Bonn University: The Influence of Schumpeter and Spiethoff

D. John Shaw

Chapter 2 in Sir Hans Singer, 2002, pp 5-11 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Singer enrolled at Bonn University in 1929 at the age of nineteen originally with the intention, encouraged by his father, to study medicine. He actually attended some lectures in the medical faculty until someone drew his attention to Joseph Schumpeter, the professor of economics, and said that he must hear him. He had not registered with the economics faculty but smuggled himself in as a member of the audience. It was a decisive moment. Schumpeter was a brilliant and stimulating lecturer. Singer came under his spell and immediately wanted to study economics. Schumpeter introduced a new world in economics and general thinking. He was the very antithesis of the traditional remote and austere German professor in every detail — dress, language, lecturing style, relations with students, conduct of examinations — and deliberately so. He opened doors to Walras and Pareto, to Anglo-Saxon economics, to sociology, quantitative methods and econometrics, to the history of economic thought, and to interdisciplinary thinking. Above all, there was his admired masterpiece written long before at the early age of 28, his Theory of Economic Development, the textbook of the day, in which the dynamic, innovating entrepreneur was depicted as ‘the linchpin of the capitalist system, responsible not just for technical progress but the very existence of a positive rate of profit in capital’ (Blaug, 1986; Schumpeter, 1912, 1926, 1934).2

Keywords: Economic Faculty; Decisive Moment; Refugee Student; Interdisciplinary Thinking; Backwash Effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-4039-3286-0_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781403932860

DOI: 10.1057/9781403932860_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().