Dieter Mertens (Economist)

Dieter Mertens (born January 31, 1931 in Krefeld ; † August 11, 1989 ) was a German work and education researcher.

Life

Dieter Mertens graduated from the Beethoven-Gymnasium in Bonn in 1949 . From 1954 to 1958 he studied economics in Berlin and graduated with a degree in economics. In 1963 he received his doctorate as Dr. rer. pole. in Berlin and in 1973 the habilitation for Dr. rer. pole. habil. in Regensburg .

While studying economics, Dieter Mertens worked at Borsig in Berlin as a commercial clerk. After graduating with a degree in economics, he joined the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) as a scientist .

In 1967 he was appointed head of the newly founded Institute for Employment Research (IAB) , of which he remained until his early retirement in 1987. After his habilitation in Regensburg in 1973, he also had teaching positions at the Universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Regensburg. In 1980 he was appointed honorary professor with teaching duties at the University of Kassel .

From 1984 to 1986 he was the successor to Hans-Jürgen Krupp on the Advisory Council for the assessment of macroeconomic developments . His successor there was Rüdiger Pohl .

Dieter Mertens' name is associated with the rise and reputation of the Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research at the Federal Employment Agency , the face of which he decisively shaped for twenty years. Furthermore, his name is associated with the term “ key qualification”, which is indispensable in today's education debate . He used this term for the first time in a lecture in 1972 and gave it a first written definition in an essay in 1974. He only applied it to vocational education.

further activities

• "State of the Nation" working group at the Federal Chancellery
• Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Economic and Social Change in the Federal Republic of Germany (at the Federal Government )
• Education planning discussion group at the Federal Minister of Education and Science
• Committees and discussion groups at the Federal Minister for Research and Technology (social sciences, electronics, microelectronics)
• Expert committee “Humanization of Working Life” at the Federal Minister for Research and Technology
• Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) Karlsruhe
• Advisory board of the institute "Women and Society"
• 1973 to 1986 Advisory Board of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation

Fonts

• Key qualifications. Theses for training for a modern society , in: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung , 7th year, 1974, pp. 36–43.
• The other in research . Ed .: TIAS, Verlag Das Andere GmbH, Nuremberg 1992.

literature

• Dieter Mertens , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 38/1989 of September 11, 1989, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available).

Web links

• Literature by and about Dieter Mertens in the catalog of the German National Library