Quest for economic empire: European strategies of German big business in the twentieth centuryBerghahn, Volker R. (Volker Rolf)German unification evoked ambivalent reactions outside its borders: it revived disquieting memories of attempts by German big business during the two world wars to build an economic empire in Europe in conjunction with the military and the government bureaucracy. But there are also high hopes that German finance and industry will serve as the engine of reconstruction in eastern Europe, just as it played this role in the postwar unification of western Europe