Walter Heinrich

Walter Adolf Franz Heinrich (born July 11, 1902 in Haida , Northern Bohemia; † January 25, 1984 in Graz ) was a Sudeten German economist , sociologist and politician with initially Austro-Hungarian or Czechoslovakian and finally Austrian citizenship. He was one of the intellectual leaders of the Austrian Heimwehr and the political movement of the Sudeten Germans. As a close confidante of Othmar Spann , he saw himself and the theses of a universalistic or holistic economics represented by him as his direct successor.

life and work

Education

Heinrich was involved in a leading position in the Sudeten German youth community at an early age . He graduated from high school in 1921 and made the acquaintance of Othmar Spann, whose work Vom Wesen des Volkstums - Was ist deutsch? decisively shaped him. Heinrich completed a degree in political science at the German University in Prague by 1925 . He then continued his studies in Vienna, where he was awarded a Dr. rer. pole. PhD. Between 1926 and 1933 he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Political Economy and Social Studies at the University of Vienna with Othmar Spann, who meanwhile became one of his closest confidants. In Vienna, he was guild master of the Sudeten German-influenced academic guild Freischar Vienna for several years . Through his membership in the guild, he had contacts with the 'Reich German' right-wing extremist scene since his youth.

After completing his habilitation in economics in 1928, Heinrich became a private lecturer and in 1933 an associate professor for economics at the Vienna University of World Trade .

Theorist of the corporate state

Heinrich, like Hans Riehl , another Spann student, had close ties to the Austrian Home Guard since the late 1920s . In 1929/30 he acted as general secretary of the "Bundesführung der Heimwehr" and wrote the " Korneuburg Oath " of May 18, 1930, which called for the overthrow of the democratic party state. He then became increasingly involved in the Sudetenland , where a Sudeten German tension group was formed. He was also one of the driving forces behind the founding of the " Institute for Estates " in Düsseldorf in 1934, where he taught as a lecturer until its dissolution in 1936.

Ideologue of the "Sudeten German tribal body"

As early as 1925/26, Heinrich and Heinrich Rutha founded the “elderly community” of the Sudeten German youth, the so-called “ Kameradschaftsbund ”, which Konrad Henlein also joined. This informal association of barely more than 200 young Sudeten German intellectuals committed itself under Heinrich's influence to the renewal of Sudeten German people's life on the basis of the holistic theory of Spanns in the sense of a class-based and authoritarian “Sudeten German tribal body”.

“This state is opposite the anonymous leadership of the party system, a state with personal leadership, with a clear authoritative tip. It will be a strong state [...] The task of the people (the followers) is determined by their participation in the organized groups of the economy, culture, etc. (in the estates) and is otherwise limited only to trust or withdrawal of trust, whereby the top tips must remain free. "

- Konrad Fest (i.e. Walter Heinrich) : The new state, its image and its realization (1928)

The Comradeship Association played a leading role in founding the Sudeten German Home Front , which later became the Sudeten German Party. As an eyewitness, Ernst von Salomon described the founding meeting in Leitmeritz in October 1933:

“Then the main speaker of the conference stood up, the top speaker, Walter Heinrich, Peter among the apostles of Master Spann, his closest collaborator, friend and confidante, pale, skinny, fanatical, extremely learned and of a wild and deadly intellectuality. [...] But the Sudeten Germans and the German Moravia, they sat upright and stared at Walter Heinrich and it was dead quiet in the hall. I wondered what it might be that moved these men, these good men with the good, expectant, attentive and ready faces so that they remained so still, I still had ... not enough experience to know that it was dry Prophecy had to be, which was offered to them here under the dry crust of science, the doctrine of salvation, which came like rain in the desert, like rain for which the ground hungered. When Heinrich finished his speech, the strawiest speech I have ever heard in the seminar, the Sudeten Germans stood up and sang. "

- Ernst von Salomon : The questionnaire

Insofar as Spann's Volkstumslehre was oriented “over-national”, i.e. “people” and “race” did not represent the highest value and goal, and the Association of Comrades also refused to join the Sudetenland to the German Reich and instead sought a federal reorganization of Czechoslovakia, it was not compatible with National Socialism . On the National Socialist side, the Kameradschaftsbund was accused of separating the Sudeten Germans from the German people and thereby practicing something like “ Swissization ”.

National Socialist Harmonization

Like Spann fell Heinrich as a prominent theoretician of the corporate state after the annexation of Austria in 1938 the Nazi Gleichschaltung victim. He was dismissed from the University of World Trade and his Venia Legendi revoked. As early as May 1936, Himmler's Intelligence Service, the security service of the Reichsführer SS , had written a memorandum entitled "The tension circle, dangers and effects", in which the tension circle was accused of "influencing Sudeten Germanism in the sense of Roman universalism and alienating it from National Socialist Germany" to have.

In early 1940 a purge of the Sudeten German Party was carried out. Heinrich's assistant Walter Brand , among others , was convicted of homosexual offenses in the course of criminal trials in Dresden and Bohemian Leuba and taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , while the SS magazine Das Schwarze Korps accused Spann, Heinrich and the Kameradschaftsbund of “having their own Sudeten German Tribal 'proclaimed'. Heinrich was taken into protective custody for 18 months and imprisoned in Dresden or in the Dachau concentration camp . After his dismissal in 1941, he then switched to the private sector and worked until 1945 as the executive secretary and authorized signatory of the Vienna industrial group Stölzle Glasindustrie AG and the “Glashüttenwerke vorm. J. Schreibers Hessen AG “in Vienna.

Post war career

After the end of the Second World War , Heinrich was again a private lecturer or lecturer in economics at the University of Vienna and at the University of World Trade. In 1948 he received an extraordinary professor and in 1949 was appointed full professor. In 1951 he founded the "Institute for Industrial Research", which he headed as well as the "Institute for Integration Issues and Economic Policy" at the University of World Trade. In 1972 Heinrich retired.

Heinrich was one of the founders of the “ Austrian National Economic Society ” and the “ Society for Holistic Research ”. Since 1962 he was a corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (philosophical-historical class).

Priority and achievement theory

Heinrich distinguished himself as an opponent of the mathematization of theoretical economics ( macroeconomics ). He expanded Spann's holistic approach to include the so-called "priority and performance theory". The 10 main achievements named by him are therefore not equally ranked next to each other in relation to the superordinate whole; they are to be clearly classified according to their economic importance and, if modified, also from an economic point of view. Organizing and training services take precedence over traffic and subordinate to production, damage prevention over insurance.

Fonts

• Leadership and leader in society. On the psychological and sociological theory of leadership. State Science Dissertation, University of Vienna 1925 (typewriter).
• Basics of a universalistic crisis theory. With 3 pictures in the text. G. Fischer, Jena 1928 (= German contributions to economics and social studies. Edited by Othmar Spann and Georg von Below. 5.), XII, 364 pp.
• The state and economic constitution of fascism . (This booklet is a special copy from: Nationalwirtschaft. Blätter für organic Wirtschaftsaufbau (Issues 3 to 6, year 1929). Editor: [Wilhelm] Longert.) Verlag für Nationalwirtschaft und Werksgemeinschaft, Berlin 1929, 84 pp.
• Fascism. State and economy in the new Italy . 2nd revised edition with the Italian and German text of the Carta del Lavoro. Bruckmann, Munich 1932, VIII, 196 p. New edition.
• as Reinald Dassel: Against party state, for corporate state . 1st to 5th thousand. Publishing house of the Styrian Heritage Protection Association, Vienna-Graz-Klagenfurt 1929, 42 pp.
• Basic thoughts about the state and the economy. A programmatic lecture on the spiritual foundations of the Heimatwehr movement on behalf of the federal leadership of the Austrian self-protection associations. (Responsible for the content: Richard Steidle , Innsbruck, Walter Pfrimer , Judenburg.) Federal leadership of the Austrian self-protection associations, Innsbruck-Judenburg [1929], 47 pp.
• Centralistic or organic state? Institute for Sudeten German homeland research of the German Scientific Society in Reichenberg. [Publishing house of the literary Adalbert Stifter Society in Eger 1930], 16 pp. Separate print from: Sudetendeutsches Jahrbuch , (Eger), 5/1929.
• State and economy. A programmatic lecture. Erneuerungs-Verlag, Berlin-Vienna 1931 (= library of the corporate state. Edited by W [ilhelm] Longert. 4.), 52 pp.
• The class system, with special consideration of the self-administration of the economy. G. Fischer, Jena 1932 [recte 1931], XII, 306 pp.
• The social question. Its emergence in the individualistic and its solution in the class order. G. Fischer, Jena 1934, VIII, 204 pp.
• The double market economy. Overcoming the black market. Criticism and anti-criticism. Schmeidel, Vienna 1947 (= The current series. 1.), 23 pp.
• Economic policy. First volume: Outline of the didactic history of economic policy, foundation of economic policy. The key terms in economic policy. Economic policy. Influencing economic goals in the service of economic policy. Economic policy in the service areas. Pricing policy. Verlag A. Sexl, Vienna 1948 (= Grundrisse der Sozialwissenschaften. 3.), XVIII, 560 pp.
• (Editor): The Wholeness in Philosophy and Science. Othmar Spann on his 70th birthday. Braumüller, Vienna 1950, XII, 362 pp.
• Economic policy. Second volume, 1st half volume: world economic policy, large-scale economic policy, national economic policy. Verlag A. Sexl, Vienna 1952 (= Grundrisse der Sozialwissenschaften. 3.), XVI, 304 pp.
• The social functions of industry. Swiss Trade Association, Bern 1953, 50 pp.
• Economic policy. Second volume, 2nd half volume: regional economic policy, association economic policy, business management policy, budgetary management policy. Verlag A. Sexl, Vienna 1954 (= Grundrisse der Sozialwissenschaften. 3.), XVI, 344 pp.
• Position and management tasks of the entrepreneur in modern society. Society for the Promotion of the Swiss Economy, Schaffhausen 1954 (= series of publications of the Association for Free Entrepreneurship. 2.), 32 pp.
• (Editor): Bulletin of the Society for Whole Research [since the 3rd year (1959) new title:] Journal for Whole Research . Philosophy, society, economy . New episode (Vienna), 1. – 17. Vol. (1957-1973).
• Economy and personality. The managerial tasks of the entrepreneur and his employees in the free world. O. Müller, Salzburg [1957] (= series "Word and Answer". 16.), 216 pp.
• Transfiguration and redemption in the Vedânta, with Meister Eckhart and with [Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph] Schelling. A contribution to the doctrine of the last things and of immersion. 1. Transfiguration and redemption in the Vedânta. 2. Transfiguration and redemption with Meister Eckhart. 3. Transfiguration and redemption in [Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph] Schelling. Manz, Munich [1961] (= Stifterbibliothek. Special volume.), 110, 90, 112 pp.
• Problems of small and medium-sized businesses in craft and trade. Münster-Westphalia: [Institute for Crafts and Crafts] 1962 (= research reports from the craft sector, published by the Münster-Westphalia Institute for Crafts Science. 6.), 207 pp.
• The restructuring of industrial society. Where is the modern world headed? [Tilburg: n.v.] 1962.
• (Co-editor): Othmar Spann. Complete edition. Editors Walter Heinrich, Hans Riehl, [since 1969: Ulrich Schöndorfer,] Raphael Spann, Ferdinand A [lois] Westphalen. 21 volumes. Academic Printing and Publishing Company, Graz 1963–1979.
• (Editor): Contributions to holistic economics and society . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1966–1970, 6 volumes.
• Long-distance works traffic in a general traffic regulation. Analysis and suggestions. (Elaborated on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Transport by Walter Heinrich). Clerk and research assistant: Erwin Fröhlich [u. a.]. Self-published by the Federal Ministry of Transport, Vienna 1971, 87 pp.
• The totality of economy, state and society. Selected writings by Walter Heinrich on the occasion of his 75th birthday edited by J [ohann] Hanns Pichler. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1977, 669 p. Festschrift
• Prism of mind. Review essays and selected individual reviews over six decades. A celebration on the occasion of his 80th birthday, edited and brought out by J [ohann] Hanns Pichler. Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1982, XV, 330 S. Festschrift.

literature

• Festschrift Walter Heinrich. A contribution to holistic research. [Supervised by Hans Riehl, Josef Lob and Ulrich Schöndorfer.] Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1963, VIII, 431 pp. Festschrift.
• Walter Heinrich on the 70th birthday, dedicated by his friends and students. Edited by J [ohann] Hanns Pichler. Furnished by Hubert Verhonig. Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1973, XII, 248 p. New edition.
• Bernd-Ulrich Hergemöller: Man for man. A biographical lexicon. Frankfurt / M. 2001, pp. 333-335.
• Andreas Luh: The German Gymnastics Federation in the first Czechoslovak Republic. From folk club operations to popular political movement . Munich 2006.

Honors

• Honorary doctorate from the Vienna University of Economics and Business

Web links

• Literature by and about Walter Heinrich in the catalog of the German National Library
• Walter Heinrichs biography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Helmut Kellerssohn: In "Service to the National Socialist Revolution". The German Guild and its Relationship to National Socialism (2004). Internet version of the Duisburg Institute for Linguistic and Social Research , p. 23.
2. ↑ Tobias Weger : “Volkstumskampf” without end? Sudeten German Organizations, 1945–1955. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-631-57104-0 , p. 188.
3. ^ Andreas Luh: The German Gymnastics Association in the first Czechoslovak Republic , p. 264.
4. ↑ Ernst von Salomon: The Questionnaire , Reinbek 1951, pp. 209f.
5. ^ Luh: The German Gymnastics Association in the First Czechoslovak Republic , p. 235.
6. ↑ Ralf Gebel: Home to the Reich! Konrad Henlein and the Reichsgau Sudetenland (1938–1945). Munich 2000, p. 52.
7. ↑ Ralf Gebel: Home to the Reich! Konrad Henlein and the Reichsgau Sudetenland (1938–1945). Munich 2000, p. 168f.
8. ↑ www.wu.ac.at , queried March 6, 2018