[Diskussionsbeitrag zu höchstmöglichem Wert und Abverkauf, S. 414]

Emil Lederer: Intervention on Highest Possible Value and Sale (1921)

This recorded commission intervention addresses valuation in the context of municipalization. Lederer interprets von Batocki’s motion as elaborating Professor Schmalenbach’s position that the highest possible value should always be granted. His concern is how the possibility of selling off an undertaking affects that principle:

Diese Frage des höchstmöglichen Werts ist durch die Möglichkeit des Abverkaufs gefährlich geworden.

English translation: This question of the highest possible value has become problematic because of the possibility of selling off.

The intervention moves from identifying the proposed valuation rule to questioning the scenario used to justify its application. Lederer asks whether the sale possibility should be taken into account as proposed, then challenges the legitimacy of treating dismantling as the relevant alternative to municipalization:

Ich glaube, daß wir diesen Fall des Abbruchs überhaupt nicht in der überwiegenden Anzahl der Fälle als gerechtfertigt anzuerkennen brauchen, weil die Unternehmer bisher nicht abgebrochen haben, auch nicht abbrechen würden, wenn nicht kommunalisiert werden würde.

English translation: I believe that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, we need not recognize this scenario of dismantling as justified at all, because the entrepreneurs have not dismantled their undertakings up to now, nor would they dismantle them if municipalization were not to take place.

His central move is to test a hypothetical valuation scenario against entrepreneurs’ actual conduct and likely conduct without municipalization. The qualification concerning the majority of cases leaves exceptions open. The brief contribution offers no alternative valuation formula; its significance lies in resisting the assumption that a possible sale or dismantling automatically supplies a justified basis for the highest valuation.