IBM's Questionable History
"IBM and Dehomag welcomed the money this new work brought in. But the German government restricted the movement of currency out of the country, which was still recovering from the depression and hyperinflation of the 1920s. IBM worked around this by listing patent royalty payments Dehomag made to IBM USA on Dehomag’s income statement as ‘‘expenses’’ rather than dividends, which exempted them from the restrictions." (McCormick and Spee 209)
"Germany only let German-owned companies do business with the government. To get around this, IBM successfully disguised its ownership of Dehomag with a complex director stock ownership scheme." (McCormick and Spee 210)
These two quotes above were found in the work IBM and Germany 1922-1941 and are, in my opinion, prime examples of the greed that IBM had as a company and their willingness to participate in Nazi Germany. These workarounds are evident to me that they knew the extent of what was occurring in Germany at the time, at least they knew enough to continue their financial gain.
Another quote, "Apparently only now upset by Nazi policies towards Jews and others, Watson wrote a letter to Hitler, pointing out the economic damage that could accrue to Germany by ‘a loss of good will to your country.’" (McCormick and Spee 211) again represents to me the notion that Watson, IBM's president, only cared about Germany's reputation due to his finances being tied into their government.
Flash forward to now, Carleton University has a multi-million dollar partnership with IBM.. As a Jewish student, I'm deeply perturbed by this as I know IBM's wealth is funded by the genocide of the Jewish people, as well as all other "undesirables" of Nazi Germany; people of colour, LGBT people, and disabled people.
Citational Information¶
McCormick, Donald W., and James C. Spee. “IBM and Germany 1922–1941.” Organization Management Journal (Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.), vol. 5, no. 4, Dec. 2008, pp. 208–13. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1057/omj.2008.25.