Walter Ratenau wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century that three hundred German men had determined the economic destinies of the continent:
It meant an interconnected network of bankers, industry leaders and lobbyists, which developed with the rise of companies such as Allianz, Krupp and Siemens. They knew each other, communicated with each other, and coordinated their actions. Until the 1990s, this network, known as Deutschland AG, shaped politics and corporate culture in the Federal Republic of Germany.Konstantin Richter brings together the stories of these influencers and actors in a fast-paced narrative, an epic about the rise and fall of German companies from the founding age to the crisis-ridden present.
