"Free to Obey: How the Nazis Invented Modern Management" by Johann Chapoutot offers a profound and unsettling examination of the role of management practices in the Nazi regime. Chapoutot delves into the ways in which the Nazis employed organizational strategies, bureaucratic structures, and management techniques to exert control over both individuals and institutions. Through meticulous research and insightful analysis, Chapoutot demonstrates how the Nazis pioneered techniques of efficiency, rationalization, and standardization in pursuit of their ideological goals. He explores the intersection of management theory and authoritarianism, revealing the ways in which concepts such as division of labor, hierarchy, and discipline were utilized to consolidate power and implement policies of oppression and genocide.

I like the premise but found the book a bit difficult to get into and it seemed like a lot of the underlying assumptions were a bit of a reach. Perhaps this might be more regionally applicable (ie, European management styles) but there's plenty of evidence for modern business culture predating the Reich. Interesting concept to explore but not a super strong read -- I abandoned partway through.

‘The Art of (Economic) War

How the Nazis invented Modern Management

This fascinating and well-researched thesis on the effects of the so-called 'Bad Harzburg Management Model' is, on the one hand, fascinating to read, though in addition, the reading made me feel uncomfortable while reading it.

My gaze immediately fell on the cover- a rather obscure replica of Nazi propaganda posters.
The final chapters focus on how Reinhart Höhn ( the Mengele of administrative law) was able to rise from the ranks of the SS and SD to become a confidant of Adenauer after the war - earning him a Grand Cross of Merit from the FRG.

In it, he discusses the phenomenon of Germans being destined to rule from their origins (tribal Germanic people who were free to choose). (?)
For example, he argues that leaders in Nazi Germany had to make quick decisions, there was no time to discuss or turn for help. Moreover, he argues, that Nazi Germany was not a state, with subjects, but a society led (geführt) by a Führer, who was not the monarch or a prince, but who carried out the will of the people (Wille des Volkes), excluding the ‘non-productive labour ‘units’ (Menschenmaterial) from rewards, with the ultimate goal to remove them from society completely in favour of the ‘desirables’ .

He cites social darwinism, and sees the organisation of Nazi Germany as an economic industrial model, in which it was important managing it with professional detachment and coolness. (with ‘markets’ that had to be conquered and subjected to new ‘management.’)
Ordinary and simple management issues like mobility, logistics, work, production, pay, etc. were commonplace in the system of Nazi Germany, with people as production units ‘(Menschenmaterial); and since Nazi Germany was a war industry/autocracy, he addresses issues of how the 'managers' of units had to deal with fewer production units (Menschenmaterial) (most male workers fought in the army). ‘doing more with less.´ There was no time to complain or decide, they had to act at their own discretion.
In this respect, subordinates were free to listen and act as seen fit, and since Nazi Germany had no head of state, but a leader who carried out the will of the people, subordinates were free to obey, and act at will. (‘for the common good’)


At times interesting, though I do not agree with him on every aspect (he does not see Hitler as a totalitarian leader, for he states he was merely the embodiment of the will of the people - ; (Wille des Volkes, the ‘community wants him to act on their orders… - he even goes so far as to see the Third Reich as a ‘Betriebsgemeinschaft’, a community with bosses and workers within a working community, in which the boss & worker works freely for the common good)
He considers that a state was nothing more than an apparatus in the service of the established power, the Nazi movement merely took possession of that same state and assigned new tasks to it.
He did, for example, think that Louis XIV was exemplary of a monster and a typical example of a despot (red. ‘’État, c’est moi’ - King Louis XIV).

Some parts are rather controversial - and readers need to have a thorough knowledge of Germany, and the forces at work within Nazi Germany. This book is not for every layman: you need to know about the economical situation within Nazi Germany, and how an autarchy functions. (currently e.g. North Korea ‘-).

I do not agree with the author that Germany lacks nobility, (‘no knights or gentlemen’) and that it was indeed a nation of soldiers and civil servants, as it has always been. They abolished nobility, true, yet the remaining fortune and status of these families is significant even today. It is a well-known fact that many industrialists and 'people of old money' from noble German families helped Hitler gain control, - for those who want to know more about it, I advise to read David de Jong's book 'Braunes Erbe' (Nazi Billionaires) instead, I believe that this gives a more complete picture of the economic and political structure of Nazi Germany, and its ‘management’ heritage.

I regret that the author goes too much into the organisation of the Nazi movement, and the role of the 'manager' of this system. He also indicates that there was unease within this system, as disproportionate work had to be done by the civilian population who did not serve under arms.
So to keep the 'worker' friendly’ and 'free to obey', all kinds of reward systems were launched. Unfortunately, in doing so, he ignores the FKK (Freikörperkultur) - (‘a healthy body, a healthy mind’), sports, cinema, clubs and associations), where the worker was of course free to anticipate, yet he was, of course, not allowed to interfere with the ‘company’ goal. As an example, he cites the Aldi concern, where, via oppressive corporate culture, - and ensuring that 'bad' employees were quickly laid off, a community of working bees is guaranteed. Even if the workers had complied with harsh management rules, they were laid off with ‘lies' and ‘faults’ so that dismissal was justified, and since no one is monitoring the management, no one really cares. (‘survival of the fittest -life is a battle’ - bad luck)

The author opted to choose the Bad Harzburg Model as a comparison, in which CEOs - just as in Nazi Germany - had to make decisions without being held accountable, to ensure that a working community of loyal, strong production units eventually emerged, who want to work in freedom and with personal commitment for the 'company', with the weak and the unproductive being quickly sidelined by a side door. It is only a pity that the author does not go into the Harvard Business Model.

Not for everyone, but I found it interesting and well-founded. The second part about the life of Reinhart Höhen was a little less of an appeal to me.
Contains a reference list of all works and sources used.

4 stars. Thank you Netgalley and the author for this arc. I leave this review voluntarily.

5 stars.

It may not be a book that gives you many answers, but it certainly is one that makes you question…well everything. I’d recommend this book not to people who are interested in history though, but I think anyone who’s looking around not sure about their life, what are they supposed to do, what they want, what to change, basically, people that usually pick a self-help book, a dozen a year, I think would greatly benefit from reading this instead. The most probable causes for what doesn’t feel right about your life are described in this book. It may be about management and its roots, but it asks a broader question, “Is this the right way to live?” Is this really what we should be striving for, participating, trying to find our place in this mass production world? How free the individual is living within the system? Because that’s how it is, we’re not just working in it, we’re living it. It’s a very short read, and I don’t think you should have the slightest interest in history to be impacted by the book. I honestly think it’s a must read. It’s just marketed to the wrong audience.

Didn’t finish this one. Very heavy handed writing that doesn’t convincingly hit its thesis. Cherry picking anecdotal history for a very specific idea.

The Nazis believed in eugenics and practiced social Darwinism in their quest for the "perfect" man (the women were home with the babies) who could rise to the highest ideals of their society. But they were also clearly chaotic and unorganized in their hierarchy, with an emphasis placed on oversight, efficiency, and production. Johann Chapoutot uses the former SS officer, Reinhard Höhn, who ran a successful management school for decades after the war, to illustrate how elements of the Nazi management style have become embedded into our business institutions today.

Based on the cover, the subtitle, and my own interest, I thought I was the audience for this book. It became quickly obvious that I was not. Nevertheless, I persevered. As an ordinary reader, I found the writing to be far more academic, dense, and dry for my taste.

Because I was not within the niche audience, I rated the book a bit higher than I normally would have. If you are interested in the history of Nazism as well as management techniques and principles, this might be a title to add to your list.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Europa, for providing me access to an e-copy of the book for an honest review.

#netgalley #freetoobey #europacompass

I try not to read too many books about Nazis. There's a ratio, isn't there, an unknown but definite proportion of someone's reading beyond which they get a bit worrying; too many of those who do learn from history also seem a bit eager to repeat it. And for books filed under Business on Netgalley, the same but even more so; there the threshold is so close to zero as to be indistinguishable with the naked eye. But come on, a book blaming modern management practices on the Nazis? Resistance was futile.

The introduction made me worry that it had been a terrible mistake, disavowing the promise of the blurb: "Nor do I seek to present an indictment of managers, management, human resources departments, or auditors of consulting firms." Oh, really? Shame. Mercifully, this turns out to be something of a fig leaf; we're soon back to the ghastly Nazi jurist turned post-War management guru Reinhard Höhn, his enthusiasm for subordinates doing more with less, being told to use their initiative and not come crying to higher-ups, even though doing the wrong sort of trusting their instincts will obviously lead to just as much trouble as you'd get for doing the wrong thing in the hidebound bureaucracies of France or the USSR, against which he and his chums defined the entirely different – which is to say, more lawless, but in the event just as punctilious – bureaucracy of the Third Reich. The belief that underlings should be not just compliant but actively enthusiastic, the tendency of the management guru to talk in airy generalities, the love of hollow rhetoric in which 'everything was "historic," "unique"' – it's all horribly familiar. I've long found it amazing/appalling that people will still talk about work as somehow bringing freedom, which is obvious bollocks even before you consider how it translates into German, and been puzzled how a phrase as clearly inhuman as 'human resources' retains straight-faced ubiquity, but it's lovely to have chapter and verse on the through-line, not just in terms of terminology but of personnel; the book names names on the various students of this method – and, at least at the time, enthusiastic fascists – who would go on to play key roles in Germany's post-War reconstruction and, given the success of that economic miracle, attain influence in the corporate system across the world.

Yes, it can at times feel a little Adam Curtis in terms of not acknowledging the long prehistory of the instance it's addressing - surely subordinates being given a choice of means, but not ends, is not that far from the largely spurious distinction between 'liberty' and 'licence', which had already been stinking the place up for centuries? And if 700,000 people went through the Bad Harzburg management school, many even after Höhn's SS past was revealed, you'd think the book could reveal a better smoking gun in terms of the methods still being used than Aldi. There's also an obvious gap, even allowing for the book's translation having taken a couple of years, in not mentioning how 'will of the people' rhetoric - complete with leaders who, in its alleged service, must be allowed to overturn outmoded systems and norms - has reared its ugly head in plain old politics again. But it is fascinating to be reminded that, for all we now think of the Third Reich as a classic totalitarian state, to many of its own theorists it was anything but, the state having been superseded by the Volk, and ultimately destined to wither away, just like the other lot promised yet somehow never quite seemed to happen there either.

The perfect encapsulation of the whole thing, though: Reinhard Höhn, after the War, with the same make of car in the same colour and given the same pet name as before. Pumping out the exact same dreary prose as before, with the same buzzwords and banal recommendations, still enjoining great responsibility for subordinates without any real power. The only difference being that he's had the sense to shut up about supposed racial characteristics. And yet can you think of anything more Prussian than a system supposed to encourage initiative and spontaneity, with 315 rules on how to do that?

(Netgalley ARC)

I needed to sit with this one overnight before making my mind on how to rate it. My rating and review are specifically for the translated to English version of this book and I might revisit my review if I get my hands on an original French language copy. Reading this book was very uncomfortable, it felt like reading a largely favorable biography of a SS general that got away with it and went on to live a life of relative success. While it's facts that it is what happened, I was really taken aback by the sympathetic approach to the man. Considering that French reviewers did not seem to have been shocked by the approach I think this might be a question of nuance being lost in translation (hence I might revisit if I can find a French copy).
There are interesting aspect to this book and very timely ones too, if you are not convinced that there is an authoritarian/fascistic drift currently happening in many places this book might just make you see things differently without even trying. I say without trying because the focus through most of the book is on the managements principles put forward by Höhn and his management school and his life and not really on how they present in today's managerial world/political sphere but it's not hard to see if you pay even fleeting attention to what's going on around you (the use of freedom verbiage by authoritarians where in reality freedom is only freedom of mode not freedom of goals, decentralized leadership with diffuse instruction, power of the individual over only a small area of action that falls under their purview…).
In conclusion, Chapoutot is an historian and this is a history book so if you're interested in history you'll find interesting tidbits in a concise package, if you're looking for a deep cut about how current principles of management were shaped in part by Nazis this book might leave you "sur votre faim" as we would say in French.