[Diskussionsbeitrag zum Kohlenbergbau, Bd. II, S. 808, Nr. 166]

Emil Lederer: Discussion contribution on coal mining (1920)

This recorded commission speaking turn concerns representation within the proposed governance of coal mining. Lederer contrasts Lindemann’s fear that directors could subordinate the general directorate with his own clarification of how its members would be selected:

Ich habe vorhin darauf hingewiesen, daß nicht die 25 Generaldirektoren, sondern aus der Gesamtkurie der Direktoren, Generaldirektoren und Leiter, d. h. von 200 bis 500 Personen 25 Mitglieder gewählt werden, und das müssen nicht die Generaldirektoren sein.

English translation: I pointed out earlier that it is not the 25 general directors who are elected; rather, 25 members are elected from the entire electoral group of directors, general directors, and heads—that is, from 200 to 500 persons—and these need not be the general directors.

The decisive distinction is between holding a managerial office and being elected to a representative body. Lederer’s intervention clarifies the constituency and eligibility rules; it does not demonstrate that managerial dependence would be impossible. Its significance lies in separating institutional design from predictions about power within it.