Fritz Voigt (transport scientist)

Fritz Otto Voigt (born January 16, 1910 in Cranzahl , Erzgebirge , † July 1, 1993 in Königswinter ) was a German transport scientist and economist . Voigt's work is considered to be one of the most interesting works in recent German transport science. One of his most important works is the two-volume work Verkehr , which appeared in two double volumes in 1965 and 1973. The aim of this thesis was the consideration of the traffic in the macroeconomic context and the investigation of the effect of traffic on economic development processes. For historians and geographers with a focus on traffic , his works are considered standard works .

Life

After graduating from the state high school in Annaberg in 1929, he began studying law and economics in Heidelberg and Leipzig. In 1933 he passed the first state examination with honors, in 1936 he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Arts, University of Leipzig on the financial system of the German municipal self-government Dr. rer. pole. In 1938, a doctoral thesis in law was awarded summa cum laude on the subject of self-administration as a legal term and legal phenomenon . In 1940 he was with a thesis on savings and Assure, an economic study habilitation .

After his work as a lecturer was interrupted by the Second World War and a prisoner of war, Voigt worked as a private lecturer at the University of Erlangen from 1947 . In 1949 he became a professor at the University of Work, Politics and Economics in Wilhelmshaven , and in 1952 he took over the professorship for economics at the TU Braunschweig . In 1954 he moved to the Nuremberg University of Economics and Social Sciences , and in 1957 to the University of Hamburg . In 1964, under the impression of the mass business there, he accepted a position at the University of Bonn , where he became co-director of the Institute for Social and Economic Sciences. In 1966 he received an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Braunschweig, and in 1976 he received an honorary doctorate from Hanyang University in Seoul , South Korea. Between 1963 and 1967 Voigt was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation ; there he was chairman of the technical committee "Scientific Aid and the Mobilization of Know-How". In 1968 he was appointed to the committee of experts to evaluate previous experiences with co-determination , the so-called co-determination commission. In 1974 the Federal President awarded him the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his scientific and social achievements .

In addition, Voigt held international guest lectures in several universities, especially in Southeast Asia (including Japan , South Korea , Thailand and Indonesia ) and in southern Europe ( Spain ). These events and Voigt's interest in the problems of developing countries also led to a series of publications and the translation of some of Voigt's works into various national languages. At the University of Bonn he was closely involved in the partnership with the University of Kabul .

Voigt had been married since 1957 and had two children.

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Voigt's work is in the tradition of Emil Sax , who took a similar position in the history of dogma. Voigt did not see the transport system as an isolated branch of the economy, but always in connection with the other areas of the economy. According to Voigt, the development of an economy can only be explained if the effects of the evolving transport system and all the resulting social and macroeconomic effects and consequences are taken into account. The transport system can both promote and inhibit the development of an area and is also able to provide autonomous impulses for the economic growth process. Overall, Voigt distinguishes regions influenced by a transport system into growth areas, areas of secondary income effects, emptying areas, areas of relatively delayed development and areas of indifference. Due to the great importance of the transport system for the development as well as the decline of an area, Voigt spoke out in favor of a transport policy that must not only be based on market-economy aspects, but must also include other economic and social aspects. Market prices are often distorted in traffic, and external costs make an operational definition of costs difficult . That is why cost recovery is wrong as the sole measure of a transport policy, since unprofitable means of transport can also be of great importance for the development of an economy. Also, profits from the private sector can say very little about the economic importance of transport. This is particularly evident in the case of the railways, where railroads often operating in deficit contributed significantly more to the economic development of an area than very profitable routes.

In addition, Voigt dealt with the question of the extent to which transport policy is able to shape economic processes together with economic policy. Since space and time are very much abstracted in many economic theories and very restrictive model assumptions are often made, the decisive characteristics of the transport industry in particular are neglected. Voigt also complained about the "hostility to history" of the economic transport science. In most textbooks and monographs, the historical development of economic institutions would be completely neglected and often forgotten to empirically check the mathematical formulations and theoretical models of thought. Voigt wanted to explicitly call for the purely theoretical concepts of traffic science to be verified again through a historical source analysis; an appeal that was largely ignored.

The discovery of the anteludial effect goes back to Voigt .

Works

• Verkehr , 2 vol., Berlin 1965/1973.
• The formative power of the means of transport in economic growth processes. Investigation of the long-term effects of railways and motor vehicles in an economic area without particular locational advantages , Bielefeld 1959.
• The economic importance of the transport system . Transport Science Research Vol. 1, Berlin 1960.
• Theory of regional transport planning , Transport Science Research, Vol. 10, Berlin 1964.
• Economic Policy Theory , Berlin 1979.

Festschriften in honor of Fritz Voigt

• Sigurd Klatt (ed.): Perspectives of traffic science research. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt on his 75th birthday. , Berlin 1985.
• Rainer Neumann / Manfred Zachcial (eds.): Verkehrssysteme im Wandel. Method problems - development prospects - macroeconomic aspects. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt , Berlin 1980.
• Sigurd Klatt / Manfred Wilms: Structural change and macroeconomic control. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt on the completion of the 65th year of life , Berlin 1975.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ G. Wolfgang Heinze: Traffic and economic growth. The concept by Fritz Voigt (1973) . In: Sigurd Klatt (Hrsg.): Perspectives of traffic science research. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt on his 75th birthday. Berlin 1985, pp. 571-596, p. 571.
2. ^ ^{A b c} Wilfried Reininghaus : Transport and Region. An introduction. In: Ders., Karl Teppe (Hrsg.): Transport and region in the 19th and 20th centuries. Westphalian examples. Research on Regional History Vol. 29, Paderborn 1999, pp. 1-45, 11-13.
3. ↑ Unless otherwise stated, the biographical data come from the foreword by Rainer Neumann / Manfred Zachcial (eds.): Verkehrssysteme im Wandel. Method problems - development prospects - macroeconomic aspects. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt. Berlin 1980, IX-IXX.
4. ^ Rainer Neumann / Manfred Zachcial (eds.): Verkehrssysteme im Wandel. Method problems - development prospects - macroeconomic aspects. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt. Berlin 1980, X-XII.
5. ^ G. Wolfgang Heinze: Traffic and economic growth: The concept of Fritz Voigt (1973). In: Sigurd Klatt (Hrsg.): Perspectives of traffic science research. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt on his 75th birthday. Berlin 1985, pp. 571-594, p. 572.
6. ^ Fritz Voigt: The formative power of the means of transport in economic growth processes. Bielefeld 1959, p. 56.
7. ^ Fritz Voigt: Traffic. Vol. 2, first volume, Berlin 1965, p. 524.
8. ^ Rainer Neumann / Manfred Zachcial (eds.): Verkehrssysteme im Wandel. Method problems - development prospects - macroeconomic aspects. Festschrift for Fritz Voigt. Berlin 1980, XII f.
9. ^ Hans-Jürgen Teuteberg : Development, methods and tasks of traffic history. In: Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte (1994), 173–194, pp. 188 f.