Matthias Schmitt (economist)

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Matthias Schmitt, 1973

Matthias Eduard Schmitt (born July 14, 1913 in Krettnach ; † February 9, 1997 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German economist .

Live and act

Matthias Schmitt was born on July 14, 1913 as the son of a winery owner in Krettnach. At the secondary school in Wittlich he passed the Abitur in 1933 and then completed a degree in law, political science and economics at the universities of Munich , Vienna and Berlin , among others with Adolf Weber and Werner Sombart . In 1937 Schmitt passed the diploma in economics and was awarded a doctorate in 1940 at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin with the work he began as an assistant to Walter Weigmann in Göttingen with the title “Function and Significance of Colonies”. rer. pole. PhD . From 1941 to 1943 he was employed at the Reich Colonial Institute in Berlin. After military service and four years as a prisoner of war in Egypt , Schmitt joined the Federal Ministry of Economics in 1949, where he was initially employed in the Department for Import and Export Planning and the Marshall Plan Department and from 1950 to 1955 as Head of the Department for Fundamental Economic Policy Issues in Foreign Trade. In 1952 he was appointed senior government councilor and in 1954 ministerial councilor. From 1955 to 1957 he was head of the foreign trade group including customs policy. In these functions he was in close contact with Federal Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard . Under Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , Schmitt took part in a trip to Moscow in 1955, which resulted in the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. This trip was formative for him, because later east-west trade and economic relations with the Soviet Union were among his central concerns. At the end of 1957, Schmitt switched to business at his own request and became a member of the board of the Berliner Bank . After he left the bank, he remained associated with the bank as deputy chairman of the supervisory board alongside its chairman Willy Brandt . In 1961, Schmitt was appointed to the board of directors of AEG-Telefunken and was responsible for marketing , which included public relations, advertising, trade fair and exhibition activities, as well as central market monitoring and sales training. He held this position until his retirement.

In addition to his role in the company Schmitt took strong proportion of high-level tasks of the economy, for example, as a member of ZVEI -Präsidiums, as chairman of the Foreign Trade Committee of the BDI , the Foreign Trade Advisory Council to the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, as a member of the General Assembly of the IHK Frankfurt am Main , in the Ludwig Erhard Foundation , various German-Foreign Chambers of Commerce, as Economic and Financial Adviser to the President of the Republic of Ghana and as a member of the Advisory Committee of the European Management Forum , which later changed its name to World Economic Forum .

Parallel to his professional activity, Schmitt has passed on his knowledge in various teaching activities, such as a lecturer at the Free University of Berlin , the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and as an honorary professor at the University of Cologne , where he in particular the institute for economic policy was closely linked, which was under the direction of Alfred Müller-Armack . Schmitt's focus was on lectures on international economic relations and east-west trade.

Fonts

Schmitt has written several books on economic policy issues as well as current political publications, articles and commentaries, mainly in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , the Handelsblatt , Der Tagesspiegel and in Finanz und Wirtschaft .

Monographs (selection)

  • The German dollar problem. Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, 1953.
  • Development aid as an entrepreneurial task. Knapp, Frankfurt am Main 1965.
  • German-Soviet economic relations. Deutscher Institut-Verlag, Cologne 1967.
  • 30 years of east-west economic relations. Development phases and perspectives. Jupiter, Vienna 1977.
  • Industrial east-west cooperation. Seewald, 1982, ISBN 3-5120-0349-4 .
  • The east business of tomorrow. Nomos, Baden-Baden 1988, ISBN 3-7890-1619-5 .

Contributions (selection)

  • Pioneer of free world trade. Contribution to the festschrift for the seventy-fifth birthday of Ludwig Erhard. Propylaea, Berlin 1972.
  • Problematic compensation deals. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Frankfurt am Main, October 19, 1978, p. 11.
  • Overview of the foreign trade situation in the Federal Republic of Germany and future trends. In: West-Ost-Journal. No. 2. Vienna 1978, p. 27.
  • Disillusionment in China trade. In: Finance and Economy. Zurich, November 17, 1979, p. 24.
  • The economy should not be deterred. In: Handelsblatt. Düsseldorf, May 20, 1980, p. 4.
  • Fundamental change not in sight. Announcements from the Frankfurt am Main Chamber of Commerce and Industry, issue no.10-15 May 1982.
  • Smoke signals from Leipzig. In: Der Tagesspiegel. Berlin, March 24, 1985, p. 17.
  • The human being as a key factor in the reform process. In: east-west-commerce. 35th year, no.2. Hamburg 1989, p. 2.
  • Perestroika takes time. In: Der Tagesspiegel. Berlin, June 4, 1989.

Honors

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Archives
  2. ^ Alfred Müller-Armack, Matthias Schmitt, Hans Willgerodt: Contributions to economic and social policy. Institute for Economic Policy at the University of Cologne, 1967, ISBN 978-3-921471-01-2 .
  3. ↑ Alfred Müller-Armack, Christian Watrin, Matthias Schmitt, Ulrich Giebel: Studies on economic policy - social benefits and company size structure. Institute for Economic Policy at the University of Cologne, 1985, ISBN 3-921471-53-2 .
  4. ^ Matthias Schmitt: Aufbruch zur Marktwirtschaft - Institute for Economic Policy at the University of Cologne, 1983, ISBN 3-921471-38-9
  5. ^ Announcements from the IHK Frankfurt am Main, July 15, 1978, p. 459
personal data
SURNAME Schmitt, Matthias
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmitt, Matthias Eduard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Krettnach
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1997
Place of death Frankfurt am Main