die Zukunft der gemeinsamen geographischen Mitte im Spannungsfeld zwischen differenzierten Ansprüchen, äußeren Einflüssen und dem Erhalt von Qualitäten. Ziel ist es, durch diese Zusammenschau den eigentlichen Mehrwert zu erzeugen. Daher sind die Akteure angesprochen, ihre konkreten Erfahrungen im Sinne guter Praxis und guter Vorbilder sowie ihre Einschätzungen zur Zukunft des Rheins aktiv in die Konferenz einzubringen und zur Diskussion zu stellen. Die seit 2005 jährlich stattfindenden Rheinkonferenzen der Regionale 2010 hat sich dabei als wichtige Plattform für den Austausch der Akteure am Rhein und als Forum für Interessierte herausgestellt. Entlang der Themen Logistik, Hochwasser, Stadtentwicklung, Literatur und Tourismus konnte ein erster erweiterter und ganzheitlicher Erfahrungsaustausch auf breiter Ebene erreicht werden, der künftig nicht mehr nur auf den Raum der Region Köln/Bonn beschränkt sein soll.
Die Regionale 2010 (http://www.regionale2010.de) nimmt ihre Abschlusspräsentation in den Jahren 2010 und 2011 zum Anlass, den Bezugsraum für die Rheinkonferenz 2010 auf den gesamten Flusslauf von der Quelle bis zur Mündung auszudehnen und unter dem Motto „:zukunft rhein“ alle Anlieger zur ersten gemeinsamen Rheinkonferenz einzuladen.
Weitere Informationen: www.rheinkonferenz2010.de
