Herbert Zassenhaus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herbert Kurt Zassenhaus (born January 28, 1910 in Schwelm ; died December 10, 1988 in Washington, DC ) was a German-American financial scientist. He became known as a university professor and an official at the International Monetary Fund, of which he was deputy director from 1969 to 1975.

Life and activity

Special wanted list GB , page 231 Z
7. Zassenhaus, Herbert Kurt, Dr.

Zassenhaus was a son of the industrialist Eugen Zassenhaus (1878–1928) and his wife Elisabeth, b. Bochein (1885–1977).

After graduating from high school, he studied economics at the universities of Cologne, Bonn and Frankfurt from 1929 to 1933. In 1932 he obtained a degree in economics in Bonn, where Joseph Schumpeter had been one of his teachers.

After the National Socialists came to power in the spring of 1933, Zassenhaus emigrated. He first settled in Switzerland, where he received his doctorate in Bern in 1934 under Alfred Ammon . From 1934 to 1937 he studied three more years at the London School of Economics. In 1937 he finally moved to the United States, where he initially became an assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

From 1937 to 1938, Zassenhaus, whose field of expertise was production theory , worked as an assistant to his old teacher Schumpeter at Harvard University . He then moved as a substitute professor at Clark University in Massachusetts and from there as an assistant professor at Juniata College , where he worked from 1938 to 1946.

In Germany, Zassenhaus was considered an enemy of the state after his emigration: in the spring of 1940 the Reich Main Security Office - assuming he was still in London - put him on the special wanted list GB , a directory of people compiled by this agency in the event of a successful invasion of Great Britain , which should be automatically and primarily arrested by special units of the SS in the event of a German occupation of the country.

From 1946 to 1947 Zassenhaus was an assistant professor at Hofstra College in New York, then from 1947 to 1950 an associate professor at Colgate University .

Following a research work for the Twentieth Century Fund in Washington from 1950 to 1951, Zassenhaus joined the International Monetary Fund in 1951, as its representative in Argentina (1956), Bolivia (1957–1959), Venezuela (1961) and Malawi (1972-1975) was used.

From 1963 to 1968 Zassenhaus served as Assistant Director and from 1969 to 1975 as Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund.

From 1977 Zassenhaus taught again as O'Conner Professor of Economics at Colgate University.

As part of his research, Zassenhaus presented a number of specialist publications. He also translated some of the works of his teacher Schumpeter, such as the essay "Das Wissenschaftliche Lebenswerk Eugen von Böhm-Bawerks" published in 1914 in the magazine for economics, social policy and administration (pp. 454-528) into English.

family

In 1935 Zassenhaus married Charlotte Sophie Brandt (* 1909 in Essen-Steele) and they had four children: Hans WE (* 1938), Barbara Bluestone (* 1939), Peter H. (* 1943) and Harold (* 1946).

Fonts

  • About the economic theory of the planned economy. In: Zeltschrift für Nationalökonomie. Volume 5, 1934, pp. 507-532.
  • Newer planned economy literature and the theory of the planned economy. In: Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie. Volume 7, 1936.
  • Direct Effects of a United States Recession on Imports. Expectations and Events. In: Review of Economics and Statistics. August 1955, pp. 231-255.
  • Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy: the 'Vision' and the 'Theories'. In: Heertje. 1981, pp. 170-202.

literature

  • Bernhard Holwegler: Zassenhaus, Herbert. In: Harald Hagemann , Claus-Dieter Krohn (ed.): Biographical handbook of German-speaking economic emigration after 1933. Volume 2: Leichter branch. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11284-X , pp. 764-766.
  • Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life. Saur, Munich 1980, p. 842.
  • Displaced German Scholars. A Guide to Academics in Peril in Nazi Germany During the 1930s. The Borgo Press, San Bernardino, California 1993 (reprint of the List of Displaced German Scholars , London 1936), p. 35. ( books.google.de ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Special wanted list GB (entry on Herbert Zassenhaus) on the website of the Imperial War Museum in London.
personal data
SURNAME Zassenhaus, Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zassenhaus, Herbert Kurt (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American financial scientist
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwelm
DATE OF DEATH December 10, 1988
Place of death Washington, DC