Rudolf Agricola (economist)

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Rudolf Agricola (born November 29, 1900 in Ladenburg , † January 14, 1985 in Greifswald ) was a German economist , journalist , politician of the SPD and KPD functionary.

Life

The son of a cigar manufacturer studied economics at the universities of Heidelberg , Freiburg , Erlangen and at the commercial school in Mannheim . He received his doctorate in 1924 on the subject of the relationship between bank headquarters and branches and deposit kiosks . In 1926 he passed the exam as a qualified commercial teacher and then taught in Zeitz .

In 1919 Agricola joined the newly founded DDP in Ladenburg . In 1920 he became state chairman of the Baden Young Democrats . In 1924 he joined the SPD . In Zeitz he was elected city councilor. Because the SPD in the Reichstag tolerated the austerity policy with emergency ordinances by the Brüning government , he joined the left opposition in the SPD and was a member of the SAP from 1931 to 1933 , after which he joined the KPD , performed in the Merseburg area during the National Socialist dictatorship / Halle political resistance work in illegality, was arrested several times and sentenced in 1935 to eight years in prison for “preparing for high treason ”. After his release from prison in 1943 he worked as an accountant in Villingen .

After the liberation by the Allies in 1945, Agricola became involved in local politics in Heidelberg and worked as a journalist. He became a board member of the news agency for the American zone (DENA), was chairman of the local group of the KPD in Heidelberg, member of the KPD state executive in Württemberg-Baden and a member of the provisional parliament for Württemberg-Baden . Together with Hermann Knorr (SPD) and Theodor Heuss ( DVP / FDP ), Agricola received the license to publish a daily newspaper on September 5, 1945 , and the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung (RNZ) was founded in Heidelberg . Criticism of restoration and integration with the West in the three zones occupied by the Western powers and openly expressed doubts about the sustainability of democratic development (see quote ) led two years later to the military government of the US-American zone of occupation on August 31, 1948, giving him this license again withdrew and Agricola transferred to the Soviet occupation zone and accepted a lectureship at the University of Halle .

In 1948 Agricola became director of the Institute for Newspaper Studies, professor of political economy and member of the SED . From 1950 to 1958 he was a member of the People's Chamber of the GDR with the mandate of the SED . In 1951 he succeeded the Austrian historian Eduard Winter and was rector of the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg for two years . From 1954 to 1956 he worked at the Institute for Economics of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin as an expert on economic development in the Federal Republic of Germany , then as Consul General and Minister in Helsinki . From 1963 until his retirement in 1965, Agricola was Professor of Political Economy and International Relations with the Nordic Countries and also Director of the Nordic Institute at the University of Greifswald , where he replaced Bruno Kress, who was not loyal to the line .

Publications

  • The current state of economic science in West Germany (= German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Lectures and writings. Vol. 59, ISSN  0366-9785 ). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1956.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Muschik: In the service of the ›workers and peasants‹. The development of Nordic studies in the GDR. In: nordeuropaforum 2/2004, pp. 27–42, here 40. online.
personal data
SURNAME Agricola, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist, journalist and politician (DDP, SPD, SAP, KPD), MdV, MdL
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Ladenburg
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1985
Place of death Greifswald