Privatdozent Dr. Magnus Ressel
Alfried Krupp Junior Fellow
(October 2021 - September 2022)
- Studied historically oriented cultural studies with a minor in business administration at Saarland University and history / anthropology at Macquarie University Sydney
- Research Associate at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in the Collaborative Research Center 573, Pluralization and Authority, then in the DFG project “Between personal provision and government welfare” at the Ruhr University Bochum and at the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, at the same time scientific coordinator (until 2016) of the International Research Training Group 1067 "Political Communication from Antiquity to the 20th Century"
- Research grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation
Fellow project: Between the Old Empire and the Atlantic Plantation Economy: The Trading Empire of Friedrich Romberg (1729-1819)
The aim of the project is to analyze the global ventures of Friedrich Romberg, born in Hemer near Iserlohn. Romberg, who lived in Brussels since 1755, within just thirty years became one of the most important colonial traders of his era, the most important hauler of Europe and one of the leading industrialists of the Austrian Netherlands. Romberg managed to cope with the complexity of his global firm by splitting it up into subsidiary companies and by bureaucratizing operational processes throughout the company. Therefore, Romberg’s activities stand at a threshold in business history towards the institutionalized firm, which was to become the dominant corporative form in the 19th century. The project traces this change on the basis of Romberg’s firm and simultaneously tests the hypothesis of a close connection between colonial trade and the industrial take-off of Europe around 1800 on the micro level.