Carl Köttgen was a German electrical engineer who worked for the electric machine company Siemens, rising to the rank of director by the early twentieth century. Köttgen also served as the deputy director of the Rationalisierungskuratorium der Deutschen Wirtschaftlichkeit (RKW; Rationalization Board of the German Economy), a public-private initiative, founded by Carl Friedrich von Siemens with encouragement from the Department of Commerce. RKW’s goal was to advance the technical rationalization of the German economy, and to aid the economic recovery from the first World War. Köttgen was one of the first of countless German visitors to the United States in the 1920s, who studied the US economic system, and US production methods. Köttgen published a report on his transatlantic trip that set a critical tone for the German perception of the US economic model. He argued that the beneficial climate, abundant natural resources, and large domestic markets rendered US production methods unsuitable for German conditions.
Related Subjects: German Visitors, Manufacturers
Productivity Machines 