Handlung, Firma, Unternehmen. Zur Institutionalisierung der modernen Unternehmung im 19. Jahrhundert

The article focusses on the development of companies’ legal forms and the institutionalisation of modern enterprises in the early 19th century German economic system. It demonstrates that the development of multiple modern enterprises in Germany after 1800 preceded the evolvement of statutory company legal forms, as modern company law was not introduced until the Allgemeines Deutsches Handelsgesetzbuch of 1861. By this time, the economic systems surrounding modern enterprises were already widespread and had become generally accepted institutions in economic life. The article concludes by analysing the institutionalisation of a company as a case in hand. The case study demonstrates – by taking Werner Sombart’s consideration of businesses “gaining independence” from their owners into account – that even the institutionalisation of one of the early large-scale enterprises –the Gutehoffnungshütte concern – involved a lengthy process, and was not achieved by the enterprises’ foundation or its choice of company legal form alone.