Carl Grünberg (; 10 February 1861 – 2 February 1940) was an Austrian

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

economist, economic historian and sociologist. He is considered the father of Austromarxism and was the founding director of the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research.

Biography

Born in Focșani,

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, into a

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- Bessarabia German family, Grünberg attended Gymnasium (grammar school) in Czernowitz, the main town of Bukovina, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1881 he moved to Vienna, where he studied law, in particular under Lorenz von Stein and Anton Menger, graduating with a Doctor of Law degree in 1886. After working as a legal clerk, he received the attorney's certificate in 1890. Then he went to

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(Alsace was then part of the German Empire), where he studied economics with Georg Friedrich Knapp and Gustav Schmoller. In 1892, Grünberg was baptised a Catholic. After his return to Vienna, he practised as a lawyer before joining the judiciary as a district judge in 1897. At the same time, he completed his habilitation in political economy in 1894 and became an unpaid lecturer ('' Privatdozent'') at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

. Only in 1899 did he receive a paid teaching position and could give up his breadwinning judiciary job. In 1909 he obtained a full professorship and in 1912 he was, against strong opposition, appointed to the chair of modern economic history. Carl Grünberg was the father of Austromarxism. Among his students were Max Adler, Friedrich Adler, Otto Bauer, Rudolf Hilferding and Karl Renner. After Austria was proclaimed a republic and the Social Democrats entered the government, Grünberg was appointed to the chair of political economy and national economic policy in 1919. In 1924 he became the first director of the Institute for Social Research, later known as the

Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical theory. It is associated with the University of Frankfurt Institute for Social Research, Institute for Social Research founded in 1923 at the University of Frankfurt am Main ...

. He established and edited a journal of labour and

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

history, the ''Zeitschrift für Social- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte'' (1893) and the ''Archiv für die Geschichte des Sozialismus und der sozialen Bewegung'' (1911), a journal that is known today as the ''Grünberg-Archiv'' (''Archive for the History of Socialism and the Workers' Movement''). Under his leadership the institute worked closely with the Marx–Engels Institute in Moscow. After having suffered from a stroke, he retired in 1929 and left the Institute to Max Horkheimer. In 1931 he became an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union.

Works

* ''Die Bauernbefreiung: Und die Auflösung des Gutsherrlich-Bäuerlichen Verhältnisses in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien'' (Leipzig 1893) * ''Sozialismus, Kommunismus, Anarchismus'' (Jena 1897) * ''Studien zur österreichischen Agrargeschichte'' (Leipzig 1901)

Biography

Works

References

Further reading