German economic history can be traced through its traditional family businesses. Many of them survived wars, crises, and technological revolutions. But many of them now have little left with which to resist the destructive force of environmentalism and degrowth ideology.
Anyone searching through German economic history will eventually come across the name Coatinc Company.
The company from Siegen is, as far as the surviving documents show, the oldest German family business still in existence. Originating in 1502 from an iron-processing operation, it developed over more than five centuries into an internationally established specialist in surface finishing and hot-dip galvanizing.
