Adam Zdzisław Heydel (December 6, 1893 – March 14, 1941) was a Polish

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

and representative of the Cracow School of Economics, a type of

economic liberalism Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalis ...

Biography

Early life and education

Adam Heydel was the son of Zdzisław and Maria Heydel, his brother named Wojciech. He was a student at John III Sobieski High School and later studied in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

and

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Ky ...

. In 1922 he studied law at the Jagiellonian University, where he got his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' ...

. In the years 1921–1922 he worked in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The enti ...

. In 1925 he got a

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

in the field of

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

. Two years later he became a lecturer of economics at the Jagiellonian University.

Scholarly work and political activism

Together with

Adam Krzyżanowski Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

and Ferdinand Zweig he became a follower of the Cracow School of Economics, which advocated free market reforms. Heydel was familiar with western economic developments, particularly with the

Austrian School The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian scho ...

and the economists of

Ludwig von Mises Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism. He is ...

and Friedrich von Hayek. He criticised the arguments concerning the general level of prices made by

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at H ...

despite his personal friendship with him, as well as the monetary doctrines of Irving Fisher. Heydel considered himself a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

and was sympathetic to the National Democratic movement and in the years 1930–1931 he led the National club in Cracow. He was critical of Sanation and due to this he was removed from the economics department at the Jagiellonian University and proceeded to become a director of the economics institute at the Academy of Learning.

Second World War

Heydel was arrested on 6 November 1939 as a part of the operations of ''

Sonderaktion Krakau ''Sonderaktion Krakau'' was a German operation against professors and academics of the Jagiellonian University and other universities in German-occupied Kraków, Poland, at the beginning of World War II. It was carried out as part of the much br ...

'' and with other academics he was placed

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoner ...

. Due to international pressure Heydel was released from the camp together with other academics which reached 40 years of age. After his release he got involved in the

Union of Armed Struggle Związek Walki Zbrojnej (abbreviation: ''ZWZ''; Union of Armed Struggle;Thus rendered in Norman Davies, ''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', vol. II, p. 464. also translated as ''Union for Armed Struggle'', ''Association of Armed Struggl ...

and on 23 of January 1941 he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...

. After refusing to sign the

Volksliste The Deutsche Volksliste (German People's List), a Nazi Party institution, aimed to classify inhabitants of Nazi-occupied territories (1939-1945) into categories of desirability according to criteria systematised by ''Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Hi ...

he was moved to Auschwitz where he later died on March 14, 1941.

Works

* ''Podstawowe zagadnienia metodologiczne ekonomii'' (1925) *
Kapitalizm i socjalizm wobec etyki
' (1927) * ''Pogląd na rozwój teoretycznej ekonomii”'' (1929) *
Czy i jak wprowadzić liberalizm ekonomiczny?
' (1931) *
Pojęcie produktywności
' (1934) *
Teoria dochodu społecznego
' (1935).

References