Adoración Álvaro Moya

¿Misión imposible?, La expropiación de las empresas alemanas en España (1945–1975)

This article deals with a key issue in the economic development of the European periphery: the relationship between foreign investment and economic nationalism. The research focuses on the process of blockade, expropriation and reacquisition of German assets in Spain, which took place from 1945 to 1975. The process has been reconstructed by tracking its main characters: the German companies and their local partners, the Spanish groups interested in acquiring them, the Spanish and the German administrations, and the Allied Control Council. Our study reveals that, in the short run, the expropriation programme originated great business opportunities for the traditional partners of the German firms as well as for Spanish industrial banking. In the long run, however, due to private contracts between them and the German headquarters, the process allowed old owners to keep control of their assets and strengthen their position in the Spanish market. KEY Classification-JEL: F23, N44, N84, O12