(Re)Construction site of German historical national accounts: I Machine building: A new benchmark before World War I

The figure most commonly used as benchmark for the output of machinery before WW I is based on an estimate by the Association of German Machinery Producers (VDMA). It estimated that all German firms together had sold machines worth 2,800 million Marks in 1913. Using a recently detected detailed report, filed in the Federal Archives in Berlin-Lichterfelde, on the internal statistics of VDMA results in alternative figures for the benchmark year 1913. Besides the original figure of VDMA two different new benchmark figures are presented here, namely 2,700 m. M (VDMA modified) and 2,600 m. M (according to Rech). The two new benchmark figures for 1913, in combination with a new production index, yield two time series for German machinery output between 1909 and 1918.