Josef Kaizl

Josef Kaizl (by Jan Vilímek 1886)

Josef Kaizl (born June 10, 1854 in Volyně , Bohemia , † August 19, 1901 in Myslkovice ) was a Czech politician and economist .

Life

The son of an employee attended high school in Prague's Old Town and in Litomysl . This was followed by studying law from 1871 to 1875 at the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague and, from 1877, studying economics at the University of Strasbourg with Gustav von Schmoller and Georg Friedrich Knapp . Under the direction of Schmoller, he wrote his work The Struggle for Commercial Reform and Commercial Freedom in Bavaria from 1799–1868 , which was later also his habilitation thesis in Prague.

From 1879 he taught political economy at Charles University and after its split in 1883 he was appointed professor at the Czech university. He belonged to the circle of professors around Jan Gebauer and Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , who made a major contribution to Czech education, culture and politics through their professional and public appearance.

In 1885 he was elected to the Imperial Council as a member of the Old Bohemia , fell out with its members, left them and returned his mandate. In 1890 he went over to the Young Bohemia and worked here with Masaryk on a new way of realism. In elections in March 1891, the party of the Young Bohemia got the most votes and Kaizl was again elected as a member of the Reichsrat until 1901. While many, including Masaryk, left the Young Bohemia, Kaizl remained loyal to the party and became its leading representative.

With the help of Jan Podlipný, Gustav Eim and Václav Škarda, he managed to unite the radical wings and to bring a realistic program into being. In 1895 he announced his so-called stage policy . The basic idea that the implementation of the Bohemian demands could not follow in one fell swoop, but only in stages, enabled him to negotiate flexibly with the government and, if necessary, to support it as an opposition party. In his political activities he showed a high level of political sensitivity and professional competence.

From 1898 to 1899 he was finance minister of the Thun government .

Works

Kaizl published in various specialist journals, including together with Masaryk in Zeit (Čas) but also in the foreign specialist press. His other works were published in German and Czech, some also in Italian. He drew attention to himself with his work Bohemian Thoughts (České myšlénky), in which he criticized Masaryk, among others. He defended Czech liberalism. He saw the state as a legalized and organized organ that carries out violence and has regulatory tasks in society. However, he emphasized that in modern society, the state's use of violence decreases with increasing political emancipation of the population. The political organization grows together with society and thereby expands the field of its activity.

Works in German

• The struggle for trade reform and freedom of trade in Bavaria from 1799–1868. In addition to an introductory overview of the development of the guild system and freedom of trade in Germany . Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot 1879 (political and social science research; No. 6 = vol. 2,1)
• The doctrine of the passing of taxes . Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1882

Translations:

• Finance . Part 1–2 / Authorized translation from Bohemian by Alois Körner. Vienna: Manz, 1900–1901

Works in the Czech language

• Národní hospodářství . 1883
• O postátnění železnic v Rakousku . 1883
• Obnovený řád živnostenský . 1883
• Vyrovnání s Uhry 1866 a 1877 . 1886
• Finanční věda . 1888
• Náprava rakouské měny . 1890
• Lid selský, jeho poroba a vymanění v zemích českých . 1895
• České myšlénky . 1895
• O státoprávním programu českém . 1896
• Z mého života . 1909.

Magazine articles

• O úroku a lichvě . Osvěta 1879.

literature

• Kaizl Josef. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1965, p. 185 f. (Direct links on p. 185 , p. 186 ).

Web links

• Works by and about Josef Kaizl at Open Library