4th Transnational Rhine Conference: Crossing the Rhine. Globalisation and the Impact of War on the Rhine Economy

Rotterdam, 21-23 March 2013

Thursday 21 March 2013 

13.30-14.00: Registration

14.00-14.10: Werner Plumpe (Goethe University Frankfurt) Welcome and Introduction

14.10-14.30: Jean-Marie Woehrling (Former Secretary General of the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine) The Central commission for the Navigation of the Rhine in the service of the Rhine economy: permanence and change

14.30-16.00: First Session: The Rhine in Napoleonic Times 
Robert Mark Spaulding (University of North Carolina Wilmington) Reshaping Rhine Commerce in the Era of the French Revolution 
Takafumi Kurosawa (Kyoto University) Swinging currency border in the Upper Rhine: Pre-National Rhine Economy as a Border Zone of German and French Currency Systems 
Discussant: Harm Schröter (University of Bergen)

16.30-17.45: Second Session: Transnational Rhine Project 
Ralf Banken (Goethe University Frankfurt) and Ben Wubs (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Project Discussion: Network, Applications, Methods, Approaches and Topics. 
Steven van de Walle (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Experiences in applying for European FP7 SSH funding

17.45-18.00: Launch website Erasmus Centre for the History of the Rhine

18.00-19.00: Behind the Scenes Tour in Maritime Museum Rotterdam

Friday 22 March 2013

9.00-12.00: Excursion Rotterdam Port Authority: boat trip Maasvlakte 2

Venue: Future Land Maasvlakte 2

13.00-14.30: Third Session: The First Globalisation Wave and its Conflicts 
Hein Klemann (Erasmus University Rotterdam) The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, 1815-1914 
Joep Schenk and Marten Boon (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Trading Places. How Merchants shaped the Rotterdam-Ruhr Axis in the First Global Economy, 1870-1914 
Discussant: Abe de Jong (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

15.00-16.30: Fourth Session: Great War and the Rhine 
Eva Roelevink (Ruhr University Bochum) The German Coal on the Dutch Market, or: why it is interesting to have a look on the business history of the German Coal Syndicate and its Dutch Trading Association, 1915-1932 
Jeroen Euwe (Université Libre Bruxeles) The Rhine Economy and German Economic Recovery after World War I 
Discussant: Richard Coopey (Aberystwyth University)

16.30-17.15: Introducing archives 
Florence de Peyronnet-Dryden (German Historical Institute Paris), The electronic inventory of the archive of the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission (1919-1930): a new source for the economic history of Germany after World War I.

Saturday, 23 March 2013 

9.00-10.30: Fifth Session: The Second World War, its Aftermath, and the Rhine 
Martijn Lak (Erasmus University Rotterdam) The Rhine in Ruins. The consequences of World War II: Rhine traffic between the Netherlands and Germany, 1945-1957 
Ute Engelen (University of Mainz) Chemical and pharmaceutical companies at the Rhine in Mainz and Wiesbaden after 1945 
Margrit Müller (University of Zürich) The "Rhine Economy" and the development of the Swiss Chemical Industry 
Discussant: Nil Disco (University Twente)

11.00-12.30: Sixth Session: The Second Globalisation Wave and the Rhine Economy 
Klara Paardenkooper (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Containerization, the Rhine and the Military (1945-2010) 
Suzanne Hilger (Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf) "From the Rhine to the World" - North Rhine Westphalia's Economy in Times of Globalization 
Antoine Beyer (IFSTTAR, France) The urban restructuration of the Rhine river ports. Transport function vs. post industrial identities (1990 – 2010) 
Discussant: Christian Kleinschmidt (Philipps-Universität Marburg)