Introduction - the "Borchardt debate" on the failure of economic policy at the end of the Weimar Republic, J. von Kruedener; was there a crisis before the crisis? the state of the German economy in the 1920s, D. Petzina; German trade union policy 1929-1933 in the light of the British experience, S. Pollard; industrial crisis strategy in the Great Depression, B. Weisbrod; was the policy of deflation in Germany unavoidable?, C.-L. Holtfrerich; could Bruning's policy of deflation have been successful?, J. von Kruedener; a decade of debate about Bruning's economic policy, K. Borchardt.