Friedrich Lütge

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Friedrich Lütge (born October 21, 1901 in Wernigerode ; † August 25, 1968 in Munich ) was a German economist as well as social and economic historian who worked at the commercial college and university in Leipzig from 1940 to 1947 , from 1947 until his death at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . Through his research, Lütge exerted a great influence on the economic history of the German post-war period and, with Wilhelm Abel and Günther Franz, had a decisive influence on German agricultural history research from 1949 to around 1970. He was largely responsible for establishing social and economic history as an alternative to the concept of historical materialism at the country's universities. Accordingly, in his activities as an economist, he advocated that this subject should not be pursued exclusively from the theoretical-mathematical point of view, but that empirical and historical considerations should be included.

Live and act

Youth and Scientific Education

Friedrich Lütge was born in the Harz Mountains in 1901 and had a younger twin brother and two other younger siblings. His father was a merchant marine captain and worked in the German colony of Cameroon at the beginning of the 20th century . He died in 1905. His son Friedrich suffered from a spinal disease at an early age, which made him bedridden for three years in his childhood. While he was still at school, Lütge was taken over as Fahnenjunker on September 23, 1918 with Infantry Regiment No. 26 . However, it was no longer used in the war. In February 1919 he was then assigned to the Freikorps v. Oven recorded, which was involved in the suppression of the Spartacus uprising . He graduated from high school in 1921.

From the summer semester of 1921, Lütge studied economics and history, first at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau , then for a semester at the Philipps University in Marburg and finally at the University of Jena ; parallel to his academic training, he had to provide for his and his mother's livelihood as a working student . From October 15 to November 16, 1923 he was a member of the Black Reichswehr . In Freiburg his teachers included Karl Diehl and Georg von Below , in Marburg Albert Brackmann and Wilhelm Busch shaped him ; Finally in Jena, Franz Gutmann aroused his interest in the history of the agricultural constitution. In 1924 he was at Gutmann with the thesis on the abolition of serfdom in the county Wernigerode Dr. rer. pole. PhD. On December 1, 1928, he obtained a second doctorate (Dr. phil.) From Georg Menz with his work on the history of the Jena book trade including book printing . During his second doctoral studies, he initially worked as a private assistant at Ludwig Elster from 1926 , where he worked on the 4th edition of the Concise Dictionary of Political Science , the 4th edition of the Dictionary of Economics and the yearbooks for economics and statistics . In addition, he wrote the commemorative publication for the 50th anniversary of Gustav Fischer Verlag in Jena, a work that also influenced his doctorate in history. In 1929 he was given a permanent position as a lecturer and research assistant at Gustav Fischer Verlag, where he was responsible for the publication of several works on economic and economic history. In the same year he married Eva Buchfink, a daughter of General Ernst Buchfinck. The marriage resulted in a son and two daughters.

Activity in Jena

Even after his second doctorate, Lütge continued his scientific research parallel to his work as a lecturer and published various articles on topics of social policy and agricultural history. In an important study published in 1934, he demonstrated that early modern central Germany had its own form of manorial rule , which, in contrast to the northern and southern German forms, did not require compulsory labor but only taxes from the rural residents. In 1937 he extended this research to the Middle Ages and, in his second study on Central German agriculture, focused particularly on the time of the Carolingian dynasty . Far earlier than previously believed, he found, the German manorial system differentiated itself into regional variants. In the same year he published the history of German agriculture in the Middle Ages in its basic features by his academic teacher Georg von Below after his death.

Lütge became a member of the DNVP before 1933 . He had close ties to the Confessing Church, which was critical of the Nazis . His numerous memberships in military associations such as the Stahlhelm gave him a certain independence from the Nazi regime. According to his own account, he reacted by forcing the steel helmet to be transferred to the assault department by leaving. He never became a member of the NSDAP . Memberships, however, had existed since 1934 with the National Socialist People's Welfare , since 1937 with the NS-Dozentbund and since 1944 with the NS-Altherrenbund .

In January 1936, due to his previous academic achievements, Lütge was able to complete his habilitation in economics and economic history at the University of Jena without having to write a habilitation thesis. In this case, the faculty considered the two dissertations to be sufficient. Due to differences with the National Socialist rulers, the issuance of the venia legendi was delayed until the following year, possibly only thanks to the personal commitment of his friend Jens Jessen . From 1937 he worked as a private lecturer for economics and economic history at the law and economics faculty of the University of Jena.

Professorship in Leipzig (1940–1947)

In 1940 Lütge received a scheduled extraordinary professorship for economics with a focus on housing and settlement management at the Leipzig Graduate School of Commerce , where an institute for these departments had just been founded. For a long time he had scientifically dealt with the housing industry; in particular, price formation on the housing market and housing statistics were among his specialties. In 1940, the year he was called to Leipzig, he published an introduction to the housing industry, which was reprinted in 1949. It is the first comprehensive monograph on this subject. From August 1941 to May 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . After he was unable to work due to an inflammation of the spinal cord, Lütge returned to Leipzig, where he continued his work and in 1943 his position was converted into a full professorship.

After the end of the Second World War he officiated on behalf of the American and later the Soviet occupying powers as rector of the university and received additional powers from the areas of curator and minister of education . When the institution was incorporated into the University of Leipzig as the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences in 1946 , he was its dean. As part of the dissolution of the commercial college, his chair was converted into a professorship for economics. He turned down a call to the University of Jena.

Lütge was critical of communism and described the KPD and the NSDAP in 1945 as "hostile brothers of the same tribe". Therefore he tried to prevent as far as possible the state-ordered and targeted appointment of Marxists who were loyal to the line to the professorships of his faculty. Accordingly, he was accused of trying to thwart denazification and cover up the National Socialists. The university named him as its candidate for the office of dean of the planned social science faculty, but the German Central Administration for National Education rejected him because of his political views. Before the situation could get worse for him, Lütge accepted an appointment at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich in September 1946 and moved to West Germany .

Professorship in Munich (1947–1968)

From 1947 Friedrich Lütge held the chair for economics in Munich. After his colleague Hans Proesler , professor of economic history, left the university the following year, this subject was added to Lütges' area of ​​responsibility and, in addition to being head of the economics institute, he also took over that of the institute for economic history. In the Soviet occupation zone and later in the GDR , his work War Problems in the Housing Industry (Fischer, Jena 1940) was placed on the list of literature to be segregated. Lütge joined the CDU .

In addition to his work at the LMU, Friedrich Lütge also taught at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Politics in Munich ; In this context, the book Introduction to the Doctrine of Money was written in 1948 . In Leipzig he had already dealt with the regional peculiarities of the manorial system in Bavaria. He published the resulting study in 1949 under the title Die bayerische Grundherrschaft - Investigations on the agricultural constitution of old Bavaria in the 16th – 18th centuries. Century . In addition to topics relating to agricultural history, he also dealt with trade and industry in the post-war period, particularly in the city of Nuremberg . He also spoke up several times on issues relating to the periodization of Western history, with his theses always provoking lively specialist discussions: At the German Historians' Day in Munich in 1949, he presented the thesis that the years after the plague wave around 1350 (“ Black Death ”) were one A deeper epoch cut than around 1500, which is commonly regarded as the beginning of the modern era . In the following year he published a revised version of his argument in the year books for economics and statistics. In an essay published in 1958, he argued that, contrary to common doctrines, the decades before the Thirty Years' War should not be seen as a decline, but only the outbreak of fighting meant the end of dynamic economic development. For a long time, the housing industry was one of his working topics in Munich, for example Lütge was a member of the scientific advisory board of the Federal Ministry for Housing , published a new version of his introduction to the housing industry in 1949 and wrote an article in 1957 with the title Housing and Settlement Industry in the Economy .

In 1960 Friedrich Lütge was offered a chair for economic history at the University of Cologne , which he ultimately refused. As part of the negotiations to stay with the University of Munich, he was released from the obligation to represent economics as well as economic history there; instead, his chair for economic history and economics was converted into a chair for social and economic history and the institute he headed to Extensive area of ​​social history. In 1967 Lütge published a volume on the agricultural constitution from the early Middle Ages to the liberation of the peasants in the 18th and 19th centuries as a synthesis of his previous regional studies on German agriculture . Century, which appeared as Volume 3 of the German Agricultural History edited by Günther Franz . As early as 1952, he had given a complex overview of his entire subject in the “German Social and Economic History”; the textbook is regarded as his main work and was revised in the context of new editions in 1960 and 1966.

In 1967/1968 Friedrich Lütge succeeded in obtaining the funds for a second chair for economic and social history, to which Wolfgang Zorn was appointed. Lütge died of a serious illness on August 25, 1968, and Knut Borchardt was his successor . Lütge did not establish his own "school" in the sense of a group of students with a common research area.

Editorships and memberships

Lütge was a member of the Academy for German Law during the Nazi era .

Lütge was a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Munich from 1955 and a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of Belgium from 1966 . At the Munich Academy he initiated the establishment of a commission for social and economic history, which he then chaired. On February 18, 1961, the Society for Social and Economic History (GSWG) was founded with his significant contribution in order to create an organizational platform for the German professional community and to be able to establish international contacts. Until his death he was the first chairman of the society and in this function he organized the 3rd International Congress of Economic Historians. The GSWG has been awarding the Friedrich Lütge Prize, named after him, every two years since 2005 for outstanding dissertations on social and economic history topics. In addition, Lütge was head of the economic history committee of the Verein für Socialpolitik .

In 1943 he founded the series of sources and research on agricultural history at Gustav Fischer Verlag with Günther Franz , which he published after the war with Franz and Wilhelm Abel . In 1959 he set up the series of publications Research on Social and Economic History at the same publisher . Also from 1943 he was together with Erich Preiser the editor of the year books for economics and statistics, whereby he, as the previous publishing representative for the magazine, together with his colleague, ensured its continued existence in this way. For health reasons, according to Volume 181, he had to give up the editor after 25 years. His considerations to rename the periodical in the context of a more interdisciplinary approach in the yearbooks for economics and economic history , however, were not put into practice. From 1953, Lütge also published the journal for agricultural history and agricultural sociology together with specialist colleagues. From 1952 to 1968 the concise dictionary of the social sciences appeared in twelve volumes under his co- editing.

Fonts (selection)

A list of publications appeared in: Wilhelm Abel , Knut Borchardt , Hermann Kellenbenz , Wolfgang Zorn (eds.): Economy, History and Economic History. Festschrift for Friedrich Lütge's 65th birthday. Fischer, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 431-437.

  • The Gustav Fischer publishing house in Jena. Its history and prehistory. On the occasion of the 50th Company anniversary. Jena 1928.
  • History of the Jena book trade including book printing. Fischer, Jena 1929.
  • Central German manorial rule. Investigations into the rural conditions (agricultural constitution) of Central Germany in the 16th – 18th centuries. Century. Fischer, Jena 1934.
    • 2nd greatly expanded edition: The Central German rulership and its dissolution (= sources and research on agricultural history. Volume 4). Fischer, Stuttgart 1957.
  • The agrarian constitution of the early Middle Ages in central Germany, especially in the Carolingian period. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1937.
    • 2nd edition (= sources and research on agricultural history. Volume 17). Fischer, Stuttgart 1966.
  • Housing industry. A systematic presentation with special consideration of the German housing industry. Fischer, Jena 1940. Revised and expanded edition in "Piscator-Verlag", Stuttgart 1949.
  • The lordly land farmers in Upper and Lower Bavaria (= sources and research on agricultural history. Volume 2). Fischer, Stuttgart 1943.
  • Introduction to the doctrine of money. Weinmayer, Munich 1948 (2nd edition there 1948).
  • The Bavarian rulership. Investigations into the agricultural constitution of Old Bavaria in the 16th – 18th centuries Century. Piscator-Verlag, Stuttgart 1949.
  • German social and economic history. An overview. Springer, Berlin et al. 1952 (2nd edition 1960; 3rd edition 1966; reprints 1976 and 1979).
  • Studies in social and economic history. Collected papers (= research on social and economic history. Volume 5). Fischer, Stuttgart 1963.
  • Contributions to social and economic history. Collected papers (= research on social and economic history. Volume 14). Edited from the estate by Eckart Schremmer. Fischer, Stuttgart 1970.
  • German agricultural history. Volume 3: History of the German Agrarian Constitution from the Early Middle Ages to the 19th Century. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1963 (2nd greatly expanded edition 1967).

literature

  • Wilhelm Abel (Hrsg.): Economy, history and economic history. Festschrift for Friedrich Lütge's 65th birthday. Fischer, Stuttgart 1966.
  • Knut Borchardt : Friedrich Lütge. In: Wilhelm Abel, Knut Borchardt, Hermann Kellenbenz, Wolfgang Zorn (eds.): Economy, history and economic history. Festschrift for Friedrich Lütge's 65th birthday. Fischer, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 1-7.
  • Knut Borchardt: Friedrich Lütge. In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics 184 (1970) pp. 1–8.
  • Karl Bosl : Friedrich Lütge October 21, 1901– August 25, 1968. In: Yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. 1964, pp. 202-205.
  • Günther Franz : Obituary for Friedrich Lütge. In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology . Volume 17 (1969), Issue 1, pp. 1-5.
  • Hermann Kellenbenz : Friedrich Lütge. In: Hermann Kellenbenz (Ed.): Public finances and private capital in the late Middle Ages and in the first half of the 19th century. Report on the 3rd workshop of the Society for Social and Economic History in Mannheim on April 9 and 10, 1969 (= research on social and economic history. Volume 16). Fischer, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-437-50144-5 , pp. 1-4.
  • Erich Maschke : Friedrich Lütge [obituary]. In: Historical magazine . Volume 208 (1969), No. 3, pp. 772-774.
  • Jörg Rode: The Society for Social and Economic History (1961–1998) (= contributions to economic and social history. Volume 84). Steiner, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-515-07312-4 .
  • Hans Rosenberg : Problems of German social history. edition Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1969, pp. 87-109.
  • Wolfgang Zorn : Friedrich Lütge as a social and economic historian. In: Quarterly for social and economic history . Volume 55 (1968), Issue 3, pp. 427-432.
  • Wolfgang Zorn:  Lütge, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 476 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Jörg Rode: The Society for Social and Economic History (1961–1998). Stuttgart 1998, p. 28.
  2. ↑ On Lütge's childhood see Knut Borchardt : Friedrich Lütge. In: Wilhelm Abel, Knut Borchardt, Hermann Kellenbenz, Wolfgang Zorn (eds.): Economy, history and economic history. Festschrift for Friedrich Lütge's 65th birthday. Fischer, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 1–7, here p. 1.
  3. ^ Andreas Dornheim: German agricultural history in the Nazi era and the professorship appointments after 1945 in West Germany. In: Zeitschrift für Agrargeschichte und Agrarsoziologie 53 (2005), pp. 39–55, here: p. 49.
  4. ^ Knut Borchardt: Friedrich Lütge. In: Wilhelm Abel, Knut Borchardt, Hermann Kellenbenz, Wolfgang Zorn (eds.): Economy, history and economic history. Festschrift for Friedrich Lütge's 65th birthday. Fischer, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 1-7, here pp. 1 f.
  5. ↑ Erich Maschke : Friedrich Lütge [obituary]. In: Historical magazine . Volume 208 (1969), No. 3, pp. 772-774, here p. 772.
  6. ^ Wolfgang Zorn:  Lütge, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-428-00196-6 , p. 476 f. ( Digitized version ).
  7. ↑ Georg von Below: History of German agriculture in the Middle Ages in its basic features. Edited by Friedrich Lütge from the manuscripts left behind. Fischer, Jena 1937.
  8. ↑ Jörg Opitz: The Faculty of Law and Economics at the University of Jena and its teaching staff in the “Third Reich”. In: Uwe Hoßfeld (Ed.) Combative Science: Studies at Jena University in National Socialism. Cologne 2003, pp. 471-518, here: p. 476.
  9. ^ Andreas Dornheim: German agricultural history in the Nazi era and the professorship appointments after 1945 in West Germany. In: Zeitschrift für Agrargeschichte und Agrarsoziologie 53 (2005), pp. 39–55, here: p. 50, note 43.
  10. ^ Knut Borchardt: Friedrich Lütge. In: Wilhelm Abel, Knut Borchardt, Hermann Kellenbenz, Wolfgang Zorn (eds.): Economy, history and economic history. Festschrift for Friedrich Lütge's 65th birthday. Fischer, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 1–7, here p. 4.
  11. ^ Karl Bosl: Friedrich Lütge October 21, 1901 to August 25, 1968. In: Yearbook of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. 1964, pp. 202-205, here: p. 204.
  12. ^ Markus Wustmann: The Faculty of Social Sciences in Leipzig 1947–1951. In: Ulrich von Hehl (Ed.): Saxony's State University in Monarchy, Republic and Dictatorship. Contributions to the history of the University of Leipzig from the German Empire to the dissolution of the state of Saxony in 1952 (= contributions to the history of Leipzig universities and science. Series A, Volume 3). Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-374-02282-0 , pp. 289–306, here p. 292, note 9.
  13. ^ Markus Wustmann: The Faculty of Social Sciences in Leipzig 1947–1951. In: Ulrich von Hehl (Ed.): Saxony's State University in Monarchy, Republic and Dictatorship. Contributions to the history of the University of Leipzig from the German Empire to the dissolution of the state of Saxony in 1952 (= contributions to the history of Leipzig universities and science. Series A, Volume 3). Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-374-02282-0 , pp. 289–306, here p. 291.
  14. ↑ Knut Borchardt : Key words on the institutionalization of economic history in the State Economics / Economics Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Website of the Seminar for Economic History at the University of Munich, accessed on April 4, 2017.
  15. ^ German administration for popular education in the Soviet zone of occupation, list of the literature to be sorted out, letter L, pp. 170-186 ; German Administration for Popular Education in the Soviet Zone of Occupation, List of Literature to be Separated, Letter L, pp. 114–127 .
  16. ^ Andreas Dornheim: German agricultural history in the Nazi era and the professorship appointments after 1945 in West Germany. In: Zeitschrift für Agrargeschichte und Agrarsoziologie 53 (2005), pp. 39–55, here: p. 50.
  17. ^ Knut Borchardt: Friedrich Lütge. In: Wilhelm Abel, Knut Borchardt, Hermann Kellenbenz, Wolfgang Zorn (eds.): Economy, history and economic history. Festschrift for Friedrich Lütge's 65th birthday. Fischer, Stuttgart 1966, pp. 1–7, here p. 6.
  18. ^ Friedrich Lütge: The 14./15. Century in social and economic history. In: Yearbooks for Economics and History. Volume 162, 1950, pp. 161-213.
  19. ^ Friedrich Lütge: The economic situation in Germany before the outbreak of the Thirty Years War. In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics. Volume 170, 1958, pp. 43-99.
  20. ^ Friedrich Lütge: The Housing and Settlement Economy in the Economy (= Institute for Settlement and Housing of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. Lectures and essays. Issue 11). R. Müller, Cologne-Braunsfeld 1957.
  21. ↑ Knut Borchardt : Key words on the institutionalization of economic history in the State Economics / Economics Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Website of the seminar for economic history at the University of Munich, accessed on April 4, 2017. See Jörg Rode: The Society for Social and Economic History (1961–1998). Stuttgart 1998, p. 28 f.
  22. ^ Andreas Dornheim: German agricultural history in the Nazi era and the professorship appointments after 1945 in West Germany. In: Zeitschrift für Agrargeschichte und Agrarsoziologie 53 (2005), pp. 39–55, here: p. 51.
  23. ↑ C. Klingemann, Sociology in the Third Reich, Baden-Baden, Nomos, 1996, p. 177.
  24. ^ Hermann Kellenbenz : Friedrich Lütge. In: Hermann Kellenbenz (Ed.): Public finances and private capital in the late Middle Ages and in the first half of the 19th century. Report on the 3rd workshop of the Society for Social and Economic History in Mannheim on April 9 and 10, 1969. Stuttgart 1971, pp. 1–4, here p. 4.
  25. ^ Friedrich Lütge Prize for excellent dissertations. Website of the Society for Social and Economic History, accessed on October 28, 2018.
  26. ↑ Friedrich Lütge: For goodbye. In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics 167 (1981), p. 489.
  27. ^ Jörg Rode: The Society for Social and Economic History (1961–1998). Stuttgart 1998, p. 28.
personal data
SURNAME Lütge, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Wernigerode
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1968
Place of death Munich