Carl Brinkmann

This article deals with the historian and political scientist Carl Brinkmann. For the Second Mayor of Königsberg see Karl Brinkmann (Mayor)

Carl Brinkmann (born March 19, 1885 in Tilsit , East Prussia , † May 20, 1954 in Oberstdorf , Allgäu ) was a German historian and sociologist . From 1923 he was a full professor of economics at Heidelberg University . From 1942 to 1945 he taught in Berlin. From 1947 to 1954 he was a full professor of economics and sociology at the University of Tübingen .

Live and act

Early years

Carl Brinkmann was born in Tilsit as the son of the lawyer and mayor Karl Brinkmann (1854–1901) and his wife Eva, née Krieger. The religious ties of the parents' house were Protestant. In Königsberg he attended the Friedrichskollegium and from there moved to the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Berlin, where he graduated from high school at Easter 1903. He then studied history and political science at the Universities of Freiburg im Breisgau , Göttingen , Oxford and Berlin . In 1907 he obtained a Bachelor of Letters in Oxford. In Gustav von Schmoller in Berlin, he was in 1908 with the work on the origin of the country Märkischen book Emperor Charles V doctorate. His first publication appeared in 1911 under the title Wustrau. Economic and constitutional history of a Brandenburg manor . In February 1913 his habilitation took place in Freiburg with the thesis Freedom and Statehood in the older German constitution and he received the Venia Legendi for middle and modern history. From January 23, 1913, he taught in Freiburg as a private lecturer. In between, he was briefly deployed to the Freiburg / Breisgau district office from June to August in 1915.

Activity in the Foreign Office

On September 1, 1915, Carl Brinkmann was conscripted for the Foreign Office. There he worked in the Central Office for Foreign Service, the foreign intelligence service of the Foreign Office that was only formed in October 1914, as a lecturer for England. The head of the central office was Alfons Mumm von Schwarzenstein (1859–1924). After several restructuring and changes in content, the main aim of which was to push back the one-sided military orientation of the intelligence service, as was the endeavor of the Great General Staff, and to concentrate primarily on foreign policy issues, Department IV. (News) was created. This was Brinkmann from March 1918 as a laborer. Head of Department IV at this time was Erhard Deutelmoser (1873–1956). With the collapse of the German Empire and its power structures, the Foreign Office was also restructured and so on July 21, 1919, Brinkmann joined Department IA (Politics). After just six months, in February 1920, he moved to Department V (Great Britain and the British Empire), where from May he became Head of Department D (British Party Affairs). On March 16, 1920, he was nominated as a permanent laborer of the office, and from June onwards he also became a personal assistant to the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, Adolf Köster (1883–1930). In addition to these occupations, he received an extraordinary professorship at the University of Berlin in 1921 and from February 28, 1922 he was appointed Legation Councilor. However, Brinkmann wanted to return to science. In accordance with his wishes, he was given temporary retirement in March 1922.

Teaching and research

From October 1, 1923, he succeeded Eberhard Gotheins as a full professor of economics at Heidelberg University . During this time he mainly dealt with social science and economic policy topics, the basis of which he derives mainly from the economic history of England and America. Numerous publications of these years contain clear approaches and debates on questions of future social and democratic forms of development. It becomes clear that he was a searching scientist who did not derive his answers from the political developments in Germany during the time of the destruction of the Weimar Republic. During the reign of National Socialism , he did not join any party, but through some professional statements he came close to National Socialist positions. Since 1931 he was a full member, since 1942 a corresponding member and since 1951 a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences . He could not hold his scientific position after 1933. On July 18, 1933, he was discharged from the university and retired.

In his scientific work and appearances, he mainly concentrated on topics of German economic and financial policy as well as spatial and economic studies. However, he also published works that served the ideology of the Nazi system. These were used as anti-English propaganda writings. In the 1930s Brinkmann was one of the most important representatives of the historical school of economics only under the conditions of the internal power mechanisms of National Socialism, he had few opportunities to appear openly and internationally.

From 1942 Brinkmann returned to the scientific institutions and taught as a full professor at the University of Berlin. In 1946 he took over teaching duties at the University of Erlangen . It was not until 1947 that he was appointed professor of economics and sociology at the University of Tübingen . He held his inaugural lecture here on November 27, 1947. Since 1949, he was also a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . His academic interest was in economic and social history, and particularly in world economic history. In 1949 he published the work Economic Freedom and Economic Law in the English Economic Classic by William Godwin and Robert Malthus .

On October 28, 1915, he married Eva Strupp. From this marriage his son Carl, born in 1916, emerged. In his second marriage, he married Hanna on March 21, 1921, widowed Ahrens. Brinkmann died on May 20, 1954 in Oberstdorf im Allgäu. Several of his scientific works were published posthumously or continued to be published after his death.

Fonts

• Economic theory. 2nd, revised edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1953.
• Economic forms and ways of life. 2nd Edition. Mohr, Tübingen 1950.
• Sociological theory of the revolution. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1948.
• Economic freedom and economic law in the English economic classic. E. Klett, Stuttgart 1948.
• English economic imperialism , Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1940.
• Economic liberalism as a system of British worldview , Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1940.
• England since 1815. Politics, people, economy. 2nd revised and continued edition. Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1938.
• Economic and social history. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 1927.
• World politics and world economy in the 19th century. Velhagen & Klasing, Bielefeld et al. 1921.
• Reichartshauser and Meckesheimer Zent. C. Winter, Heidelberg 1917.
• Freedom and statehood in the older German constitution , Duncker a. Humblot, Munich / Leipzig 1911.
• Wustrau. Economic and constitutional history of a Brandenburg manor , Duncker a. Humblot, Leipzig 1911.

literature

• Erwin von Beckerath : Carl Brinkmann. In: Concise Dictionary of Social Sciences , Volume 2, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1959, p. 411 f. (with list of publications and biographical literature).
• Heiko Körner: Carl Brinkmann. A science-biographical sketch. In: Reinhard Blomert , Hans Ulrich Esslinger, Norbert Giovannini: Heidelberg Social and Political Sciences. The Institute for Social and Political Sciences between 1918 and 1958. Metropolis-Verlag, Marburg 1997, ISBN 3-89518-098-X , pp. 159–165.
• Dagmar Düll: Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon 1933–1986. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-88834-5 , p. 31.
• Rolf Messerschmidt, Johannes Hürter and Martin Kröger (eds.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Volume 1, Schöningh, Paderborn 2000, ISBN 3-506-71840-1 , p. 289 f.
• Adolf Weber: Carl Brinkmann. 3/19/1885 to 5/20/1954. In: Yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Munich 1954, pp. 202-206 ( online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Carl Brinkmann in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ^ Erwin von Beckerath: Carl Brinkmann. In: Concise dictionary of the social sciences. Volume 2, Göttingen 1959, p. 411 f.
2. ^ Rolf Messerschmidt, Johannes Hürter and Martin Kröger (eds.): Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service 1871-1945. Volume 1, Paderborn 2000, p. 289 f.
3. ^ Page Brinkmanns at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences .
4. ↑ Cf. for example: The works of Carl Brinkmann: The English economic imperialism and the economic liberalism as a system of the British worldview appeared in 1940.
5. ^ Heiko Körner: Carl Brinkmann. A science-biographical sketch. In: Reinhard Blomert , Hans Ulrich Esslinger, Norbert Giovannini: Heidelberg Social and Political Sciences. The Institute for Social and Political Sciences between 1918 and 1958. Marburg 1997, pp. 159–165.
6. ^ Member entry by Carl Brinkmann at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on December 23, 2016.
7. ^ Erwin von Beckerath: Carl Brinkmann. In: Concise dictionary of the social sciences. Volume 2, Göttingen 1959, p. 411 f.