Cartel seat (monument)


Cartel seats as monuments were the headquarters or other premises of historical, no longer existing cartels in the sense of a group of cooperating, but rivaling enterprises. Often, these associations had been syndicate cartels being an advanced form of entrepreneurial combination because of their tight organization with a common sales agency. The cartel buildings had been used for secretariats, meeting rooms, sales offices, advertising agencies, research departments and further more. Many such historical buildings can still be found in Europe and the United States.

Cartel buildings as architectural remains

In the decades between 1870 and 1945, cartels had been wide spread as organizational forms of the economy. While loose price cartels and other more or less informal Gentlemen's agreements“ did not impose any requirements relating to fixed permanent premises, this was particularly the case with “syndicate cartels” being entrepreneurial combinations with centralized sales offices. Hundreds of administrative employees could work in such cartel establishments. The respective buildings were regularly stately, often representative and richly decorated with façade ornaments. In Europe, despite substantial war losses and demolitions, many of these cartel buildings are still preserved. Mostly, however, they have become simpler in their appearance, because later owners did not restore the original ornaments.
To the monument category of large cartel seats, one could add the buildings also of historic economic planning associations, which are considered to be similar to a cartel. They existed mainly before and during the Second World War.

Recognition as cultural monuments

From their heritage value, historic cartel buildings could be equated with historic headquarters of large companies or corporate groups. However, this has not been put into practice: A number of buildings around the world have been designated and protected as historical corporate headquarters, but not a single former cartel seat has been signposted as such. If historic cartel buildings are actually under heritage protection, they are listed for other reasons of remembrance. Conversely, stately buildings have been demolished in the past, without any regard to their historical importance as cartel seats.
The cartel specialist Holm Arno Leonhardt pointed out in 2013 how important certain cartels had been for economic development in the 19th century, such as the sales organizations for coal and steel in the Rhine-Ruhr-area of Germany: The Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and the German Stahlwerksverband. For this reason he pleaded for the distinct „regionalwirtschaftliche Organisationskunst“ of the syndicate cartels to be an intangible cultural heritage and put under UNESCO world cultural heritage protection before being forgotten. Suitable places of remembrance in Germany were Düsseldorf and Essen. Significant memorial plaques were to be set up at both locations.
The reasons for the conspicuous reluctance of the historic preservation authorities and the established historians in relation to historical cartel buildings can be found in the taboo, which after the Second World War was installed by the general cartel ban. Cartels have been criminalized and positive statements about them belong to the 'inspeakable'. The initiative to consider cartel buildings as historically worth remembering came only from critical scientific positions or from civil society, for example from the association "Rhein-Neckar-Industriekultur eV", Mannheim, which dedicated an illustrated presentation to the local branch of the former Rhenish lignite syndicate.

Examples of historical cartel buildings

Austria (Vienna)

The Austrian cartel system was definitely dominated by the city of Vienna as the political and administrative center of Austria-Hungary or of the republican Austria. The historical Viennaer cartel landscape was characterized by a graduated geographical scope of the recognizable cartels. The responsibility of these associations ranged from the wider town area via Lower Austria, crownland/republic Austria, the Austrian part of the Habsburg monarchy, the whole Austria-Hungary up to an international or global reach. In terms of architecture, the Viennese cartel residences don’t stand out: They feature the same pomp style as the neighboring buildings and are not marked with specific trade symbols. Removals of cartel seats, mainly of smaller administrations, which fitted into large apartments, can be ascertained.

International

Cisleithanian (= Austrian half of the Habsburg empire including Bohemia and Galicia)

Also in Czechoslovakia, the capital was the most favored location for cartel headquarters. Nevertheless, other places can be found, but were comparably rare.
Switzerland was a location for domestic as well as international cartels.

United States of America