Abstract
After providing the context in the form of relevant economic, political, and legal developments in Germany over 60 years the two samples with the 250 largest enterprises of 1958 and 2018 are analyzed. This chapter provides an overview of both datasets and their included companies. As highlighted in Section 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 there are several conditions like age, growth and ownership structure which are expected to impact the continuity of companies.
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Notes
- 1.
As a reference of this thesis’ sample, in total 3,483,691 enterprises exist in Germany in 2018 of which 15,452 (0.4%) have more than 250 employees (see German Federal Statistical Office (2019)).
- 2.
The largest non-state-owned enterprise is Siemens AG on third position with a revenue of EUR 1.7bn (DM 3.3bn) and around 179,000 employees. For more company examples see Section 5.6.
- 3.
The two companies which determine the median of the 1958 list are Howaldtswerke Hamburg AG and Knorr-Bremse AG on position 125 and 126 with a revenue of EUR 109 m and EUR 106 m.
- 4.
For 2018, Gebr. Heinemann SE & Co. KG and MTU Aero Engines AG determine the median with a revenue of EUR 4,600 m and EUR 4,567 m.
- 5.
See Lantelme (2017, p. 60).
- 6.
These numbers are not included in Table 5.1 to increase its readability.
- 7.
In 1958, the following companies are ranked on position 50, 100, 150 and 200: Klöckner-Humboldt-Deutz AG, Duisburger Kupferhütte AG, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and G. M. Pfaff AG Nähmaschinenfabrik. Their counterparts in 2018 are Otto GmbH & Co. KG, Unternehmensgruppe Theo Müller S.e.c.s., Gas-Union GmbH and SMS group GmbH.
- 8.
See Gottschalk et al. (2019, p. V) also for the share of 90.0%.
- 9.
The mining companies include, among others, Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG (#10), Steinkohlenwerke Mathias Stinnes AG (#67), Rütgerswerke AG (#146) and Bergbau AG Ewald-König-Ludwig (subsidiary of Salzgitter-Konzern). In total, ten companies are named as members of the VfT in their commemorative publication for the 50th anniversary in 1955 (see Verkaufsvereinigung für Teererzeugnisse (VfT) AG (1955)).
- 10.
In the case of public companies, financial investors like Blackrock also own several stakes. However, they rarely exceed single-digit percentages, e.g., see Blackrock’s share in the DAX 30 companies (see Statista GmbH (2021)).
- 11.
Overall, all 3,483,691 enterprises in Germany in 2018 generate a revenue of EUR 6,968bn and employ 30.9 million people. The 15,452 companies with more than 250 employees have a revenue share of 51.5% (EUR 3,589bn) and an employee share of 45.6% (14.1 million) (German Federal Statistical Office (2019)). Note: The provided employee number of the 250 companies in this thesis includes the enterprises global workforce and not only the employees in Germany.
- 12.
Possible discrepancies between the percentages and percentage points in the text and the differences in the tables are due to rounding differences.
- 13.
See Gottschalk et al. (2019, pp. 5–6).
- 14.
See Section 4.3 for more details.
- 15.
Fried. Krupp was founded in 1811 and experienced a rapid development between the end of the 1840s until 1873, increasing their number of employees from less than 100 to around 12,000 (see Plumpe (2018), p. 16). At that time, factories were just starting to become relevant in the production of materials and goods. For the overall development of Fried. Krupp from their foundation and difficulties in the early stage see Gall (2000) and James (2012) for the later developments until the merger with Thyssen.
- 16.
See Mühlfriedel, Walter, and Hellmuth (1996). Later in 2004, Carl Zeiss changes its legal form to an AG.
- 17.
Besides the Peter Eckes oHG there are two additional companies in 1958 which are associated with the Eckes family and their business activities: Chantré & Cie GmbH and ECKES Übersee-Fruchtsaft KG. The revenue of DM 141 m relates to all three companies of which the oHG appears to be the largest one. Therefore, this legal form was chosen to represent Eckes (see Verlag Hoppenstedt & Co. (1959b, p. 1567)).
- 18.
The identification of the legal form of the Schwarz-Gruppe turns out to be difficult. Similar cases are Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord as well as other mainly retail chains. They do not have a single legal entity which owns all subsidiaries. It is a network of different entities (often split by region). These entities are then owned by different foundations, e.g., in the case of Schwarz there are at least three foundations with Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG, Kaufland Stiftung & Co. KG and PreZero Stiftung & Co. KG as well as the Schwarz Produktion GmbH & Co. KG which are all controlled by the Dieter Schwarz Stiftung.
- 19.
See Gesetz zur Änderung des Gesetzes betreffend die Erwerbs- und Wirtschaftsgenossenschaften, 1973.
- 20.
For 1958, only Philips’ Gloeilampenfabrieken (NED) is covered as a foreign entity listed on a German stock exchange. For 1959, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa Ltd. (ZAF), Banque des Paris et des Pays-Bas (FRA), Philips’ Gloeilampenfabrieken (NED), Royal Dutch Petroleum Company (NED) and MONTECATINI (ITA) are covered.
- 21.
See German Federal Statistical Office (1958). A similar report for December 1958 is not available.
- 22.
See The World Bank (2021).
- 23.
A similar decline is reported for the US (see Gupta, Koller, and Stumpner (2021)) The number dropped from 5,500 in 2000 to around 4,000 in 2020.
- 24.
Four of the five listed KGaAs are family firms which are Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, Merck KGaA, Hella GmbH & Co. KGaA and Hornbach Holding AG & Co. KGaA while the fifth enterprise, Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA, is majority-owned by a foundation.
- 25.
See Section 4.3 for more details of the legislative changes.
- 26.
Furthermore, see the explanations of the liability of newness in Section 2.1.1.
- 27.
The company names refer to the names in 2018 and not to the names in the year of foundation or in 1958.
- 28.
See Fernandez Moya, Fernandez-Perez, and Lubinski (2020) who show that 54 of the 100 largest family businesses in Germany in 2005 were founded before 1913.
- 29.
See Section 5.7.2 for more details of the youngest enterprises in the datasets.
- 30.
Including the actual decades for the 2018 dataset of 1850, 1840, 1830, 1820, 1810, 1800 and earlier.
- 31.
Hannah (1999, p. 255).
- 32.
Hannah does not consider, e.g., the time as partnerships in his calculation of the average age. He points out that the firms are “[…] on average thirty-two years old in the corporate sense […]” Hannah (1999, p. 255).
- 33.
Hannah (1999, p. 255).
- 34.
Additional WZ industries classifications in which none of the 250 companies of 1958 and 2018 operate are (A) agriculture, forestry and fishing, (P) education, (R) arts, entertainment and recreation, (T) activities of households as employers, and (U) activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies.
- 35.
The company becomes state-owned in 1966 when Neckar-Elektrizitätsverband acquires the majority. Later on in 1997, Neckarwerke Elektrizitätsversorgungs-AG merge with Technische Werke der Stadt Stuttgart AG.
- 36.
Aton GmbH is the holding company of the former principal shareholder and founder of Helios Kliniken, Lutz Helmig, and his family. The holding has several portfolio companies in engineering, mining, medical technology, aviation, and digital services. Mining accounts for the largest revenue share. However, the mining activities are not located in Germany but in Canada and South Africa. This means that only K + S AG is categorized as mining and quarrying company in the dataset of the 250 largest enterprises of 2018.
- 37.
Some of the enterprises are well-known to the interested reader others might surprise her or him because they do not appear in the daily media or disappear over the last 60 years.
- 38.
As a brief country comparison, FORTUNE lists General Motors as the largest corporation in the US in 1958 with a total revenue of USD 11.0bn and 588,160 employees (see CNN (2021)). In 2018, Walmart is at the top of the list with a total revenue of USD 500.3bn and 2.3 million employees (see Walmart Inc. (2019)). The American companies are larger than the biggest German enterprise in both years.
- 39.
The 25 largest enterprises of 1958 generate EUR 31.9bn [DM 62.4bn] of the total revenue of the sample which is EUR 67.7bn [DM 132.3bn] and the 25 smallest enterprises generate EUR 1.1bn [DM 2.2bn].
- 40.
For the financials of Deutsche Bundesbahn see the 295 page report of 1960 to the German Parliament (see Deutscher Bundestag (1960)) which already proposes measures to reduce the company’s losses. Further, see Section 3.7.3 the difficulties to determine the company type of Siemen AG.
- 41.
See Die Zeit (1960) for more details.
- 42.
The share of listed companies in all 250 enterprises is 40.0%. Therefore, the percentages have swapped in this smaller sample of 25.
- 43.
The explanations of the company type abbreviations can be found in Table 60 of the appendix in the electronic supplementary material.
- 44.
In 1958, the legal name of Salzgitter was AG für Berg- und Hüttenbetriebe but it was hardly used. Most likely because of the reference to its name Reichswerke für Berg- und Hüttenbetriebe “Hermann Göring” during the Third Reich. The name was officially changed to Salzgitter AG in 1961 (see Wessel (2008) as company publication).
- 45.
The 25 largest enterprises of 2018 generate EUR 1,636.1bn of the total revenue of the sample which is EUR 3,065.3bn and the 25 smallest enterprises generate EUR 61.1bn.
- 46.
BMW AG is categorized as public company. See Section 5.8 for a critical discussion.
- 47.
Dussmann Stiftung & Co. KGaA is categorized as family-owned enterprise because ultimately the Dussmann family (often represented by Catherine von Fürstenberg-Dussmann) owns the company. The foundation only acts as general partner of the Co. KGaA.
- 48.
Merck’s development can be traced back to1668 when Friedrich Jacob Merck takes over a pharmacy in Darmstadt. It is noteworthy that at that time no industrial production took place. This first changed in 1827. Nevertheless, the origin of today’s company Merck KGaA goes back to the 17th century.
- 49.
The company is the holding of Günther Wagner Pelikan-Werke and Verpackungswerke in Hanover. It is exclusively owned by the Wagner and Beindorff family. Pelikan is the famous brand of fountain pens and office supplies.
- 50.
Like other enterprises, Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk AG is the holding or central entity of Felten & Guilleaume Group. This group of companies also includes, e.g., Felten & Guilleaume Carlswerk Eisen u. Stahl AG and all their subsidiaries.
- 51.
Both Howaldtswerke have the same origin but were split in two separate and independent entities in 1953 (see Ostersehlte (2004) for a corporate publication).
- 52.
Like several other public utilities, the foundation of Wuppertaler Stadtwerke AG goes back to the initial gas supply of a city, in this case of Elberfeld. See Section 4.1 for a more detailed description.
- 53.
The ranks in this sub-chapter also relate to the position based on revenue, e.g., E. Merck AG is the 142nd largest enterprise of 1958.
- 54.
See also the ranking “Germany’s 50 oldest family businesses” introduced in Section 1.1 (see Stiftung Familienunternehmen (2021a, 2021b)).
- 55.
In addition to the two already mentioned ones, Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA (1835), Alliance Healthcare Deutschland AG (founded in 1841 and named Andreae-Noris Zahn AG in 1958), Carl Zeiss AG (1846) and Siemens AG (1847) are among the reappearing companies. Further, their reappearance is not equivalent to the continuity of their majority ownership structure which is investigated in Chapter 6.
- 56.
McKesson Europe AG is the German branch of US-based McKesson Corp. (founded in New York City in 1833). The origins of the German entity go back to Drogerie- und Farbwarenhandlung Gehe & Co. which were owned by the Haniel family after World War II.
- 57.
In 2018, listed Hapag-Lloyd AG is owned by CSAV Germany Container Holding GmbH (25.8%), a subsidiary of the Chilean ship** company CSAV, S.A. which merged its container business with Hapag-Lloyd in 2014, Kühne Holding AG and Kühne Maritime GmbH (25.0%), Qatar Holding Germany GmbH (14.5%), HGV Hamburger Gesellschaft für Vermögens- und Beteiligungsmanagement mbH (13.9%), the investment management company of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg, and the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (10.2%). The remaining shares are in free float (10.6%).
- 58.
See Bünte (1972) and Saarbergwerke AG (1982) for the history of the company and some of the mines. A note regarding critical source work: Both publications are edited by the company itself.
- 59.
Parts of the operations in Germany can be traced back to Knoll AG which was founded in 1886 and acquired by BASF in 1975 (see Teltz (1980)).
- 60.
See the German term “Nachkriegsunternehmer” in, among others, Büschemann (2014) and Eglau (1982) as well as the critical reflections of their entrepreneurial activities, e.g., about Josef Neckermann (see Pierenkemper (1996)).
- 61.
Mitteldeutsche Mineralöl-Handelsgesellschaft mbH which operate gas stations and distribute gasoline products from Caltex (California Texas Corp.) a joint venture of the US oil companies Texaco and Standard Oil of California is owned via the investment vehicle Caltex-Tank-Kraft Mineralöl GmbH by California Texas Corp. (50.0%), Braunkohle-Benzin AG (25.0%) and Union Rheinische Braunkohlen-Kraftstoff AG (25.0%). The owners of Süddeutsche Zellwolle AG are Bayerische Vereinsbank as well as several spinning and weaving mills.
- 62.
The companies are Aton GmbH (2001), Evonik Industries AG (2007), Dt. Gesellschaft für Intern. Zusammenarbeit GmbH (2011) and Agravis Raiffeisen AG (2004).
- 63.
Because the number of family businesses in 1958 and 2018 remains stable the CAGR of the total revenue and of the average company is similar. Looking at public companies as a reference, their revenue CAGR from 1958 to 2018 is 7.4% based on the average public company. Here, the average CAGR is not similar to the total CAGR (which is 11.2%) because the number of public companies decreases from 56 to 47. The highest average revenue CAGR is seen for foundations with 8.3% while foreign subsidiaries have the lowest CAGR with 5.1% (see Table 63 of the appendix in the electronic supplementary material for the overview of the average company types and their revenue CAGRs). Further, the average family business is smaller than the average enterprise which has revenues of EUR 271 m [DM 529 m] in 1958 and EUR 12.3bn in 2018.
- 64.
See Section 3.7.3 more details of the Siemens family and their ownership share including multiple voting rights.
- 65.
Although the owners of Hildesheimer Speditions- u. Lagerhaus GmbH cannot be identified the majority of the smallest family business of 1958 is verified with Wolfgang Boettger.
- 66.
The median is determined by the 44th largest family business which is J. A. Schmalbach AG. The company is majority owned by the Schmalbach family (~71.0%) while US-based Continental Can Company, Inc. owns around 20.0%. Later on, the American company will acquire a larger stake and the family loses their majority.
- 67.
Both are members of the Krupp family. Irmgard Eilenstein is Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach’s sister and Arnold von Bohlen und Halbach is his nephew, son of his brother Claus von Bohlen und Halbach. The majority of Capito & Klein AG was transferred in 1953 from Alfried von Bohlen und Halbach to fulfill the requirements of the reorganization of the German steel industry.
- 68.
Claas KGaA mbH is the 44th largest family business of 2018 and therefore the median company. The enterprise is still owned by the Claas family who founded the company in 1913.
- 69.
As a reminder, the number of public companies decreases from 56 in 1958 to 47 in 2018. Nevertheless, they increase their employee and revenue shares over time.
- 70.
Kaelble (1982, p. 52) and Section 2.2.2.2. as well as Klein and Blondel (2002) who state that more than 50% of the 250 largest listed enterprises in Germany are patrimonial companies.
- 71.
In the further course, family businesses are more often compared with public companies because both company types are not dependent on foreign parent companies or states.
- 72.
Overall, the share of large companies with more than 250 employees in accommodation and food service activities is very small with only 0.09%. 91.8% of the firms have fewer than 10 employees. Although, the share of family businesses might be very high in this industry they are too small to be present in the dataset of this thesis. The same applies to real estate (see German Federal Statistical Office (2019)). Public administration and defense entities are in general in the hands of state-owned companies. Because firms in financial and insurance activities have been excluded of this thesis except for Deutsche Börse AG in 2018 it is no surprise that family businesses are not active in this industry either.
- 73.
The majority of Bertelsmann has been transferred to the three foundations Bertelsmann Stiftung, Reinhard Mohn Stiftung and BVG-Stiftung. Therefore, the company is categorized as foundation-owned enterprise in 2018. The Mohn family still owns a share of around 19.1%.
- 74.
As an interesting side note, all four companies already existed in 1958 but none made it to the list of the largest 250 enterprises because their revenues are too small.
- 75.
The mentioned industry numbers for public companies can be found in Table 64 of the appendix in the electronic supplementary material. This company type has the largest increase in the information and communication industry from zero to six entities.
- 76.
See Footnote 36 for more details regarding Aton GmbH. In comparison, the number of public companies which operate in mining and quarrying decreases from twelve of 56 (21.4%) to one of 47 enterprises (2.1%).
- 77.
Hella was acquired by the listed French automotive supplier Faurecia SE in 2021. The Hueck and Röpke families sold their shares. The acquisition is not part of the analysis of this thesis because it happened after the observation period which ends in 2018.
- 78.
The revenue and employee distribution of public companies is available in Table 65 of the appendix in the electronic supplementary material.
- 79.
Even higher decreases can be observed for public companies and their revenue and employee shares from 27.5% to 0.4% and from 30.8% to 0.4%. This is also in accordance with the decreasing number of public companies in mining and quarrying.
- 80.
Larger changes in the construction as well as information and communication industries can be observed for public companies. While the number of construction companies drops from four (7.1%) to one (2.1%) their revenue and employee shares also decline from 2.2% in 1958 to 0.4% in 2018 and from 3.6% to 1.0%, respectively. The number of information and communication companies increases from zero to six (6 / 47 public companies or 12.8%) and the revenue and employee shares are 10.3% and 10.0%, respectively, in 2018.
- 81.
It should be noted that the number of listed family enterprises is 26 compared to 61 non-listed ones in 1958 (29.9%) and 13 compared to 74 in 2018 (14.9%) which is in both cases below the average of the overall sample with 250 companies of which 100 (40.0%) in 1958 and 72 (28.8%) in 2018 are listed.
- 82.
See Fernandez Moya et al. (2020, p. 232).
- 83.
For the majority of family businesses, the family generation can be identified using primary or secondary sources. In some cases, the average length of a generation which is 30 years is used to estimate the generation.
- 84.
See Section 2.2.2.3 for the advantages and disadvantages of the different family business definitions.
- 85.
See, among others, the FAZ ranking of the largest family businesses of 2018 in Germany (see Giersberg and F.A.Z.-Archiv (2019)).
- 86.
See Fleschutz (2009) for an overview of the foundation as a successor solution for family businesses.
- 87.
In 1958, Robert Bosch GmbH was already in a transition after the death of Robert Bosch in 1942. Based on his will a permanent solution was sought for the company. This process results in the majority ownership transfer to Gemeinnützige Vermögensverwaltung Bosch GmbH which is later renamed in Robert Bosch Stiftung. The voting rights are transferred to Robert Bosch Industrietreuhand KG. The family still has a share of around 7.4% which is reorganized in 2020 / 2021. The ownership is mainly transferred to foundations related to the company and the family while the voting rights remain with the family (see Robert Bosch Stiftung (2020) as well as Bähr and Erker (2013) for the history of the company and the foundation).
- 88.
In 1958, family businesses account for 34.8% (87/250), foreign family businesses for 3.2% (8/250) and foundations for 0.8% (2/250). In 2018, the shares are 34.8% (87/250) for family businesses again, 7.2% (18/250) for foreign family businesses and 4.8% (12/250) for foundations.
- 89.
See Section 3.1 for an overview of Hannah’s study.
- 90.
See Hannah (1999) and page 259 for the “Summary Measures of Long-Run Performance of the Hundred Largest Firms of 1912 by 1995”.
- 91.
These are foreign family businesses and foundations with two entities (3.2%) each as well as multiple companies-owned enterprises and cooperatives with three entities (4.8%) each.
- 92.
The rates are 4.8% (3 / 62) for construction, 3.2% (2 / 62) for information and communication and 6.5% (4 / 62) for transportation and storage.
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Lantelme, M. (2023). Quantitative Analysis: The 250 Largest Enterprises of 1958 and 2018. In: The Continuity and Discontinuity of the 250 Largest Enterprises in Germany. Familienunternehmen und KMU. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-42375-9_5
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