The study deals with the multinationalization of European companies in the last third of the 20th century. Using the example of four large chemical companies (Bayer, Hoechst, Rhône-Poulenc, Akzo), she asks about the importance of multinational companies for the most recent globalization processes and the increasing interdependence in the world economy from a European comparative perspective. She shows that the company's strategic guidelines as well as the political and economic order structures changed fundamentally from the 1970s, and reflects on the challenges of this structural change.