Hans-Heinrich Müller

Hans-Heinrich Müller

Hans-Heinrich Müller (born March 9, 1926 in Zwickau ) is a German economic and agricultural historian . His main research interests were the history of agriculture in the 18th and 19th centuries and agricultural biographies .

Life

Hans-Heinrich Müller, son of a waiter and later employee, attended the Höhere Handelsschule in Zwickau from 1939 to 1943 , which he completed with a secondary school leaving certificate and then began a commercial apprenticeship in an aircraft repair plant. In 1944 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and took part in the Second World War. After the end of the war, he initially worked as a laborer, commercial clerk, accountant, speaker and training manager in Dresden . From 1952 to 1956 he studied economics at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and at the Humboldt University in Berlin . After completing his degree in economics in 1956, he worked as an assistant at the Institute for History of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin , Department of Economic History. In 1962 he did his doctorate with Jürgen Kuczynski and Rudolf Berthold at the Berlin Humboldt University with the dissertation "The development tendencies of agriculture in Brandenburg before the reforms of the 19th century".

Since then, Hans-Heinrich Müller has worked as a research assistant, employee and work manager at the Institute for Economic History of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (since 1973 Academy of Sciences of the GDR). In May 1970 he completed his habilitation “On Problems of the Development of Productive Forces in Agriculture in the 18th Century and Their Reflection in the Prize Papers of the Prussian Academy of Sciences” at the Berlin School of Economics . In 1987 he was appointed head of the “Agricultural Productive Forces ” department at the institute. He worked here until 1991. Even after retiring from the academy for reasons of age, he remained loyal to agricultural history research.

plant

In continuation of the topic of his dissertation (1962), Hans-Heinrich Müller published several articles on the development of agricultural production, the situation of the farmers and in particular on the domains and domain tenants in Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century, most of them in that of the Yearbook for economic history published by the German Academy of Sciences . In his book “ Märkische Landwirtschaft before the Agrarian Reforms of 1807 ”, published in 1967, he examined the influence of economic changes on the forms of agricultural production. This research focus was also the subject of his treatise " On Problems of the Development of Productive Forces in Agriculture in the 18th Century and Their Reflection in the Prussian Academy of Sciences ", with which he habilitated in 1970 at the University of Economics in Berlin-Karlshorst .

Hans-Heinrich Müller's habilitation thesis was the preliminary study for his book “ Academy and Economy in the 18th Century ” , published in 1975 . Here he deals with the economic price assignment and price specifications of all German academies of science, especially the Prussian Academy , especially the agricultural tasks such as fodder cultivation , stable feeding , paddock farming and fertilization , which were of great economic importance in the 18th century. The book, based on extensive archive studies, received international attention.

After the completion of this work, problems of the agricultural history of the 19th century increasingly became the focus of Müller's research. He published several articles on the development of the beet sugar industry in the province of Saxony . Above all, he highlighted the role of corporations , in which many farmers were involved. He attached great importance to the biographies of outstanding people from the agricultural sector. He dedicated several contributions to the agricultural reformer Johann Christian Schubart . Together with Volker Klemm , he wrote life pictures about important German farmers and agricultural scientists from two centuries, which was published in 1988 as a book under the title " In the service of Ceres ".

Hans-Heinrich Müller played a decisive role in the development and academic editing of the three-volume manual “ Productive Forces in Germany 1800 to 1945 ” published by the Institute for Economic History of the Academy of Sciences in the GDR . Müller was co-editor of all volumes (1985, 1987, 1990).

In retirement, Hans-Heinrich Müller dealt with the life and work of Franz Carl Achard , the director of the physical class at the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the founder of the beet sugar industry. After intensive archive and literature studies, he wrote a nearly 700-page biography that was published in 2002 - on the occasion of the 250th birthday of Franz Carl Achard.

In addition to book publications, Hans-Heinrich Müller's list of publications includes around 140 articles in scientific and practical journals and manuals. In addition, he has published over 150 reviews of agricultural and economic history books. He has been working on his autobiography for several years .

In 1989, Hans-Heinrich Müller was awarded the René Kuczynski Prize for his scientific publications on domains and domain tenants in Brandenburg-Prussia .

Fonts

• The development tendencies of agriculture in Brandenburg before the reforms of the 19th century. A contribution to the development of the productive forces in agriculture with special consideration of the farmers' share in agricultural progress . Economics Diss. Humboldt-Univ. Berlin 1962. Typescript.
• Domains and domain tenants in Brandenburg-Prussia in the 18th century . In: Yearbook for Economic History . 1965, part 4, pp. 152-192.
• Märkische Landwirtschaft before the agrarian reforms of 1807. Development trends in agriculture in the second half of the 18th century . Potsdam 1967 = Publications of the district home museum Potsdam, issue 1.
• On the problems of the development of the productive forces in agriculture in the 18th century and their reflection in the price publications of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . Agricultural economist. Habil.-Schr. Berlin-Karlshorst University of Economics 1970. Typescript.
• Academy and economy in the 18th century. Agricultural economic price tasks and price papers of the Prussian Academy of Sciences (experiments, tendencies, overview) . Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1975 = Studies on the History of Science in the GDR, Volume 3.
• The development of arable farming and the upswing of the secondary agricultural industry from 1800 to 1870 (The importance of potato and sugar beet cultivation) . In: Karl Lärmer (Ed.): Studies on the history of the productive forces. Germany at the time of the industrial revolution . Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1979 = research on economic history, volume. 15, pp. 215-243.
• Hercules in the cradle. Highlights on the history of the industrial revolution (together with Hans-Joachim Rook). Urania-Verlag Leipzig-Jena-Berlin 1980.
• History of the productive forces in Germany from 1800 to 1945 in three volumes . Published on behalf of the Institute for Economic History of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR by Rudolf Berthold, Hans-Heinrich Müller and others, Akademie-Verlag Berlin, Volume 1: 1990; Volume 2: 1985; Volume 3: 1988. Scientific editing of Volume 2: Hans-Heinrich Müller.
• In the service of Ceres. Highlights of the life and work of important German farmers and scientists (together with Volker Klemm). Urania-Verlag Leipzig-Jena-Berlin 1988.
• Johann Christian Schubart von Kleefeld - a famous son of the city of Zeitz (1734-1787) . Published by the Kleefestverein Würchwitz Johann Christian Schubart von Kleefeld e. V. Zeitz 1993.
• Brandenburg agriculture from 1800 to 1914/18 at a glance . In: V. Klemm, G. Darkow and H.-R. Bork (Hrsg.): History of agriculture in Brandenburg . Verlag Mezögazda Budapest 1998, pp. 9-75.
• Franz Carl Achard 1753-1821. Biography . With the participation of Corné J. Aertssens and Jürgen Wilcke. Publishing house Dr. Albert Bartens KG Berlin 2002.

literature

• Hans-Heinrich Müller on his 80th birthday . In: Zuckerindustrie Vol. 131, 2006, No. 2, p. 126 (with picture).
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2007 . Bio-bibliographical directory of contemporary German-speaking scientists. 21st edition, KG Saur Verlag Munich 2007, Vol. II, p. 2474.

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans-Heinrich Müller in the catalog of the German National Library