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Adolph Wagner | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1835-03-25)25 March 1835 |
| Died | 8 November 1917(1917-11-08) (aged 82) |
| Alma mater | University of Göttingen Heidelberg University |
| Known for | Wagner's law |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Economics |
| Institutions | Friedrich-Wilhelm University of Berlin Imperial University of Dorpat Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg |
| Doctoral advisor | Georg Hanssen [de] |
| Doctoral students | Werner Sombart Lujo Brentano (Habilitation) |
Adolph Wagner (25 March 1835 – 8 November 1917) was a German economist and politician, a leadingKathedersozialist (academic socialist) andpublic finance scholar and advocate ofagrarianism.Wagner's law of increasingstate activity is named after him.
Born inErlangen as the son of a university professor, the physiologistRudolf Wagner, Adolph studiedeconomics at theUniversity of Göttingen, receiving a doctorate in 1857 under supervision ofGeorg Hanssen [de]. Wagner's academic career took him first to theMerchants’ Superior School,Vienna (1858–1863), then – after failing to secure a chair at theUniversity of Vienna because of disagreements overfiscal policy withLorenz von Stein – to theHamburg Higher Merchants’ School (1863–1865), both institutions comparable to business schools today. In 1865, he took the chair ofEthnography,Geography, andStatistics (in reality an economics professorship) at theImperial University of Dorpat inLivonia which is located in the present dayEstonia, but was then part of theRussian Empire.
InDorpat (Tartu), Wagner "became a follower ofBismarck’s policy for unifyingGermany underPrussian guidance.[1] Thus whenGerman unification became realistic, Wagner wanted to go back toGermany proper.
Beginning Fall Term 1868/69, Wagner therefore took over the Chair of the Cameralistic subjects (roughly, state management) at theBadensianUniversity of Freiburg im Breisgau, and very soon afterwards, in 1870, the Chair ofStaatswissenschaften at theUniversity of Berlin, by that time not only the premier university in Germany but probably in the world. It was in Berlin, that Wagner began his tenure as one of the most intellectually and politically influential economists of his time.
A former student of his,Werner Sombart, was his successor at the economics chair of the University of Berlin.
Wagner was an early member of the conservativeChristian Social Party, founded in 1878 byAdolf Stoecker as theChristlichsoziale Arbeiterpartei (Christian Social Workers' Party). Wagner was also one of the leading figures in theConservative Central Committee (CCC), established in 1881. The CCC soon formed into the anti-SemiticBerlin movement, in which Wagner worked with Adolf Stoecker, among others.
Wagner died inBerlin in 1917.
Wagner is the main protagonist of a specific school of economics and social policy, called "State Socialism" ("Staatssozialismus"), which is a specific form ofKathedersozialismus.[2](Albert Schäffle (1831–1903),Lujo Brentano (1844–1931),Gustav von Schmoller (1838–1917) andKarl Rodbertus(-Jagetzow) (1805–1875) were important protagonists of that thought as well.) He was a member of theHistorical school of economics, as his general review essay on Marshall'sPrinciples of Economics so clearly demonstrates. However, he did fundamentally differentiate himself from what he called the 'younger' and more 'extreme' members of the German historical school such as Gustav von Schmoller who, according to Wagner, tended to dismiss too hastily what the latter terms the more deductive work of English writers (in short, those in the tradition of classical economics, including the famous contemporary Cambridge University ProfessorAlfred Marshall whose book he was reviewing).
Wagner had a very combative and harsh personality.He did not take insults lightly and never phrased things diplomatically. He had difficulties with Schmoller and was an enemy of Lujo Brentano – and these two were about his closest colleagues.
By all contemporary accounts, it is probably fair to say that Wagner was vain, easily hurt and extremely choleric.
In the 1890s, Wagner would so enrage an industrial-conservative member of theReichstag, likewise with a defense of theKathedersozialist influence within the university, that the deputy challenged him to a duel. (Wagner did not categorically refuse, but it was never fought.)
An even more famous case was Wagner's altercation withEugen Dühring (against whomFriedrich Engels'Anti-Dühring is directed), and which in the very end resulted in Dühring'sremotion and dismissal from theUniversity of Berlin.
Together withGustav von Schmoller, Wagner belongs to the most important economists of theBismarck period. He was a member of theVerein für Socialpolitik (Society for Social Policy).
Wagner formulated theLaw of Increasing State Spending, also known as "Wagner's Law."
His works set the stage for the development of the monetary and credit systems in Germany and substantially influenced the central bank policy and financial practice beforeWorld War I.
