Merck
From a Pharmacy to a Global Corporation
Abstract
Merck is the oldest pharmaceutical-chemical company in the world. It developed into a global corporation from a Darmstadt pharmacy that Jacob Friedrich Merck received the pharmacist’s license for in 1668. This book tells the 350-year history of the company for the first time in its entirety and on the basis of all the available sources, as well as the newest research in business history.
For a long time, family-owned companies were regarded as a dying breed. The future seemed to belong to jointstock companies with an anonymous stockholder structure. Yet there are numerous successful counterexamples in Germany, such as Bosch, C&A and Bertelsmann. Merck, too, counts among them. How did the Merck family manage to keep the company in its possession for 13 generations through all the political ruptures and historical crises and turn it into a global leader among science and technology firms? With this as their central question, four acclaimed historians recount the fascinating history of the Merck company between 1668 and 2018, embedding it in the eventful course of world history.
Zusammenfassung
Merck is the oldest pharmaceutical-chemical company in the world. It developed into a global corporation from a Darmstadt pharmacy that Jacob Friedrich Merck received the pharmacist’s license for in 1668. This book tells the 350-year history of the company for the first time in its entirety and on the basis of all the available sources, as well as the newest research in business history.
For a long time, family-owned companies were regarded as a dying breed. The future seemed to belong to jointstock companies with an anonymous stockholder structure. Yet there are numerous successful counterexamples in Germany, such as Bosch, C&A and Bertelsmann. Merck, too, counts among them. How did the Merck family manage to keep the company in its possession for 13 generations through all the political ruptures and historical crises and turn it into a global leader among science and technology firms? With this as their central question, four acclaimed historians recount the fascinating history of the Merck company between 1668 and 2018, embedding it in the eventful course of world history.
- 9–27 Introduction 9–27
- 28–28 Literature 28–28
- 29–59 1. Beginnings 29–59
- 407–472 2. The Langmann Era 407–472
- 484–499 Conclusion 484–499
- 503–711 Appendices 503–711
- 503–646 Notes 503–646
- 647–654 Genealogy 647–654
- 655–657 List of Abbreviations 655–657
- 658–658 List of Archives 658–658
- 659–694 Bibliography 659–694
- 695–696 Image credits 695–696
- 697–702 Index of companies 697–702
- 703–711 Index of persons 703–711