Richard Calwer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Calwer (born January 21, 1868 in Esslingen , † June 12, 1927 in Berlin ) was a German journalist, economist , statistician and at times a social democratic politician.

Training and editor

After graduating from Latin school , Calwer initially studied theology in Tübingen , Munich and Berlin and later economics . But he left the university without a degree.

In 1891 he joined the SPD . In the same year Calwer became editor of the “Volksblatt” in Halle . A year later he was editor of the " Münchener Post ". Then he was between 1893 and 1894 editor of the " Braunschweiger Volksfreundes " in Braunschweig . In 1895 Calwer was editor of the " Leipziger Volkszeitung ".

Since then he has lived as a writer in Berlin and was, among other things, a permanent employee of the Socialist Monthly Bulletins and, between 1908 and 1912, of the correspondence sheet of the General Commission of the Trade Unions . He was also a lecturer in trade union courses and ran his own business statistics office.

politics

Calwer was one of the most famous representatives of the reformist or revisionist wing in the SPD before the First World War. However, he had developed his views largely independently of Eduard Bernstein . In addition to this, as well as Ludwig Frank and Eduard David , he spoke out in favor of rapprochement with the bourgeois parties and was ready to enter the government with them under certain conditions. In addition, however, he has also expressed himself in an anti-Semitic manner.

Between 1898 and 1903 he was a member of the Reichstag . The candidacies in 1903 and 1907 failed in the runoff election. Because he defended his revisionist ideas offensively within the party, he got into internal party conflicts. Therefore Calwer resigned from the SPD, but remained closely connected to the social democratic movement and especially the trade unions.

Statistician and economist

Calwer was the editor of numerous financial yearbooks between 1900 and 1913, "The Financial Year," as well as commercial and statistical correspondence such as the "Economic Daily Reports." In addition, he was the author of numerous economic and political journal articles and monographs. This included the book “The Social Democratic Program” from 1914. In his writings, like John Maynard Keynes later, Calwer pleaded for countercyclical measures to combat unemployment and contradicted the thesis of an inevitable economic collapse of capitalism as represented by August Bebel .

According to his ideas, workers' policy should concentrate on the trade unions and cooperatives. Calwer campaigned for the centralization of the latter. A socialization of the means of production was not absolutely necessary for him. For him, the transition to socialism was a question of productivity and distribution.

In terms of economic policy, Calwer saw the USA as Germany's strongest competitor before the First World War and spoke out in favor of a European customs union. For modern research on inflation during the First World War and the post-war years, the “Calwer Index” of food prices is a key data basis.

Calwer died by suicide. His final resting place is in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf .

literature

  • Max Bloch: The Socialist Monthly Issues and the Academic Debate in the German Social Democracy before 1914: The "Cases" of Göhre, Schippel, Calwer and Hildebrand. In: Bulletin of the Institute for Social Movements. 40 (2008), pp. 7-22.
  • Paul Mayer:  Calwer, Richard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 102 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gerhard Schuz: Germany since World War II. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1982, ISBN 3-525-33472-9 , p. 24 ( digitized version )
  2. ^ Ernest Hamburger: Jews in public life in Germany. Members of government, civil servants and parliamentarians in the monarchical period, 1848–1918. Mohr Siebeck, 1968, ISBN 3-16-829292-3 , p. 150 ( digitized version )
  3. ^ Helga Grebing and Walter Euchner : History of social ideas in Germany: Socialism - Catholic social teaching - Protestant social ethics. VS Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-531-14752-8 , p. 172 ( digitized version )
  4. ^ Andreas Etges: Economic nationalism: USA and Germany in comparison (1815-1914). Campus Verlag, 1999, ISBN 3-593-36347-X , p. 301 ( digitized version )
  5. ↑ cf. as an example: Richard Bessel: Germany after the First World War. Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-19-820586-4 , p. 95 ( digitized version )
personal data
SURNAME Calwer, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist, statistician and politician (SPD), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Esslingen
DATE OF DEATH June 12, 1927
Place of death Berlin