Karl Bücher
Encyclopedia
Karl Wilhelm Bücher was an economist
, one of the founders of non-market economics, and the founder of journalism
as an academic discipline.
of Hesse-Nassau, and Bücher with her, became Prussia
n as a result of the War of 1866
.
(also part of Prussia
), concentrating on History
and Classics, with the aim to become a Gymnasium teacher . Bücher's most important professor was the Ancient Historian Arnold Schäfer . For a while, he was a private tutor in Heppenheim to finance his studies, and then continued in Göttingen
and Bonn
, culminating in 1870 in a Dr.phil.
(Ph.D.) in History and Epigraphy with a (published) dissertation entitled De gente Aetolica amphictyoniae participe . After spending some time as a gymnasium
teacher and journalist
, especially in Frankfurt
where he was famous for his liberal, anti-Bismarck
views, Bücher decided to opt for academe and took his Habilitation
at the University of Munich .
In 1882 Bücher was elected by the faculty to an extraordinary professorship at the University of Erlangen, Bücher failed to receive Ministerial approval. However, he also received and accepted a call to a Chair at the University of Tartu
(then Dorpat), the German-language
university in the then Russian province of Livonia
. The call enabled him to marry his fiancée at the time Emilie Mittermaier .
At Dorpat, Bücher held the Chair of Ethnography
, Geography
, and Statistics
as successor of Wilhelm Stieda, concentrating almost exclusively on statistics
. Here, he conceived "newspaper science" (Zeitungswissenschaften) as a new field of scholarship
. On 17 August (29 August new-style
) 1883, Bücher's only son and child Friedrich, later a judge in Leipzig, was born. In the same year, Bücher received, and accepted out of family considerations, a call to the Chair of Economics and Statistics at the University of Basel
as successor of Alphons Thun. He stayed there until 1890, during which time he developed a friendship with the historian and cultural philosopher Jakob Burckhardt. Bücher was elected President of the Statistical-Economical Association; his work was mainly Basel-focused and statistical. In Basel, he delivered the first lectures, also the first lectures in Europe at all, on "newspaper science" .
In 1889/90, Bücher accepts a call to the economics chair at the Technical Superior School in Karlsruhe
, in the Grand Duchy of Baden
, previously held by Eberhard Gothein .
The plan to call Bücher to the Chair of Economics at the University of Leipzig
in the Kingdom of Saxony
as successor of Lujo Brentano
failed for political
reasons; Bücher was still judged as too liberal
. However, the University of Leipzig created a second chair in economics, with the addition of statistics. Bücher was suggested unanimously and without competition, and at the time received official approval .
His Leipzig tenure (1892–1916) was Bücher's most fruitful time. In 1893, he published Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft (The Rise of the National Economy), his most important book, and the foundational study of non-market (exchange and gift) economics. The 17th and last edition of the original run appeared in 1926–1930; it was translated into French and English and went through six editions in America. In 1895, Bücher was elected corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Science, Historical Class. In 1896, Arbeit und Rhythmus (Labor and Rhythm), Bücher's perhaps most fascinating work, appeared; there are six editions until 1924. It was translated into Russian
in 1899 and reprinted in 1923 .
In 1901, Bücher became co-editor, with Albert Schäffle
, then sole editor after 1904, of the eminent Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft (Magazine for All Political Sciences) established in 1844 as the first German economic journal of an academic standard and is still published today as "The Journal of Institutional Economics" (JOIE) . He edited this key journal of German economics and administration until 1924. In 1901/1902 he served as Vice Chancellor
of the Faculty of Philosophy, in 1902/1903 as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy
, and in 1903/04 as Rector
of the University of Leipzig
.
In 1916 based on his bad experience with press
and propaganda
during World War I
, Bücher founded the Institut für Zeitungswissenschaften (Institute for Newspaper Science) at the University of Leipzig
(after having established a departmental division already in 1915), the first such institution in Europe. Until 1926, Bücher headed the Institute and promoted the field, establishing it as a scholarly discipline in Germany with lasting results. In 1919, during the abortive German revolution
, Bücher published a booklet about the socialization of factories as well as his highly successful autobiography
, Lebenserinnerungen (Life Memories) .
Bücher was, for some time a member of the Leipzig City Council. Next to his earned doctorate, he received honorary ones of Law (Dr.jur.h.c.) from Gießen and of economics (Dr.rer.pol.) from Bonn. He was part of the Royal Saxon Geheimer Hofrat and a member of the Royal Saxon Academy .
Economist
An economist is a professional in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy...
, one of the founders of non-market economics, and the founder of journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
as an academic discipline.
Early life
Karl Bücher was born in a small village in Hesse-Nassau as the son of a small, not very successful brushmaker and farmer; his grandfather Philipp was a cabinet-maker. Karl's mother, Christiane née Dorn, was the daughter of a baker . Bücher attended a private preparatory school with a Pastor in nearby Dauborn and 1863–1866 the Catholic Gymnasium in Hadamar, where he was primus omnium . Bücher's old preparatory school teacher recommended that Bücher go to the university, Bücher's parents, after much discussion, finally consented . In 1866, the year of his graduation, the DuchyDuchy
A duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era . In contrast, others were subordinate districts of those kingdoms that unified either partially or completely during the Medieval era...
of Hesse-Nassau, and Bücher with her, became Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n as a result of the War of 1866
Austro-Prussian War
The Austro-Prussian War was a war fought in 1866 between the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire and its German allies on one side and the Kingdom of Prussia with its German allies and Italy on the...
.
Later years
Bücher studied at the University of BonnUniversity of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...
(also part of Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
), concentrating on History
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
and Classics, with the aim to become a Gymnasium teacher . Bücher's most important professor was the Ancient Historian Arnold Schäfer . For a while, he was a private tutor in Heppenheim to finance his studies, and then continued in Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
and Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, culminating in 1870 in a Dr.phil.
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
(Ph.D.) in History and Epigraphy with a (published) dissertation entitled De gente Aetolica amphictyoniae participe . After spending some time as a gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
teacher and journalist
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
, especially in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
where he was famous for his liberal, anti-Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
views, Bücher decided to opt for academe and took his Habilitation
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a scholar can achieve by his or her own pursuit in several European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate, such as a PhD, habilitation requires the candidate to write a professorial thesis based on independent...
at the University of Munich .
In 1882 Bücher was elected by the faculty to an extraordinary professorship at the University of Erlangen, Bücher failed to receive Ministerial approval. However, he also received and accepted a call to a Chair at the University of Tartu
University of Tartu
The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...
(then Dorpat), the German-language
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
university in the then Russian province of Livonia
Livonia
Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida...
. The call enabled him to marry his fiancée at the time Emilie Mittermaier .
At Dorpat, Bücher held the Chair of Ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, Geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, and Statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
as successor of Wilhelm Stieda, concentrating almost exclusively on statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
. Here, he conceived "newspaper science" (Zeitungswissenschaften) as a new field of scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
. On 17 August (29 August new-style
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
) 1883, Bücher's only son and child Friedrich, later a judge in Leipzig, was born. In the same year, Bücher received, and accepted out of family considerations, a call to the Chair of Economics and Statistics at the University of Basel
University of Basel
The University of Basel is located in Basel, Switzerland, and is considered to be one of leading universities in the country...
as successor of Alphons Thun. He stayed there until 1890, during which time he developed a friendship with the historian and cultural philosopher Jakob Burckhardt. Bücher was elected President of the Statistical-Economical Association; his work was mainly Basel-focused and statistical. In Basel, he delivered the first lectures, also the first lectures in Europe at all, on "newspaper science" .
In 1889/90, Bücher accepts a call to the economics chair at the Technical Superior School in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
, in the Grand Duchy of Baden
Grand Duchy of Baden
The Grand Duchy of Baden was a historical state in the southwest of Germany, on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.-History:...
, previously held by Eberhard Gothein .
The plan to call Bücher to the Chair of Economics at the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
in the Kingdom of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
as successor of Lujo Brentano
Lujo Brentano
Lujo Brentano was an eminent German economist and social reformer.Lujo Brentano, born in Aschaffenburg into one of the most distinguished German-Catholic intellectual families , attended school in Augsburg and Aschaffenburg...
failed for political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
reasons; Bücher was still judged as too liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
. However, the University of Leipzig created a second chair in economics, with the addition of statistics. Bücher was suggested unanimously and without competition, and at the time received official approval .
His Leipzig tenure (1892–1916) was Bücher's most fruitful time. In 1893, he published Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft (The Rise of the National Economy), his most important book, and the foundational study of non-market (exchange and gift) economics. The 17th and last edition of the original run appeared in 1926–1930; it was translated into French and English and went through six editions in America. In 1895, Bücher was elected corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Science, Historical Class. In 1896, Arbeit und Rhythmus (Labor and Rhythm), Bücher's perhaps most fascinating work, appeared; there are six editions until 1924. It was translated into Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
in 1899 and reprinted in 1923 .
In 1901, Bücher became co-editor, with Albert Schäffle
Albert Schäffle
Albert Eberhard Friedrich Schäffle , German statesman and political economist, was born at Nürtingen in Württemberg, and in 1848 became a student at the University of Tübingen....
, then sole editor after 1904, of the eminent Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft (Magazine for All Political Sciences) established in 1844 as the first German economic journal of an academic standard and is still published today as "The Journal of Institutional Economics" (JOIE) . He edited this key journal of German economics and administration until 1924. In 1901/1902 he served as Vice Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
of the Faculty of Philosophy, in 1902/1903 as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
, and in 1903/04 as Rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
.
In 1916 based on his bad experience with press
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
and propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Bücher founded the Institut für Zeitungswissenschaften (Institute for Newspaper Science) at the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
(after having established a departmental division already in 1915), the first such institution in Europe. Until 1926, Bücher headed the Institute and promoted the field, establishing it as a scholarly discipline in Germany with lasting results. In 1919, during the abortive German revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
, Bücher published a booklet about the socialization of factories as well as his highly successful autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, Lebenserinnerungen (Life Memories) .
Bücher was, for some time a member of the Leipzig City Council. Next to his earned doctorate, he received honorary ones of Law (Dr.jur.h.c.) from Gießen and of economics (Dr.rer.pol.) from Bonn. He was part of the Royal Saxon Geheimer Hofrat and a member of the Royal Saxon Academy .