Merger Development and Policy in West Germany since 1958

West Germany's recovery and growth to a position of economic leadership over most other industrialized nations appears to have been achieved without the aid of widespread merger activity, at least up to the late nineteen-sixties. Although the official statistics understate the true number of mergers in the period, there is no evidence of significant merger waves in the fifties and sixties comparable with US and UK experience. However, Germany did share with almost all developed market economies the experience of merger wave : between 1969 and 1971, when there was a distinct surge in the level of merger activity. Thereafter, German experience diverged once again from that of most other countries, with a continuing rapid growth of mergers throughout the 1970's.