In the middle of the 1960s, after the “Economic Miracle” [Wirtschaftswunder] had subsided, signs of a serious economic crisis began to appear in West Germany. To combat this crisis, key players in politics, business, and workers’ organizations came together to devise a plan of “concerted action,” i.e, joint measures to strengthen the economy. A “concerted action” meeting on July 4, 1971, provided the occasion for a conversation between Hanns Martin Schleyer (center), then chairman of the Employers’ Associations of Baden-Württemberg, and Federal Minister of Labor Walter Arendt (left).