Heinrich Herkner

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

Biography

Herkner was born in Liberec , 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