Economic Policies of the Second Pahlavi regarding Industry, with an Emphasis on the Relations between Iran and Germany (1961-1978)

After ascending to the throne, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi tried to approximate the face of Iran to that of European countries dramatically. Meanwhile, impressive increase of oil price became the trump card in the hand of the second Pahlavi governments, by which to move toward the predicted goals. As a result, various small scale and large scale industries entered Iran and started to work as the main symbols of modernization. Germany had a special position among the industrial countries exporting industries to Iran, and much attention had been drawn to it. Germany, especially after the Second World War, needed to sell its industrial products and import raw material, thus Iran’s market could be considered one of the important economic recourse suppliers for Germany. With this mutual approach, many small and large German factories were sold to Iran and economical and political commutes of this country’s representatives to Iran increased. In addition to these industries, German technical schools started to work in order to transfer technical knowledge. In the present research, we investigate economic policies of second Pahlavi’s Governments in relation to industry with an emphasis on Iran-Germany relations. We use a descriptive-analytic method, and take advantage of the research period archive documents, books and media. The research aims to evaluate the economic policies in the second Pahlavi period which led to light and heavy industries entering Iran. The present research seeks to answer the question that what qualitative and quantitative changes did the second Pahlavi government’s industry-related policies made, especially using German industry, to modernize Iranian industry? In order to find the answer, we explain briefly Muhammad Reza Shah rising to power in the beginning, and then after entering the research period, we focus on the second Pahlavi economic policies, Iran foreign relations in the field of light and heavy industries, contracts and the motives of these activities.