Lorenz von Stein

Lorenz von Stein (18 November 1815 – 23 September 1890) was a German economist, sociologist, and public administration scholar from Eckernförde. As an advisor to Meiji period Japan, his liberal as well as major constitutional thinkers such as Rudolf von Gneist. Stein advocated a combination of constitutional liberal state with a welfare state, and has been called the "intellectual father of the welfare state.

Biography Stein was born in the seaside town of Borby in Eckernförde in Schleswig-Holstein as Wasmer Jacob Lorentz. He studied philosophy and jurisprudence at the universities of Kiel and Jena from 1835–1839, and at the University of Paris from 1841–1842. Between 1846 and 1851 Stein was an associate professor at the University of Kiel. He participated in the 1848 Revolutions and ran for election as a member of the Frankfurt Parliament. He gave emphasis to the "Social Question" that the industrial worker in a capitalist country has no chance to acquire property and capital by work, which was to be addressed by a program of welfare state and social administration arranged according to the liberal principle of free and equal individual chances.

Despite a similarity of his ideas with those of Marxism, the extent of Stein's influence on Karl Marx is uncertain. However, Marx shows by scattered remarks on von Stein that he was aware of his highly influential book from 1842 on communist thought in France. For instance in The German Ideology (1845–46), Stein is mentioned, but only as the writer of his 1842 book.

Stein died at his home in Hadersdorf-Weidlingau in the Penzing District of Vienna and was buried at the Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery.

Books Der Sozialismus und Kommunismus des heutigen Frankreich, Leipzig 1842, second edition, 1847. Die sozialistischen und kommunistischen Bewegungen seit der dritten französischen Revolution, Stuttgart, 1848. Geschichte der sozialen Bewegung in Frankreich von 1789 bis auf unsere Tage, Leipzig, 1850, 3 volumes. Geschichte des französischen Strafrechts, Basel, 1847. Französische Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte, Basel, 1846- 1848, 3 volumes. System der Staatswissenschaft, Volume 1: Statistik, Basel, 1852; Volume 2: Gesellschaftslehre, Basel, 1857. Die neue Gestaltung der Geld- und Kreditverhältnisse in Österreichklñjo , Vienna, 1855. Lehrbuch der Volkswirtschaft, Vienna, 1858; third edition as Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, third edition,1887. Lehrbuch der Finanzwissenschaft, Leipzig, 1860; fifth edition, 1885 - 1886, 4 volumes. Die Lehre vom Heerwesen, Stuttgart, 1872. Verwaltungslehre, Stuttgart, 1865- 1884, 8 volumes. Handbuch der Verwaltungslehre, Stuttgart, 1870; third edition, 1889, 3 volumes.