Johannes Hirschmeier

Johannes Hirschmeier (born October 28, 1921 in Heinrichshof ( Silesia ); died June 16, 1983 in Nagoya , Japan ) was a German economist who researched and taught in Japan.

life and work

After the end of the Second World War and his expulsion from the East in 1945, Johannes Hirschmeier began studying philosophy at the St. Augustin Missionary Seminary of the Steyler Mission near Bonn. There he was ordained a Catholic priest. In 1950 he came to Japan for the first time.

After studying Japanese for two years there, Hirschmeier went to the United States and studied economics at the Catholic University in Washington DC. In 1955, he moved to Harvard University and began a doctoral thesis in economics and was a lecturer there the following year. In 1959 he moved to Tōkyō University to collect material for his doctoral thesis.

In April 1960, Hirschmeier was a lecturer at Nanzan University in Nagoya, in July of that year he received his doctorate from Harvard University. In 1962 he became assistant professor at Nanzan University, and in 1967 professor. In 1969 he became a member of the university's board of directors, vice-president in 1971 and president of the university in 1972. In 1983 he received the Chūnichi Cultural Award . He died of a heart attack on the street shortly after in 1983. Hirschmeier was only 61 years old.

Publications

• Johannes Hirschmeier and Tsunehiko Yui: The development of Japanese business, 1600–1973 . CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-415-38150-5
• Johannes Hirschmeier: The Origins of Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan . 2014. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-18431-2

and from the estate:

• Willy Kraus, Erhard Louven (ed.): Johannes Hirschmeier: The Japanese company: writings from the estate. Institute for Asian Studies Hamburg, 1986

literature

• James W. Heisig: In Memoriam Johannes Hirschmeier 1923–1983 - In: Nanzan BULLETIN No. 7, 1983