Ludwig Elster

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Ludwig Elster. Photo by Alfred Bischoff

Ludwig Hermann Alexander Elster (born March 26, 1856 in Frankfurt am Main , † December 30, 1935 in Jena ) was a German economist and administrative officer who worked from 1897 to 1916 as a consultant for higher education at the Prussian Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs worked.

Life

Ludwig Elster was the son of the Hanoverian diplomat Carl Elster (1826-1902), who represented the Kingdom of Hanover at the Bundestag in Frankfurt as "Legationscanzlist" (legation secretary) and, after 1866, was chairman of the insurance company Teutonia in Leipzig .

Ludwig Elster initially received private lessons in Berlin and then, like his younger brother Ernst Elster (1860–1940), attended the Thomas School in Leipzig . After graduating from high school in 1875, he studied law and economics (economics) at the universities of Göttingen , Leipzig and Jena , where in 1878 he received a doctorate thesis supervised by Bruno Hildebrand . phil. received his doctorate . In the same year Elster entered the Prussian civil service and became a trainee at the Statistical Bureau in Berlin. In addition to his work, he continued his studies and achieved his habilitation at the University of Halle (Saale) in 1880 , with the support of the economist Johannes Conrad . In the following year 1881 Elster married Helene Thöle in Osnabrück , the daughter of a doctor, with whom he had five children.

After three years as a private lecturer, Elster's university career took off in 1883: he was appointed lecturer at the Technical University in Aachen and at the same time received the title of professor; in the same year, however, he moved to the Albertus University in Königsberg as a regular associate professor, where he was little appreciated in the staff. While still in Königsberg , Elster founded the series of publications on political studies , in which the work of his students appeared. In 1887 Elster accepted a call to the University of Breslau for the chair of political economy, which he held for ten years.

When the lecturing councilor Friedrich Althoff was promoted to head of department in the Ministry of Culture in 1897 , Elster was appointed his successor. Elster was in charge of the entire Prussian higher education system there, but during the first ten years of his office he had to bow to the influence of his superior, who had previously steered the higher education system almost autonomously in Elster's position. Elster continued the " System Althoff " in its spirit and set its own accents in the university administration, for example by promoting the expansion of the academy in Münster into the Westphalian Wilhelms University and strengthening economics and political science by setting up research institutes and new chairs . For his services Elster received numerous state awards, such as the title Real Secret Upper Government Council , the Crown Order 1st Class and the Red Eagle Order 2nd Class . In addition, several universities have awarded him honorary doctorates , such as the University of Münster (Dr. theol.), The University of Breslau (Dr. med.) And the University of Kiel (Dr. oec. Pol.).

As a result of the heavy workload, Elster left the ministry in 1916 and moved to Jena, where he held lectures on social and economic sciences as an honorary professor from 1922. Like most senior officials politically conservative, he joined the German National People's Party during the Weimar Republic . He was also a supporting member of the SS . After the seizure of power of the Nazis , he was nevertheless compelled in 1933, as editor of the Journal of Economics and Statistics resign.

Elster's estate is in the Thuringian University and State Library in Jena

Scientific work

Elster's academic work was initially focused on the insurance and banking sector, on which he published several articles and books during his time as a private lecturer. Later he concentrated more on systematic and didactic literature. Together with Johannes Conrad, Wilhelm Lexis and Edgar Loening , he published the concise dictionary of political science , which had four editions from 1890 to 1929. Elster added a dictionary of economics for students and professional practitioners to this compilation, intended primarily for specialist scientists, which was also published four times during his lifetime.

Elster was associated with the yearbooks for economics and statistics for almost all of his life. As a student in Jena, the editor Bruno Hildebrand called him in for editorial work. From the 1880s onwards, he regularly published essays and reviews of specialist literature in the yearbooks that were then edited by Johannes Conrad. From 1891 to 1897 Elster was its co-editor. In 1915, after Conrad's death, he took over as editor.

Fonts (selection)

  • Johann Calvin as a statesman, legislator and political economist . In: Yearbooks for Economics and Statistics . Volume 31 (1878), pp. 163-223.
  • Life insurance in Germany, its economic importance and the necessity of its legal regulation . Jena 1880.
  • The postal savings banks. A proposal to introduce the same in Germany . Jena 1881.
  • The salaries of the university professors and the lecture fees, taking into account the planned reforms in Prussia and Austria . Wroclaw 1897.

Editing

  • Concise dictionary of political science . 6 volumes, 2 supplement volumes and a register volume, Jena 1890–1897.
    • 2nd, completely revised edition in 7 volumes, Jena 1898–1901.
    • 3rd, completely revised edition in 8 volumes, Jena 1909–1911.
    • 4th, completely revised edition in 8 volumes and a supplementary volume, Jena 1923–1929.
  • Dictionary of Economics . 2 volumes, Jena 1898. 2nd edition 1906–1907. 3rd, revised edition 1911. 4th, completely revised edition in 3 volumes, Jena 1931–1933.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Tilitzki : The Albertus University of Königsberg: Your story from the founding of the empire to the fall of the province of East Prussia (1871-1945). Volume 1: 1871-1918 . Berlin / Boston 2012, ISBN 978-3-05-004312-8 , p. 101.
  2. ↑ Federal Archives R 4901/13262.
personal data
SURNAME Elster, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Elster, Ludwig Hermann Alexander (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and university advisor
DATE OF BIRTH March 26, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH December 30, 1935
Place of death Jena