Thomas Kuczynski

Thomas Kuczynski (12 November 1944 – 19 August 2023) was a German statistician and economist.

For reasons of politics and race Kuczynski was born in north-west London. Since 1947 he has lived in Berlin, however. the Institute had been established by his father in 1955.

Life and career Thomas Kuczynski was a member of a prominent family of Berlin intellectuals. His grandfather, Robert René Kuczynski, father, Jürgen Kuczynski and mother, Marguerite Kuczynski were all economists and/or statisticians. Thomas was born during the final year of the Second World War, and in 1945 the defeat of Nazi Germany opened the way for the family to return, in 1947, to Berlin, by now surrounded by the Soviet occupation zone in what remained of Germany. Kuczynski successfully completed his secondary schooling at the Paul-Österreich Upper School in 1963. His dissertation was supervised by Hans Mottek. Kuczynski concluded that the German Federal Republic should pay victims of forced labour under Nazi Germany approximately 180 Billion Deutsche Marks. Later, in his book "Brosamen vom Herrentisch", he increased his estimate to 228 Billion Deutsche Marks (equivalent to €116 Billion). In 2007 Kuczynski took part in the theatre project "Karl Marx: Das Kapital - Erster Band" ("Karl Marx: Das Kapital - First volume"), a show by Rimini Protokoll presenting a range of experts, mostly not normally to be found on a theatre stage, from various political and business backgrounds, giving their perspectives on Marxian philosophy in general and on Das Kapital in particular. Kuczynski claimed to eschew "-isms", but it is hard to avoid concluding that much of his academic work is undertaken through an appropriately updated Marxist prism. though they separated in 1991.

Kuczynski died on 19 August 2023, at the age of 78.