it is a mistake to claim, as had often been the case until recently, that Germans in general and German businessmen in particular did not “confront the National Socialist past” after World War II. The real problem is the manner in which they did so. Recent research on West German industry has shown that its leaders were preoccupied and — in cases where they were subjected to lengthy denazification proceedings or threats of socialization — even obsessed with the Nazi past and their role in it. They developed both personal and organized ways of trying to deal with that past that were personally bearable but that also permitted them to present a case to the outside world that at once legitimized the personal rehabilitation of those who were accused of working with the National Socialists and made the case for reconstruction of German industry along traditional lines. As shall be demonstrated here, this was also true of the leaders of the insurance business and of the insurance industry itself.

Indeed, this confrontation with the Nazi period was an inescapable necessity for three reasons. First, business leaders were subject to denazification. If, in retrospect, the denazification appears to have been poorly conceived and inconsistently and inadequately implemented, it nevertheless required the filling out of lengthy and detailed questionnaires, liability to internment in some instances (aswell as dismissal and blockage of accounts in many others), and subjection to legal proceedings that could lead to significant penalties if those appearing before the tribunals did not succeed in exonerating themselves. In the last analysis, the entire enterprise proved something of a monument to two American manias, questionnaires and letters of reference.