Between 1870 and 1937, the corporate control system in the German Reich changed fundamentally. While the German Empire emphasized the protection of shareholders and minority shareholders, shareholders lost their rights of codecision in the 1920s. At the same time, the corporation changed from an owner-operated company to a large, manager-run company. Felix Selgert examines the political and social conditions of this change. He shows that this was influenced by environmental conditions such as financial and economic crises as well as by coalitions of advocates.