Leopold Carl Bleibtreu

Leopold Carl Bleibtreu (born February 22, 1796 in Rotterdam ; † August 30, 1865 in Stuttgart ) was a German professor who taught mathematics, business subjects and later also political arithmetic.

Life and accomplishments

Bleibtreu got to know the trade “practically” and was appointed by the Baden government from Frankfurt am Main on October 15, 1825 to teach mathematics and business subjects at the newly founded polytechnic school in Karlsruhe . The following publication was probably decisive for his calling: The arithmetic miracles: collection of strange numerical results and entertaining tasks. (Frankfurt 1824). He first taught the application of mathematics to the subjects belonging to the field of commerce, then later all commercial subjects ("Nevertheless, I was and remained a mathematician ...").

In 1829 he was given the title of "Professor" and when the Polytechnic was reorganized in 1832, Bleibtreu became "Director of the commercial school, member of the narrow school conference and member of the administrative board of the polytechnic school". With the establishment of “a special course for postal officials”, Bleibtreu was given another subject in 1844, namely “political arithmetic” (= application of analysis to the state and national economies). This "post school" was closed at the end of the winter semester 1864/65. When a new statute for the Polytechnic was supposed to cease to exist, Bleibtreu was to retire on October 15, 1865 for the 40th anniversary of its service. However, he died on August 30, 1865 in Stuttgart.

Although Bleibtreu has taught an average of almost twenty students per year in 40 years of work (with, however, considerable differences in frequency over time), so far no texts have come to light in which he expresses himself on the goal, content and method of business lessons. The textbooks left behind should, however, allow conclusions to be drawn about the content of his lessons, although it should be borne in mind that the textbooks are often “richer in content” than the lessons that preceded them.

In the publications on the history of the “old” business administration, Klein-Blenkers devoted a chapter to him in 2009 in the appendix to the reprint of Emminghaus's “Allgemeine Handwerkslehre” (p. 497–500). With his business studies for manufacturers and craftsmen published in 1837, he pioneered today's industrial management studies with Arwed Emminghaus (1831–1916) in Stuttgart, the Alsatian Jean Jacques Bourcart (1835–1912) in Zurich and Max Haushofer (1840–1907) in Munich.

Publications

• Commercial science textbook. For use during lectures and for self-study. Carlsruhe 1830. Digitized
• Purpose and organization of the life insurance institutions. Carlsruhe 1832. Digitized
• Manual of Contor Science. Carlsruhe 1835 (2nd edition: ibid. 1838). Digitized
• First class in chemistry. Carlsruhe 1840.
• Political arithmetic. Instructions for the knowledge and practice of all calculations occurring in the state. A handbook for civil servants and businessmen. Heidelberg 1845; 2nd edition: ibid. 1853. Digitized
• Mercantilpraxis: Instructions for commercial management. For use during lectures and for self-study. Karlsruhe 1847.
• The doctrine of changes with reference to existing laws. Erlangen 1860. Digitized
• Handbook of coin, measure and weight, and the bill of exchange, government paper, banking and shares in European and non-European countries and cities. Stuttgart 1861 (2nd edition there 1863). Digitized

literature

• Personal file of the General State Archives Karlsruhe
• Pott, Klaus Friedrich: Leopold Carl Bleibtreu (1796 - 1865) commercial teacher at the Polytechnic in Karlsruhe (with portrait). In: Pott, Klaus Friedrich (Ed.): Professional biographies of commercial school teachers of the 19th century , 2nd greatly increased edition, Detmold, 2017, pp. 206-211.