I am not sure about the German source, but it seems probable.  There is an   
extensive American literature on "excess competition" or "cutthroat   
competition."  Some of this arose from issues relating to railroads and   
competition in the presence of high overheads, which may force prices below   
average total cost.  Some of this can be found in writers such as Hadley   
and Jenks in the 1890s.  See Parrini and Sklar 1983 "New Thinking about the   
Market", Journal of Economic History 43 (Sept): 559-79.  This line of   
thinking is quite corporatist in attitude, and culminated perhaps in the   
suggestions of industrial control by trade associations in the 1920s, such   
as the Swope Plan in the US.  American institutionalists also discussed   
this issue in the 1920s but from a less corporatist stance.  See   
particularly J. M. Clark's papers and book on overhead costs (1923) and   
Walton Hamilton on the coal industry.  Hamilton's views on excessive   
competition are interesting, particularly due to his involvement in the New   
Deal, both in the NRA and in antitrust.  My recent paper on Hamilton and   
the Public Control of Business is on my web site and includes discussion of   
the coal industry case.  
  
http://web.uvic.ca/~rutherfo/mr_home.html  
  
  
Malcolm Rutherford