Ernst Friedrich Schumacher

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Ernst Friedrich "Fritz" Schumacher (born August 16, 1911 in Bonn ; died September 4, 1977 while traveling by train between Geneva and Lausanne ) was a British economist of German origin .

Life

EF Schumacher was born in Germany in 1911 . After graduating from high school , he studied economics , first in Bonn , Berlin and then at the London School of Economics and Political Science and as a Rhodes scholarship holder in Oxford . Before the Second World War he fled back to England to escape the Nazi regime. His extraordinary abilities were recognized there, although he was interned as an enemy alien during the war so that he could help the British government with economic and financial mobilization.

Little is known that it was obviously Schumacher who worked out John Maynard Keynes ' alternative proposal to the US Americans' Bretton Woods system that was ultimately used in the early 1940s . The following passage can be found in Schumacher's curriculum vitae:

“During this time [1940–1945] Schumacher approached socialist ideas with which he had grappled throughout his life. His now famous study tore him out of the inconspicuous agricultural activity in which he designed a new type of clearing system for foreign currency payments. Lord Keynes immediately adopted this plan as the official government proposal of the United Kingdom; [...] "

- Wolfgang Hädecke

One could even call Schumacher one of the fathers of the European currency unit or the euro .

After the war, Schumacher worked as an economic advisor for the British Tax Commission, which was entrusted with restructuring the German economy. From 1950 to 1970 he was the Chief Economic Advisor of the British Coal Authority, which had over 800,000 employees. With his far-sighted planning (he predicted the rise of OPEC and the problems of nuclear power ), he helped Britain rebound.

In 1955 Schumacher traveled to Burma as an economic advisor . There he developed the basic rules of what he called "Buddhist Economics" based on the belief that good work is essential to proper human development and that "producing local resources for local needs is the most rational way of doing business."

In 1971 Schumacher converted to the Catholic faith . About his relationship to the Catholic Church before his conversion, he once said: "It was a long standing illicit relationship."

In 1973 Schumacher completed his book Small is beautiful in the house of his friend Leopold Kohr in Aberystwyth ; the book became a bestseller . In 1977 Schumacher was invited to the White House by US President Jimmy Carter to present his book.

Schumacher died on September 4, 1977 of a heart attack during a lecture tour in a train.

See also

Works

English editions

  • Small is Beautiful: (A Study of) Economics as if People Mattered. 1973
  • A Guide for the Perplexed. 1977
  • This I Believe and Other Essays. 1977
  • Good work. 1979

German editions

  • Small is beautiful. The return to the human measure , new edition: With an introduction by Niko Paech (Library of Sustainability / Rediscoveries for the Anthropocene). oekom, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-96238-136-3 .
  • The return to human measure. Alternatives for economy and technology (= Small is Beautiful), Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1977; change New edition: Bioland, Heidelberg 2001, ISBN 978-3-934499-36-2 , ( online version excerpts )
  • There is another way. Beyond growth. Technology and economy on a human scale. Desch, Munich 1974, ISBN 3-420-04698-7 .
  • Advice for the perplexed. From meaningful life (= A Guide for the Perplexed), Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1979, ISBN 3-498-06130-5 .
  • The end of our era (= Good Work), Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-498-06141-0 .

literature

  • Helmut Woll : Ernst Friedrich Schumacher - a prophet of middle technology. In: Zeitschrift für Sozialökonomie, vol. 53, series 190/191 2016, pp. 41–48
  • Gerhard Scherhorn : Schumacher, Ernst Fritz. In: Harald Hagemann , Claus-Dieter Krohn (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking economic emigration after 1933. Volume 2: Leichter branch. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11284-X , pp. 636-639.
  • Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life . Munich: Saur, 1980, p. 675

Web links

Wikiquote: Ernst Friedrich Schumacher  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Hädecke: attempt on Ernst Friedrich Schumacher in Small is Beautiful , Rowohlt 1986, p. 271
  2. ↑ Gabriele Kuby : My way to Maria. Of the power of living faith. Kisslegg 2005, ISBN 3-928929828 .
  3. ↑ Carl Amery 2002: Commemoration of EFS, article for the Schumacher Society.
personal data
SURNAME Schumacher, Ernst Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schumacher, Fritz (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British economist of German origin
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn
DATE OF DEATH 4th September 1977
Place of death between Geneva and Lausanne