Bruno Kuske

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Bruno Kuske (born June 29, 1876 in Dresden , † July 18, 1964 in Cologne ) was a German economic historian and economic geographer .

Live and act

After finishing elementary school, Kuske attended a preparatory institute and the Freiherrlich von Fletcher seminar for teachers . In 1897 he passed the elementary school teacher examination and was then a teacher until 1900. Having passed his degree with honors, he was able to start studying. He first enrolled at the Leipzig Graduate School , but then at the local university one. From 1900 to 1903 he studied history, geography, ethnology, economics and philosophy, with subsequent doctorate under Karl Bücher with an economic history thesis on "The Debt System of German Cities in the Middle Ages". Immediately afterwards, Kuske became a research assistant at the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne until 1908 . There he was mainly busy with a collection of sources on Cologne's economic history. In 1908 he completed his habilitation at the Cologne Commercial College and held lectures there as a private lecturer . From 1912 to 1919 he was employed full-time as a lecturer, from 1917 as a professor of economic history.

In the First World War he was director of the deputy. VIII Army Corps (Koblenz).

In 1919, when the commercial college merged into the newly founded university , he was appointed full professor for economic history and, since 1923, for economic geography at the economics and social sciences faculty. The faculty elected him dean for 1923–24 and 1939–40 , and the university its rector for 1931–32 . From 1920 to 1933 he was also head of the Rheinisch-Westfälische Wirtschaftsarchiv . In the 1920s, Kuske and Franz Petri belonged to the group of controversial so-called “Western research” at the university. In numerous lectures (also in the new medium of radio), exhibitions and publications, he addressed the general public.

For a university professor in the first half of the 20th century, Kuske's membership in the SPD was unusual . In 1933 he was suspended from duty for five months by the Nazi- dominated authorities for this reason . He had to give up his work at the economic archive entirely. In 1944 he was arrested and had to do forced labor in the Deutz concentration camp for a few weeks .

Between 1933 and 1945 Kuske was nevertheless intensely committed to the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung , founded in December 1935 , which, in the service of the National Socialist rulers - especially after the start of the war - planned the "Reich" and the conquered areas in Eastern and Western Europe. Among other things, he was head of the Cologne university study group for spatial research . From 1942 he played a major role in the "Germanic Research Task". It was a research program commissioned by the Reich Security Main Office of the SS, which was essentially intended to scientifically legitimize the occupation of parts of the Netherlands, Belgium and western France. With this goal in mind, Kuske was able to publish again in the mass media during the war. Since September 1937 he was a member of the Historical Commission for Westphalia . In October 1960 he became a corresponding member of the commission.

In 1946 he was head of the economics department at the Oberpräsidium in Düsseldorf until the Rhine Province was dissolved . In the same year Kuske was co-founder and board member of the Economic Institute of the German Trade Union Confederation together with Viktor Agartz and Hans Böckler . In April 1946 he founded the " Social Research Center at the University of Münster " in Dortmund together with the city director Hermann Ostrop , the social and Caritas scientist Heinrich Weber , and the sociologist Otto Neuloh . At the Social Research Center, Kuske became head of the "Department for Economic and Social History and Spatial Research". Between 1947 and 1952 he was President of the Rhenish-Westphalian Institute for Economic Research . In March 1951 he retired at the age of 75. In 1954 he received the Great Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Tombstone of the Kuske couple

Kuske published numerous essays and monographs on Rhenish and, above all, Westphalian economic history. Not infrequently he combined economic history and economic geographic aspects. His publication activities concerned in particular source editions on Cologne's economic history. Together with Heinrich Weber and the politician Otto Most , Bruno Kuske published the two-volume “Wirtschaftskunde für Rheinland und Westfalen” (Economics for Rhineland and Westphalia) in 1931, which provided a summary of the state of affairs and the development of Rhenish-Westphalian economic life at that time.

Kuske died in 1964 at the age of 88. His grave is in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (hall 41).

Fonts (selection)

  • The space as a research task. In: spatial research and spatial planning. 1942, pp. 323-327.
  • Economic development of Westphalia in performance and integration with neighboring countries up to the 18th century. With an outlook on the development up to the present and the economic history literature. Munster 1943
  • Sources on the history of Cologne trade and transport in the Middle Ages. 4 vols. (1917-1923). Reprint, Düsseldorf, undated
  • On the problem of economic spatial research. Cologne 1954
  • Cologne . On the validity of the city, its goods and standards in older times (12th - 18th centuries). In: Yearbook of the Cologne History Association. V., Cologne 1935. Volume 17, p. 81 ff.

literature

  • together with Otto Most and Heinrich Weber (eds.): Economics for Rhineland and Westphalia (with the support of the provincial associations of the Rhine province and the province of Westphalia). Berlin: Hobbing 1931
  • Marc Engels: The "Economic Community of the West Country". Bruno Kuske and Western economic research between the German Empire and the Federal Republic . Shaker, Aachen 2007, ISBN 978-3-8322-6642-4 ( reviews ).
  • Marc Engels: Media as a Resource. The Cologne economic researcher Bruno Kuske and the medialization of science 1919–1955. In: History in the West. Half-yearly journal for national and contemporary history. Volume 23, 2008, pp. 69-88.
  • Bernd Haunfelder : Bruno Kuske. In: North Rhine-Westphalia. Country and people. A biographical manual . Düsseldorf 2006, p. 279
  • Walther Herrmann:  Kuske, Bruno. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-428-00194-X , p. 339 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hermann Kellenbenz : Obituary Bruno Kuske. The economic and social history of Bruno Kuske. In: Quarterly for social and economic history . 52, 1965, pp. 126-144.
  • Birgit Kletzin: Europe from race and space. The National Socialist idea of ​​the "New Order". 2nd Edition. Lit, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-4993-7 , pp. 45ff., 113.

Web links

Remarks

  1. Kuske at rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de (with portrait photo)
  2. in the DB  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.deutsche-biographie.de