Albrecht Ritschl (economic historian)

Albrecht Ritschl (* 1959 in Munich ) is a German economic historian .

Life

Ritschl did his doctorate with Knut Borchardt at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. From 1994 to 2007 he held professorships at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona (1994–99), the University of Zurich (1999–2001) and the Humboldt University of Berlin (2001–07) before moving to the London School of Economics and Political Science .

theses

Ritschl made several attempts to reinterpret recent German economic history. His main research interests include:

• The economic collapse of the Weimar Republic . Ritschl claims that Germany got into a balance of payments crisis in 1929/30 , triggered by over-indebtedness abroad and the tightening of the reparations regime through the Young Plan . In this situation there was no alternative to Heinrich Brüning's deflationary policy .
• The employment policy of the Third Reich . Ritschl argues that the upswing that followed the Great Depression started in 1932 and was therefore not attributable to economic policy during the Nazi era . The rapid return to full employment was a consequence of Brüning's low-wage policy, which the Third Reich continued without interruption. On the other hand, major motorway construction did not begin until 1936, when Germany had practically found its way back to full employment. (see also Reichsautobahnbau )
• The economic order of the Federal Republic after the Second World War . Ritschl denies that the social market economy was an invention of Ludwig Erhard . Essential liberal elements such as anti-cartel legislation came about under pressure from the Western allies , especially the United States . Other corporatist elements, however, such as B. Restrictions on freedom of trade have already Hjalmar Schacht introduced in the 1930s.
• Business cycles in the empire . Using methods of empirical business cycle research, Ritschl confirms the existence of the founder crisis (a sharp recession in the 1870s), which had been denied by other economic historians.

Fonts

• Prices and Production. Elements of a System-Theoretic Perspective. Physica-Verlag, Heidelberg 1989, ISBN 3-7908-0429-0
• Germany's crisis and economic situation 1924-1934. Domestic economy, foreign debt and reparation problem between Dawes plan and transfer lock. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003650-8
• Albrecht Ritschl (Ed.): Prussia in the Empire. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-05-003699-0
• Did the Third Reich really have a proper employment policy? In: New results on the Nazi upswing. Yearbook of Economic History. 2003 / I, ISBN 3050038608 ( PDF ( Memento of March 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ))
• Albrecht Ritschl, Thomas Welskopp & Katja Girschik (eds.): The Migros cosmos: the history of an extraordinary Swiss company. Here and now, Baden 2003, ISBN 3-906419-64-9

Web links

• Literature by and about Albrecht Ritschl in the catalog of the German National Library
• Albrecht Ritschl ( memento from August 19, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) on the Humboldt University website
• Albrecht Ritschl on the website of the London School of Economics and Political Science
• In conversation: Albrecht Ritschl , on FAZ.net, October 24, 2008
• Germany is the greatest debtor of the 20th century , on Spiegel.de, June 21, 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Knut Borchardt's interpretation of the Weimar economy. On the history and impact of an economic-historical controversy (PDF; 137 kB), 2001
2. ↑ Did the Third Reich really have a proper employment policy? ( Memento of March 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), 2002
3. ↑ From crisis to modernity? On the long-term effects of Nazi economic policy ( memento of March 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), 2003
4. ↑ Business Cycles and Stock Market Comovement in Germany before World War I: Evidence from Spectral Analysis (PDF; 573 kB), 2005