Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Everybody in this group will be aware of the fact that business history is neither of American nor of recent vintage. The first full-fledged company history was published in 1825 to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Lauchhammer Iron Works in Saxony; and Professor Herman Freudenberger has recently been able to trace the beginnings of company history to the eighteenth century. His research will be published this spring. As early as the 1900's, Professor Richard Ehrenberg of the University of Rostock was the first to see that what we call business history could be developed into an academic discipline, and his book on the enterprises of the Siemens Brothers marks the beginning of company history satisfying the most rigid modern scientific standards. In fact, Ehrenberg's work had an influence on the thinking of Professor N. S. B. Gras.
1 “Charter of The Business Historical Society, Incorporated,” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society, Inc., Vol. I (June. 1926). p. 11.
2 Professor Gras's own version as to this unfortunate conflict has recently been published. See, The Development of Business History up to 1950: Selections from the Unpublished Works of Norman Scott Bryan Gras, compiled and edited by Ethel C. Gras (Ann Arbor, 1962), p. 24.