Martin Behrend

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Martin Eduard Theodor Behrend (born October 31, 1865 in the domain of Maternhof near Königsberg (Prussia) ; † August 5, 1926 in Mannheim ) was a German economist , advisor to the Japanese government and rector of the commercial college in Mannheim.

Life and professional history

Martin Eduard Theodor Behrend was born in 1865 as the son of Johann Walter Behrend and Martha Kolscher, in the domain of Maternhof near Königsberg. He attended school in Königsberg and Schwerin and finished it in Weimar in 1887 with the Abitur . From 1887 to 1888 he did his military service in Leipzig as a one-year volunteer. At the same time he had enrolled at the University of Leipzig . Here he took the subjects economics and political science. After completing his military service, he began an apprenticeship as a bookseller in Göttingen, which he then broke off in favor of studying. He moved to the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in 1889 and finished his studies here in 1891 with a doctorate as Dr. phil. The topic he worked on was: "The nationalization of land." In 1891, Martin Behrend accepted a job offer at the statistical office of the Royal Ministry of the Interior in Dresden . In the following year, he switched to the metal company founded in 1881 by Wilhelm Merton (1848–1916) in Frankfurt / Main . The business fields were located in the field of mining and raw materials trading in international markets. Here he gained his first professional experience in trading.

From Frankfurt / Main, Martin Behrend moved in 1895 as a secretary to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Zittau . He quickly acquired the experience required in this job profile in the area of ​​representing the interests of regional trade institutions and commercial enterprises. In 1896 he went to Magdeburg to the Magdeburg merchants and worked here as managing director and syndic of the elders. Together with President Otto Hubbe (1842–1904), he vigorously advocated the transformation of the Magdeburg merchants' interest group into a chamber of commerce. He then had a large share in the Association of Central German Chambers of Commerce founded in 1899. He was particularly interested in the professional training of the next generation. He accompanied several functions in the responsible "German Association for Commercial Education" and the first publications on this topic are from his pen. So the "Instructions for the establishment, establishment and management of commercial advanced training schools", published in 1899. Then two years later in 1901 he published the text "The interest of the German merchants in the continuation of the established trade policy".

On November 19, 1899, Martin Behrend married Edith Schmidt. The marriage resulted in three daughters: Ilse geb. 1900, Gisela b. 1903 and Oda 1909-1907.

During this period, Martin Behrend was also active in municipal politics as a city councilor in Magdeburg. He was committed to improving traffic conditions in the city, in the area of ​​managing the Elbe inland waterway, and was involved in improving several important city transport projects. As early as 1905, he and Georg Gutsche published the study “Commercial Customs in Wholesale and Shipping Magdeburg”. In 1906, he published his work “Magdeburg Wholesale Merchants” and a historical study on “The Corporation of the Merchants of Magdeburg and the Chamber of Commerce (1876–1906)”.

He also remained true to himself in his commitment to the compulsory commercial training of the staff working in trading companies. He promoted vocational training for young people and took care of the necessary framework conditions for commercial training in the city. To this end, he took up the topic, which had already been dealt with at the turn of the century, and in 1907 published instructional material on the “establishment, establishment and administration of compulsory commercial training schools”. As part of the cooperation with its members, the Magdeburg Chamber of Commerce organized a series of topics on questions of personnel training in the same year. Embedded here, Martin Behrend gave the lecture on the “Inquiry about Magdeburg's female salespeople”.

It was very logical that Martin Behrend's previous activities in the areas of vocational training and regional transport resulted in his appointment as full professor for transport sciences and first full-time director of studies at the commercial college in Mannheim. In the courses he was able to refer to profound practice and, in the area of ​​scientific organization, to his own preparatory work from the last 10 years and discussions about the requirements of professional knowledge transfer. As an introduction to the new field of responsibility, so to speak, he published the work “Die Handelshochschule Mannheim ” in 1910 . When the elections for the management of the university came up in 1911, he was elected as rector of the Mannheim Commercial College for the period from 1911 to 1913.

His work in Japan

Due to his experience in scientific work and his special knowledge of topics of transport and in particular shipping, Martin Behrend was selected in 1913 for a foreign assignment as an advisor to the Japanese government in the area of ​​the southern Manchurian railway. A special "East Asian Economic Research Office" was founded here by Prof. Karl Thiess (1879–1941) at the Japanese Railway Authority as early as 1911 and his successor Otto Wiedfeldt (1871–1926) was continued. Both had made an important contribution to the development of the Japanese railway system locally. In the autumn of 1913, Martin Behrend took over from Otto Wiedfeldt, who returned to Germany at the end of his contract term.

Martin Behrend lived in the Azabu-ku district during his stay in Tokyo and immediately after his arrival he joined the "German Society for Natural and Ethnographic East Asia (OAG)". During this time he knew how to combine the work in the research office with the activities for the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia . He also benefited from the fact that he was able to fall back on the existing OAG network during his business trips to the various Japanese regions. The situation then became difficult in 1914. The previous chairman of the OAG Rudolf Lehmann (1842–1914) died on February 4, 1914, the previous vice-president Carl Adolf Florenz (1865–1939) took over the office and Martin Behrend was elected as the second chairman . A short time later, in April, Karl Florenz received a call to the Hamburg Colonial Office and new elections were required. Here Karl Behrend was elected chairman of the German Society for Natural History and Ethnology of East Asia.

On August 2, 1914, Japan, out of the power constellation of the time, declared war on Germany. This was connected with the request to cease diplomatic relations between Japan and Germany and the German reservists were called upon by the governor of Kiautschau to do military service with the III. Report Sea Battalion in Tsingtau . The German ambassador to Tokyo Arthur Alexander Kaspar von Rex (1856–1926) had advised Martin Behrend not to leave Tokyo for the time being if he did not want to be captured on the crossing from Kobe . That is why he stayed, despite the adverse conditions, tried to fulfill his contract with East Asian Economic Research as best as possible and to fulfill his duties as chairman of the OAG. Under these new circumstances it was extremely important to maintain the still existing society as a “spiritual and sociable center” for the Germans and remaining friends of the Germans.

The fulfillment of these tasks could hardly be realized under these extremely complicated conditions. In addition, the new construction of the OAG building that had begun stalled due to a lack of financing. The degree of difficulty was then full when in November 1914 the imperial troops still deployed in the German colonies were forced to surrender by the Japanese imperial army and were taken prisoner. Therefore, at the end of 1914 / beginning of 1915, Martin Behrend went on a very adventurous journey to get to Germany. He took the first step to come to the USA. There he had to hold out for several months to look for a cheap crossing to Europe. This trip by ship also worked and he came to the Netherlands. From there, there was only the way to go home. He kept the office of chairman of the OAG until 1916 formally in his hand.

Continuation of professional development in Germany

When he arrived in Germany, he was assigned to the imperial army. Here Martin Behrend was first deployed to the front and then to the general staff. His discharge in January 1919 took place with the rank of major.

Immediately after the establishment of somewhat “normal” conditions, he resumed teaching in Mannheim. During this time he wrote the work "The Mittelland Canal", which was published in 1920. Since the interests of the university as a link to the organization of economic life and the orientation of people returning from the war were very close to his heart, he published an article in the Neue Mannheimer Volksblatt on October 31, 1924 under the heading “The future of the commercial college”. By this time he had already accepted the second rectorate, which lasted from 1923 to 1925. At the university he reorganized the teaching work, introduced new examination regulations and campaigned for international activities of the teaching staff, researchers and students. He re-established his international connections, which had been buried a little by the war, and in 1924 visited scientific institutions in the Balkans with students and in 1925 a similar trip took him to Great Britain.

Martin Behrend died on August 5, 1926 in Mannheim.

Own work and publications

  • The nationalization of land. Development of the relevant teachings. Current status of efforts. Critique of the main ideas (dissertation), Heidelberg 1981
  • Instructions for the establishment, establishment and management of commercial training schools, 1899
  • The interest of the German merchants in the continuation of the established trade policy, 1901
  • Establishment, establishment and administration of commercial training schools, 1905
  • Trade Customs in Wholesale and Shipping Magdeburg, 1905, co-author Georg Gutsche
  • Magdeburg wholesalers, 1906
  • The Magdeburg merchant corporation and the Chamber of Commerce. 1976-1906, 1906
  • The Financial Treatment of Inland Waterways, 1906
  • Inquiry about the female clerks in Magdeburg, 1907 (lecture) series of events of the Magdeburg Chamber of Commerce
  • The commercial college in Mannheim, 1910
  • Chamber of Commerce in: Dictionary of German Constitutional and Administrative Law, 1911
  • Academic qualifications for economic officials, 1913
  • The Mittelland Canal. Guide to its completion, with maps, 1920 (published without information on the author)
  • Motor vehicles in: Concise Dictionary of Political Science, 1922
  • The future of the Mannheim Commercial College in: Neues Mannheimer Volksblatt No. 296 of October 31, 1924
  • The Mannheim Commercial College in 1923–1925, 1925

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Badische Biographien, Behrend Martin Eduard Theodor, Registratur NF 4, p. 22ff. in: https://www.leo-bw.de/web/guest/-/Detail/detail/Person//ggl_biographien/116110600/Behrend+Martin+Eduard+Theodor
  2. ↑ the metal company was converted in 2005, the new place of business is in Bochum and has been operating under the company name GEA-Group AG on https://www.gea.com since then
  3. ^ Badische Biographien, Behrend Martin Eduard Theodor, Registratur NF 4, p. 22ff. in: https://www.leo-bw.de/web/guest/-/Detail/detail/Person//ggl_biographien/116110600/Behrend+Martin+Eduard+Theodor
  4. ↑ Horst-Günther Heinicke, biographical sketch about Behrend, Martin Eduard Theodor, University Archives Mannheim: Rep. A1,3 / 11 in: http: www.uni-magdeburg.de/mbl/Biografien/1659.htm
  5. ↑ Bernd Lepach, factual information on the East Asian Economic Research Office "- located at the Japanese railway office of the South Manchurian Railway Company, Meiji-Portraits, Leipzig, 2017 in: http://meiji-portraits.de/
  6. ↑ Presentation of the OAG, people of the OAG and board members in: www.oag.jp
  7. ↑ Bernd Lepach, biographical sketch about Prof. Dr. Martin Behrend, Meiji-Portraits, Leipzig, 2017 in: http://meiji-portraits.de/meiji-portraits_b.html
  8. ^ Badische Biographien, Behrend Martin Eduard Theodor, Registratur NF 4, p. 22ff. in: https://www.leo-bw.de/web/guest/-/Detail/detail/Person//ggl_biographien/116110600/Behrend+Martin+Eduard+Theodor
personal data
SURNAME Behrend, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Behrend, Martin Eduard Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist, advisor to the Japanese government, German rector
DATE OF BIRTH October 31, 1865
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH August 5, 1926
Place of death Mannheim