Johann Heinrich von Thünen

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Johann Heinrich von Thünen

Johann Heinrich von Thünen (born June 24, 1783 in Canarienhausen , Wangerland , † September 22, 1850 in Tellow ) was a German agricultural and economic scientist , social reformer and model farmer. He combined theoretical knowledge of mathematics with practical experience from his model farm. He can be counted to classical economics , but is also an early author of economic geography .

Life

Thünens manor house in Tellow (today part of Warnkenhagen )

Thunen's grave in Prebberede- Belitz

Johann Heinrich von Thünen was born as the son of the landowner Edo Christian von Thünen (1760–1786) and his wife Anna Margaretha Catharina, b. Trendtel (* 1765), the daughter of a bookseller from Jever , was born. His younger brother was the farmer and politician Friedrich von Thünen . After the early death of the father, the mother married the merchant Christian Diedrich von Buttel (1766–1810) in 1789. Grew up in Hooksiel and Jever, he attended the local Mariengymnasium and completed an agricultural training a. a. at Gut Gerrietshausen near Hooksiel as well as with Lucas Andreas Staudinger in Groß Flottbek near Hamburg and with Albrecht Daniel Thaer in Celle . From the winter semester 1803 he studied two semesters at the University of Göttingen .

In 1806 Thünen married the mayor and landowner's daughter Helena Sophia (Johanna) Berlin (born March 21, 1785 in Friedland in Mecklenburg-Strelitz ; † January 19, 1845 in Tellow ) and leased the Rubkow estate near Anklam in Western Pomerania . In 1809 he acquired the 465 hectare Tellow estate near Teterow , Mecklenburg. In addition to the management of his business, Thünen dealt with questions of soil fertility ("soil statics") and the development of grain prices. In 1818 Thünen was accepted as a full member of the Mecklenburg Patriotic Association and was director of its Teterow district from 1818 to 1820.

He published his findings in 1826 in the book "The isolated state in relation to agriculture and economics, or studies on the influence that grain prices, the wealth of the soil and the taxes exert on agriculture" by Friedrich Perthes in Hamburg . In 1830 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Rostock for his scientific merits . From 1836 to 1838 he was the second chief director of the Mecklenburg Patriotic Association . In 1842 the second, increased and improved edition of the "Isolierte Staats" was published by Leopold in Rostock . In 1844 he became a member of the Mecklenburg Natural Research Society in Rostock, and in 1848 he was made an honorary member of the Mecklenburg Patriotic Association. As a result of the events of spring 1848, Thünen's long-planned profit-sharing model for the Tellower workers came into effect in April . It anticipated some points of later social security . In June he became an honorary citizen of the city of Teterow . In 1848 he was a member of the preliminary parliament . Also in 1848 Thünen was elected to replace Johann Pogge , a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly. However, he could not start the journey. His younger brother Friedrich von Thünen was a member of the state parliament in the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg , his son Edo Heinrich von Thünen later became a member of the Reichstag .

In 1850 Thünen published the second part of the "Isolated State", in which he investigated the question of "natural wages". The formula he found for this ( = wages = necessary livelihoods of the workers = value of the work of the products) comes from this work, which was discussed controversially for a long time and is now considered outdated. The definition for the natural wage today adorns his tombstone in Prebberede- Belitz near Teterow, Mecklenburg. ${\displaystyle l={\sqrt {a\cdot p}}}$ ${\displaystyle l}$ ${\displaystyle a}$ ${\displaystyle p}$ ${\displaystyle {\sqrt {a\cdot p}}}$

Pioneering work

Johann Heinrich von Thuenen's pioneering achievements in various fields of science include the development of agricultural and forestry production, location and spatial structure theories with corresponding impulses for economic geography and regional science and the justification of agricultural management in Germany, as well as pioneering studies and practical suggestions for Agricultural credit ( taxation and financial intermediation ). In addition, he drafted a systematic explanation of the level of wages, interest and land rents as well as the distribution of these incomes in an economy ( marginal productivity theory ) and a derivation of basic principles for optimal forestry , thereby anticipating generally applicable capital-theoretical approaches. He developed the method of isolating abstraction (model of the "isolated state" cf. ceteris paribus ) and applied differential calculus to solve economic optimization problems ( marginal principle ). In addition, he carried out practice-oriented and empirically-statically based agricultural and economic studies ( econometrics ).

The Thünenschen Rings

Investigations into the influence of gear prices, the wealth of Zoden and taxes on agriculture , 1842

See main article: Thünensche Rings

In his theory of the "isolated state", von Thünen assumed Adam Smiths homo oeconomicus : the farmer strives to make the greatest possible profit from his work. From his experience as a landlord, he knew that his income depended on the optimal use of land and transport costs . In order to concentrate his thoughts exclusively on these two variables, von Thünen reduced the remaining influences to a homogeneous -  isolated  - state: A circular, completely flat country without external relations and with an all dominating city in the middle. There is only grain as the only agricultural product and its price is predetermined. In terms of economic behavior, the economy in the surrounding area would have to arrange itself in such a way that each industry generates an optimal profit:

The transport costs are directly proportional to the distance to the city and the weight of the goods . The price per  hectare ( storage duck ) decreases with distance from the city. The minimum price of a commodity is therefore calculated from the storage dues, the transport costs and the fixed production costs - the profit is accordingly the difference between the minimum price and the fixed market price.

Ideal scheme of the arrangement of the land use zones in the Thünen model

The camp duck as a central term in von Thünens' argumentation is to be understood as an equivalent to the land value . It corresponds to the maximum possible sum that an agricultural producer could pay for the use of an area without making a loss. It can be determined for a given good with the following equation:

${\displaystyle L=Y(P-C)-YDF\!\,}$
With

• L: locally obtainable / affordable storage pension (in € / km²)
• Y: crop yield (in t / km²)
• P: market price of the field crop (in € / t)
• C: Production costs of the field crop (in € / t)
• D: Distance to the market (in km)
• F: tariff for transport costs (in € / t * km)

So z. B. the storage duck of a product with a yield of 1,000 t / km² that brings in 100 € / ton in the central market, whereas its production costs 50 € / t and its transport costs 1 € per ton and km, in the center of the city 50,000 € / km² (5 cents / m²), at a distance of 10 km only 40,000 € / km² and at a distance of 30 km only 20,000 € / km². Corresponding to the stock duck falling with increasing distance from the market place, the willingness of every farmer to pay for agricultural land will decrease and will ultimately be reflected in land prices.

Representation of the warehouse dues relationship for two agricultural goods

Von Thünen concluded that, for example, growing cereals was only worthwhile at a certain distance from the city: Either the costs for the land get too high in the vicinity of the city or the transport costs become too high as the distance increases, namely when there is another product that is either cheaper to produce or cheaper to transport. From a maximum distance to the market place (city), the production of a certain good becomes unprofitable, because either the profit drops to '0' or the profit of another product is higher, because Thünen used the calculations for agricultural products with different surface areas (beef cattle, wood, Cereals, but also eggs, milk, etc.): For every product there is a certain distance from the city, in which production is worthwhile. Since Thünen related the transport costs directly to the market place (as the crow flies ), there are circular delimitations between the individual land use zones, the so-called Thünen's rings. If the producers of several agricultural products compete with one another, their locations "sort" concentrically relative to the market location according to the steepness / the course of their storage duck curves: a product whose yield per unit of area is low, but whose market price per unit of weight is high and its transport costs depending Weight and distance units are also high (e.g. wood), therefore, close to the central market, for example, can achieve higher storage yields than a product with lower transport costs. The storage rent as a possibility to pay higher rent for the use of a given amount of production area is the indicator for the "competitiveness" of the products relative to the central market place.

Scientific and cultural heritage

The Thünengesellschaft e.V. , founded in Tellow in September 1990 . V. was founded specifically for the purpose of preserving and processing the scientific legacy of Johann Heinrich von Thünens and making it known to posterity. Yasuo Kondo (1899–2005) in Japan was one of the most renowned thune researchers and founding members of this society . The Rostock university professor and politician Fritz Tack is currently the acting chairman of the Thünengesellschaft.

Other well-known Thünen researchers included the economist and Nobel Prize winner Paul A. Samuelson (1915–2009) in the United States, Asmus Petersen (1900–1962) and Walter Braeuer (1906–1992) in Germany, and Alexander Tschajanow (1888–1992 ) in Russia. 1937).

Application and criticism

Like many other models in geography , Thünen's model was often criticized because of its restrictive model assumptions. However, it was overlooked that the framework conditions of the model could be approximated to the respective reality by slight modifications. The ring-shaped structure, which can be traced back to a single point-shaped market and the exclusively central-peripheral transport cost gradient, is z. B. only one of many conceivable geometrical starting situations. If there are other natural geographic bases or special transport routes, the land use zones can z. B. also run in strips. If there were several markets, several zoning patterns would develop around the respective market locations and would overlap.

Another point of criticism relates to the fact that von Thünen was only able to include the distance to the market in his equation for the camp duck. The type of means of transport cannot yet play a role in the equation, since at the beginning of the 19th century all market transports were carried out on foot or by horse and cart. Many years of research at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen have now shown that economies of scale have a significant influence on the efficiency of transport chains in the food sector. In this respect, the type and size of the means of transport is a significant influencing factor, unlike the pure market distance. So e.g. According to the theory of Ecology of Scale , for example, the product-related environmental impact of a complete process chain is degressively and non-linearly dependent on the size of the company , regardless of the pure distance between primary production and the market.

Thünens achievement is the attempt - neglecting a whole series of spatial properties - to explain zoning of use solely through economically rational action. The relationship to the potential consumer ultimately plays the decisive role in the choice of location. At the same time, an assessment of all potential locations is triggered via this location relationship, which leads to a zoning of the possible offers. This simply structured spatial economic model, however, reacts sensitively to changes in the spatial overcoming costs. However, due to its universality, it is still of great importance within geographical issues and methodology . Numerous authors have also used elements of his theory for location theories of the secondary and tertiary sector.

Works and letters

• The isolated state in relation to agriculture and economics, or studies of the influence which grain prices, the wealth of the soil and the taxes exert on agriculture. Perthes, Hamburg 1826 ( digitized version and full text in the German text archive ).
• The isolated state in relation to agriculture and national economy.

First part: Investigations into the influence which grain prices, the wealth of the soil and the taxes exert on agriculture. 2. presumably u. verb. Ed. Leopold, Rostock 1842.

• The natural wage and its relation to the rate of interest and to the rent of land.

First division. Leopold, Rostock 1850.

Second division, ed. by Hermann Schumacher. Leopold, Rostock 1863.

• The isolated state in relation to agriculture and national economy. 3rd ed. by Hermann Schumacher-Zarchlin. Wiegand, Hempel, & Parey, Berlin 1875.

(Therein: First part: Investigations into the influence which the grain prices, the wealth of the land and the taxes exert on agriculture. Second part: The natural wages and their relation to the rate of interest and to the land rent. 1st and 2nd part; Third Part: Principles for determining the ground rent, the most advantageous rotation time and the value of wood stocks of different ages for pine groves. )

• Letters. Compiled and edited by Gunther Viereck. Edited by the Thünengesellschaft eV in conjunction with Ilona Buchsteiner and Wolf D. Gruner . Introduced by Heinz Rieter. Metropolis-Verl., Marburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-89518-767-4 .

See also

• Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute
• Location theory

swell

• Discount: Thuenen archive in the University Archives Rostock , Family Thuenen archive in the archives of the University of Hohenheim , Thünen-Museum-Tellow
• Estate of the Thünen family in the NLA - State Archives Oldenburg Erw 110 (2)

literature

• Rolf P. Bartz, Petra Zühlsdorf: The Thünen Museum Tellow. In the footsteps of Johann Heinrich von Thünen. Edited by Ralf J. Girbig. Laumann, Dülmen 1994, ISBN 3-87466-239-X .
• Walter Braeuer : Thünen, Johann Heinrich von. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 749-751 ( online ).
• Ilona Buchsteiner , Gunther Viereck: Johann Heinrich von Thünen. Writings - Literature - Legacy (= Rostock Contributions to German and European History 8, ISSN  1431-410X ). University Library, Rostock 2000 (bibliography).
• Ilona Buchsteiner, Gunther Viereck: Johann Heinrich von Thünen. "... serious practical life demands man's activity ...". Chronicle of a life path. Steffen, Friedland 2004, ISBN 3-9809023-5-8 .
• Markus Fasse: Scholle site. Johann Heinrich von Thünen: "The Isolated State". In: The time . Edition 24/1999 ( online edition ).
• Renate Hippauf: Johann Heinrich von Thünen. A picture of life. Hinstorff, Rostock 2000, ISBN 3-356-00872-2 .
• Hermann Schumacher-Zarchlin: Johann Heinrich von Thünen. A researcher's life. Leopold, Rostock 1868, ( digitized version ).
• Gunther Viereck: Johann Heinrich von Thünen. A classic of economics as reflected in research. Krämer, Hamburg 2006, ISBN 3-89622-080-2 .
• Bernd O. Weitz: Important economists. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58222-2 .
• Lutz Werner: The development of the Thünenschen model estate Tellow (Mecklenburg) in the years 1810 to 1850. In: Yearbook for economic history. 1, 1983, ISSN  0075-2800 , pp. 71-98, ( digitized version ).
• Robert Zuckerkandl:  Thünen, Johann Heinrich von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 38, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1894, pp. 213-218.

Web links

Commons : Johann Heinrich von Thünen  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Johann Heinrich von Thünen in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Johann Heinrich von Thünen  in the German Digital Library
• Newspaper article about Johann Heinrich von Thünen in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Literature about Johann Heinrich von Thünen in the state bibliography MV
• Homepage of the Thünen Society
• Homepage of the Thünen Museum Tellow

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Federal Archives: Members of the Pre-Parliament and the Fifties Committee (PDF file; 79 kB)
2. ↑ Thünengesellschaft e. V.
3. ↑ Thünengesellschaft e. V.