Karl Thiess

Karl Thiess (born September 19, 1879 in Löbejün im Saalekreis, † September 28, 1941 in Cologne ) was a German economist , university professor and rector , councilor in the Japanese railway authority.

Life and professional development

After attending general schools, Karl Thiess began studying political science at the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg. On the subject of "The wage conditions in Berlin since 1882" he received his doctorate. phil. 1894 at the University of Heidelberg. He then took up a job in the statistical office of the city of Berlin. From here he moved to Offenbach in 1895 when he was offered the post of General Secretary in the Reich Association of German Agricultural Cooperatives. In this activity he published the publication "Social Policy Achievements of German Agricultural Cooperatives" in 1898.

A completely different kind of job awaited him in 1900 in Hamburg at the shipping company Hamburg-Amerika-Linie. Here he was appointed to the board of directors of HAPAG , which had been led by Albert Ballin (1857–1918) since 1899 . As director of the research office of the shipping company "Hamburg-Amerikanische-Packetfahrts AG" (HAPAG), he has the task of examining the new possibilities of maritime transport that opened up around the turn of the century and making suggestions for business decisions. Long journeys in this position took him to Bremen, Paris and St. Petersburg. As a result of his scientific research, he published the "History of German seafaring in the 19th century, at the same time a representation of the development of the Hamburg-America Line" in 1901. Shortly afterwards Gdansk the new Technical University of Gdansk was founded to these violently developing a shipbuilding country by training to strengthen shipbuilding engineers, followed Karl Thiess 1904 the offer of a teaching career. Here he became a full professor of political science. In addition, the faculties for engineering, for shipbuilding and marine engineering, for electrical engineering, chemistry and construction were brought into being. In 1907 he wrote a work on "The German Shipping and Shipping Policy" from the occupation and penetration of the topic. During this time he also published an article in a scientific journal in which he underlined the great importance of systematic research for commercial enterprises, as it were as a future investment in their own development.

Stay in Japan

The president of the southern Manchurian railway company Gotō Shimpei (1857–1929), who had stayed in Germany as a student with Robert Koch in Berlin until 1890 , got to know about this article . The theses represented therein on the necessity of scientific work in companies fully met his current needs and business interests. His endeavor was to achieve a complete reform of the Japanese railway system. Gotō Shimpei suggested bringing Karl Thiess to Japan, and he accepted without hesitation. "Without my Hamburg practice," he later admitted, "I would never have been called to this beautiful country as a consultant for a foreign economic and colonial administration." After his arrival in Tokyo in 1908 he was employed in the "Railway Office" in the position of a councilor in the Japanese Railway Authority for three years. The importance of this development work was further underscored by the fact that on December 5, 1908 the office was spun off from the Ministry of Communications and placed directly under the Japanese cabinet. During his business trips to Japan and the colonies he collected material and then in 1910 published "The Economic Situation in Manchuria". In keeping with Karl Thiess's considerations for research accompanying economic developments, Gotō Shimpei proposed the establishment of a new "East Asian Economic Research Office" (toa keizai chosakyoku). The aim and direction of future railway development should be researched and determined through this office. The main focus was on developments within the colonies on the mainland. The structure and organization of the office was based on the model of the relevant research department at Bank Crédit Lyonnais in Paris , which Karl Thiess got to know while working at HAPAG.

His work in the years up to 1911 was highly valued by the responsible government agencies and Gotō Shimpei himself. After the contract expired, he was replaced by Otto Wiedfeld (1871–1926), who soon arrived in Japan. As a result of his work at the Südmanschurischen Eisenbahn AG, Karl Thiess wrote the article "Die Weltspur der Eisenbahn" in 1913, which was published in the magazine "Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv". Here he called for a standardization of railway technology beyond national borders in order to improve the international movement of goods and people. It was particularly important to him that the countries that border each other should agree on a common track width . The basis for this was the experience gained over the three years and recognized disruptive factors in Japanese traffic development.

According to the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia (OAG), Karl Thiess is said to have stayed in Japan several times in the 1920s.

Continuation of his scientific development in Germany

After arriving in Germany, Karl Thiess resumed teaching at the University of Danzig. At the beginning of 1914 he followed a call as professor of political science at the commercial college in Cologne. Here he campaigned for the further development of the commercial college into a university, was one of the supporters of the clearance of study places for women and advocated the establishment of theological faculties in Protestant as well as catholic orientation. He then set a clear example with a thesis on "Higher Education for Entrepreneurs". However, the framework conditions of the First World War meant that university operations came to a complete standstill. It was precisely this extraordinary situation that he published in 1916 in a book "On Price Formation in War".

When the university reopened in 1919, Karl Thiess was given a full professorship in economic political science. A short time later he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences in Gdansk. In an article in the Kölnische Zeitung in 1920, he referred to the increasing importance of finance in the structure of economic education at German universities. According to his thinking, the state and the cities need new business structures for their tax and auditing systems, and even more urgently for their own businesses that are subordinate to them. At the university in Cologne, with which Karl Thiess had a close cooperation even before his assignment in Japan, finance was given more space in the lectures and other courses. Events on customs law, imperial taxes and their influence on existing commercial enterprises were included in the program. There was also a clearer link between the law and finance faculties.

In 1923 Karl Thiess was elected Rector of the University of Cologne . On the occasion of his election, he gave a lecture on the subject of "Politics and University Education" and opened the discussion with his remarks on the "Spirit of German Studies" during a scientific event on the fundamentals of the university. A short time later he was re-elected dean of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences in Gdansk. Here he shifted his focus of work more clearly to the specialist areas of the cooperative system and finance. In the same year his work "The importance of industrial activity for the state" appeared. And in 1928 he published the publication "Handel und Genossenschaften". From the winter semester of 1932 onwards, he represented his colleague Prof. Franz Helpenstein in the department of cooperatives. The seminar on cooperative work was forcibly closed in 1934 by a decree of the National Socialists. Nevertheless, Karl Thiess continued to offer the related topics in the form of lectures.

When he retired in 1936, he did not see the time to retire. He continued to stick to the topics of economics that had become dear to him and to speak up again and again with scientific articles on transport-related topics. Karl Thiess died in Cologne on September 28, 1941.

Works and publications

• Social policy benefits of the German agricultural cooperatives, 1898
• The history of German shipping in the 19th century and the development of the Hamburg-America Line, 1901
• German shipping and shipping policy, 1907
• The economic situation in Manchuria Part 1 and Part 2, in: Communications of the OAG, Volumes XIII and XIV, 1910–1911
• The World Track of the Railways, World Economic Archive magazine, 1913
• Higher Education for Entrepreneurs, 1914
• About pricing during the war, 1916
• Politics and higher education, publication by the University of Cologne, 1923
• The importance of industrial activity for the state, 1925
• Commerce and Cooperatives, 1928

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography of the rector of Cologne University Karl Thiess in: https: rektorportraits.uni-koelön.de / rectors / Karl_Thiess /
2. ↑ Bernd Lepach, portrait of Karl Thiess in: http: meiji-portraits / meiji-portraits_t.html
3. ↑ Bernd Lepach, portrait of Karl Thiess. Meiji project in: http: //meiji-portraits/meiji-portraits_t.html
4. ↑ Part 1 and Part 2, in: Mitteilungen der OAG, Volumes XIII and XIV, 1910–1911
5. ↑ Rector profile of Karl Thiess of the University of Cologne in: https://rektorenportraets.uni-koeln.de/rektoren/Karl thiess /
6. ↑ Biography of the rector of Cologne University Karl Thiess in: https: rektorportraits.uni-koeln.de/rektoren/Karl_Thiess/
7. ↑ Rector profile of Karl Thiess, University of Cologne in: https://rektorenportraets.uni-koeln.de/rektoren/Karl_Thiess/