Heinrich Herkner

Heinrich Herkner (27 June 1863 – 27 May 1932) was a German economist as well as a social reformer.

Heinrich Herkner
Born	(1863-06-27)27 June 1863 Reichenberg, Bohemia
Died	27 May 1932(1932-05-27) (aged 68) Berlin, Germany
Nationality	German
Academic career
Institutions	Frederick William University
Alma mater	University of Strasbourg
Doctoral advisor	Lujo Brentano
Doctoral students	Toni Stolper

Biography

Herkner was born in Liberec (German: Reichenberg), Bohemia and died in Berlin, Germany.

Herkner studied with Lujo Brentano in Strasbourg. Later he taught as a professor at the universities of Freiburg (1890–1892), Karlsruhe (1892–1898), and Zürich (1898–1907), as well as the Technical University (1907–1913) and Frederick William University (1913–1932) of Berlin.

Herkner was originally a Marxist who later evolved towards realist views. Alexandra Kollontai went to Zürich to study under him, but found he had become a “revisionist” and spent much of her time at the university contesting his views.

His major work was Die Arbeiterfrage, first published in 1894.

He was a founding member of the German Society for Sociology and along with Max Weber, Ferdinand Tönnies and Georg Simmel on its first board. In 1917 he succeeded the deceased Gustav Schmoller as the President of the Verein für Socialpolitik, a position he held until 1929.

Works

• Die oberelsässische Baumwollenindustrie und ihre Arbeiter. Auf Grund der Thatsachen dargestellt, 1887
• Die soziale Reform als Gebot des wirtschaftlichen Fortschritts, 1891
• Die Arbeiterfrage, 1894
• Der Kampf um das sittliche Werturteil in der Nationalökonomie, in: Schmollers Jb. f. Gesetzgebung, Verw. u. Volkswirtschaft im Dt. Reiche 36 (1912), 515-555
• Krieg und Volkswirtschaft, 1915
• Deutschland und Deutsch-Österreich, 1919
• Liberalismus und Nationalismus 1848-1890, 1930

Further reading

• Jürgen Backhaus and Johannes Hanel (1994). "Die Nachfolge: Ein Versuch über Heinrich Herkner, den Volkswirt : mit einer Bibliographie und einem porträt Herkners". Marburg: Metropolis.

• Eckhard Hansen, Florian Tennstedt (Hrsg.) u. a.: Biographisches Lexikon zur Geschichte der deutschen Sozialpolitik 1871 bis 1945. Band 1: Sozialpolitiker im Deutschen Kaiserreich 1871 bis 1918. Kassel University Press, Kassel 2010, ISBN 978-3-86219-038-6, S. 69 f. (Online, PDF; 2,2 MB).

• Gerhard Stavenhagen (1969), "Herkner, Heinrich", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 8, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, p. 622; (full text online)
• "Herkner Heinrich". In: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Vol. 2, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1959, p. 284.

External links

• ÖSTERREICHISCHES BIOGRAPHISCHES LEXIKON 1815–1950 (in German)
• Newspaper clippings about Heinrich Herkner in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW