Ernst Fraenkel (historian)

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Ernst Fraenkel (born April 5, 1891 in Breslau ; † August 18, 1971 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German economic and social historian . After the Second World War he taught at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main .

Biographical

Ernst Fraenkel came from a Jewish family. He studied history, philosophy and German in Heidelberg, Freiburg and Breslau. Like many of his contemporaries, he took part in the First World War as a volunteer, was wounded in France in 1918 and was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, among other things. After the war he received his doctorate in Breslau in 1919 with a thesis on " Georg Waitz in the Frankfurt Parliament ". In 1921 he entered his father's business as a co-owner and board member. In addition, he was engaged in scientific studies and was also politically active. From 1928 to 1933 he was a member of the Provincial Parliament of Lower Silesia as a member of the German State Party (formerly: German Democratic Party) . When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Fraenkel, as a parliamentarian and Jew, belonged to the group of those persecuted as enemies of the state and was temporarily taken into so-called protective custody. Despite the publication ban, he managed to survive under the Nazi regime in Berlin until 1939 , before he managed to escape and emigrate to England .

As early as 1947 Fraenkel made the decision, which was remarkable for an emigrated German Jew, to return to the country that had driven him out, because he felt “inwardly connected to his fatherland” and had the intention “to help when experience and strength are needed”.

The appointment as associate professor for economic history at the Frankfurt Goethe University corresponded to the intention to give this research area a boost within the framework of economics and social sciences and to establish it as an official institution in this faculty. In favor of economic and social history, Fraenkel renounced an initially assigned teaching post for Anglo-American history and was finally officially appointed associate professor in 1952 and full professor in the newly created chair in 1956. In 1959 he retired.

The relatively short duration of this activity in Frankfurt explains the fact that Fraenkel, who was very successfully involved in teaching and participated in the Hessian teacher training at the Pedagogical Institute in Darmstadt-Jugenheim until 1954 , had little time to publish his own work . There were newspaper and magazine articles, z. B. on “The Importance of the Jews for the Development of the German Economy” and the “Social Issue in Past and Present”. His lectures for audiences from all faculties at the University of Frankfurt contributed significantly to the connection between the traditional humanities and economics.

Confusion between Ernst Fraenkel and the more famous political scientist of the same name has sometimes led to incorrect assignments of publications.

Fonts

  • Ernst Fraenkel: Stages of social development since the beginning of the industrial age . 2 vols. Weinheim: Beltz. OJ

literature

  • Toni Pierenkemper : From the historical school to economic history. The establishment of a new discipline in Frankfurt am Main . In: Economists and social scientists in Frankfurt am Main. Edited by B. Schefold. Marburg 2004.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ So in Fraenkel's curriculum vitae in his personal file, quoted in n. Pierenkemper, s. under "Literature".
personal data
SURNAME Fraenkel, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economic and social historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH 18th August 1971
Place of death Frankfurt am Main