Heinrich Rittershausen

Heinrich Rittershausen (born August 5, 1898 in Schleswig , † June 15, 1984 in Cologne ) was a German economist .

Life

In Erfurt he passed the Abitur exam in 1917. In Hanover , he began studying engineering at the Technical University. However, he did not continue this course and switched to economics and social sciences. Studies at the universities of Frankfurt / Main, Greifswald and Jena followed . In 1922 he obtained his doctorate from the University of Frankfurt on the subject of raising the reparations .

He then took up a job in the accounting and auditing department of the Reich Finance Administration in Frankfurt / Main. Then he went to Weimar to the Thuringian State Bank . In 1924 he took part in the founding of Treuhand AG in Berlin . He then moved to Deutsche Bodenkultur AG in Berlin, where he worked as a department head. Due to a serious illness, he had to stop this activity. Then he was able to go to London on a scholarship to what is now the London School of Economics and Political Science , where he devoted himself to economic studies.

In 1930 Rittershausen published his widely acclaimed work "Unemployment and Capital Formation", for which John Maynard Keynes sent him an appreciative letter. Because of this work, he was in 1933 by the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main for the subject Economics habilitation , where he met with the support of since the year 1930 Wilhelm Kalveram a lecturer for the subject of the mortgage banks perceived. He held this teaching post until 1938. In 1931 and 1932 as well as 1935, research stays in Paris and Madrid, made possible by the Rockefeller Foundation , followed .

In September 1931, Rittershausen voted against the continuation of the deflation policy , in favor of the Lautenbach Plan .

After seven years as a private lecturer, his license to teach at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University was revoked in 1938. At the Reich Commissioner for Pricing in Berlin, he found a job as a consultant to Peter Yorck von Wartenburg . In the following year he was able to take a substitute at a chair for political economy at the Berlin School of Economics on the use of Jens Jessen . In 1940 he followed a call to the University of Breslau , where he held an extraordinary professorship until 1944.

Grave site Rittershausen (September 2018)

After the end of the war he was able to find a job in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse at a company for the assembly of makeshift homes, which he helped found. From October 1, 1945 he worked in Minden at the "Administration for Economy" (later renamed "Administration Office for Economy"). The economist now in the civil service was appointed ministerial director there. In this position he made a contribution to the currency reform of 1948 and the reform of price formation. From 1948 to 1950 he worked as a journalist for the Tagesspiegel , the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the later Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . During this time he also took on a teaching position at the University of Frankfurt / Main.

In 1950 he went to the Mannheim Business School , where he taught economics and economic policy. In 1953, after Kalveram's death in 1951 , he took up work at the University of Cologne to continue the seminar for banking management. He focused on a connection to the banking industry and set up a banking and stock market seminar . In 1957 he took part in the founding of the Institute for Banking and Banking Law , of which he became director in 1958. In 1966 he retired .

Rittershausen died in 1984 at the age of 85. He was buried in the Melaten cemetery in Cologne (hall 41).

Political attitude

From 1917 to 1919 Rittershausen belonged to the German Fatherland Party , from 1930 to 1931 to the SPD . During the time of National Socialism he was not a member of the NSDAP , but claimed that he had been active in the interests of National Socialism since he left the SPD : “Because of my continued work on the economic policy staff of the NSDAP in the Brown House , I was allowed to join called the party redundant. (Summer 1932) “The assessments by the NSDAP were contradicting, on the one hand he was seen as a beneficiary:“ In relation to his surroundings he behaves as he thinks he can derive the most benefit from ”, on the other hand he was judged positively:“ as former As an SPD member, he discovered the National Socialists in himself after the revolution and since then has behaved 110% "," Character and reputation are good, and his attitude towards the current state and the national community [...] is positive, so that he is seen as politically reliable can be."

After the end of the Second World War, Rittershausen stylized himself as an opponent of National Socialism: Due to his earlier SPD membership, he was "harmed" by the teaching staff and he claimed that he was "a well-known opponent of Nazism as a former SPD member" .

Works (selection)

• Unemployment and capital formation. At the same time, a banking policy program to combat the economic crisis. Jena 1930
• The new construction of the German credit system. A central national political task. Berlin 1932
• The other system, an economic and financial proposal in four bills. Berlin 1932
• International trade and foreign exchange policy. Frankfurt am Main 1955
• Banking policy. An examination of the border area between credit theory, price theory and economic policy. Frankfurt / Main 1956
• The money management of the credit banks. With Wolfgang van Wyk. Frankfurt / Main 1960

literature

• Hans Egon Büschgen (Ed.): Money, Capital and Credit. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Heinrich Rittershausen. Stuttgart 1968.
• Kürschner's German Scholarly Calendar, Berlin 1983.
• German Biographical Encyclopedia . 2nd edition, Volume 8, KG Saur, Munich 2007.
• Peter Mantel: Business Administration and National Socialism. A study of institutional and personal history. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-8349-1410-1 , pp. 805-807 ( excerpts online in the Google book search).

Individual evidence

1. ^ William L. Patch, Jr, William L. Patch: Heinrich Brüning and the Dissolution of the Weimar Republic. Cambridge 1998, p. 202 ( online) .
2. ↑ See Hans E. Büschgen: Geld, Kapital und Kredit, Poeschel: Stuttgart, 1968, p. 6.
3. ^ ^{A b} Peter Mantel: Business Administration and National Socialism. A study of institutional and personal history. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 806
4. ↑ Peter Mantel: Business Administration and National Socialism. A study of institutional and personal history. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2009, p. 807