Robert Katzenstein

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Robert Katzenstein (born February 19, 1928 in Berlin ; † July 30, 2006 in Berlin) was a German Marxist economist . His greatest scientific achievement was that he examined the changes in the investment cycle in connection with technical developments and recognized in them a tendency towards ever increasing capital fixation and cyclical capital destruction.

Life

Katzenstein came from a middle-class Jewish family. His father was murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp and his mother hid in Berlin. Katzenstein had a bone disease that meant he could only move with crutches for many years. He lived in hiding from 1942 to 1945 as persecuted by the Nazi regime , which is why medical treatment was out of the question. After he was freed from a camp in Silesia by the Red Army , he had to be treated for years. When he was able to walk on crutches again, he completed his training and qualified as a Dr. oec. habil. He worked at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in East Berlin until 1970 while he lived in West Berlin .

plant

Katzenstein took part in the Stamokap debate that developed in both East and West Germany, especially in West Berlin. He examined the movement of fixed capital and studied the concrete investment processes in the steel industry. He came to the conclusion that in the past it was mainly about saving labor, while in today's capitalism the movement and development of fixed capital is of the greatest importance. The lifelong focus of his scientific work was the effects of technical progress . Many of his publications deal with this question.

In the 1970s, the Stamokap theory occupied economists and politically interested groups in both German states and found supporters in the SPD. Katzenstein particularly criticized the thesis of the subordination of the state to the monopolies - which only used it to secure the highest profits - as an inadmissible simplification. He took the view that the state created the prerequisites for the development of the productive power of capitalism and invested state money in infrastructure measures such as the construction of roads and docks. He came into contradiction to the prevailing doctrine in the GDR.

When the capitalism debate stagnated in the late 1970s, Katzenstein turned to the debates on euro-communism in Italy, France and Spain. He argued that there are different ways to socialism. He discussed this question in the magazine Sopo (Socialist Politics).

politics

When he lived in West Berlin , he was an active member of SEW . In the 1970s he held lectureships on political economy at the Otto Suhr Institute of the Free University of Berlin and conducted training courses on political economy.

Fonts

  • Technical progress. Capital movement, capital fixation. Some problems of fixed capital under the present conditions of socialization of production in state monopoly capitalism . Verlag Das Europäische Buch: Berlin 1970.
  • On the problem of a Marxist " derivation of the state ", in: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik 4/1974.
  • On the question of monopoly, monopoly profit and the enforcement of the law of value in monopoly capitalism , in: Das Argument 6/1975.
  • On the theory of state monopoly capitalism , in: Prokla 8 and 9/1973.
  • On the political economy of capitalism. A reference work . Verlag Das Europäische Buch: Berlin 1977, ISBN 9783920303574
  • Crisis and solidarity in the coal and solidarity with the miners? Contradictions and contradictions . Utopie Kreativ Hf. 83, 9/1997.
  • Fonts as PDF files: Font directory

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Katzenstein, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Marxist economist
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH July 30, 2006
Place of death Berlin