Profile Major Works Resources

Karl Bücher, 1847-1930.

German Historicist from Lepzig. 

Born in Kirberg, Duchy of Nassau, the son of a Lutheran farmer. Karl Bücher studied ancient history and philology at the University of Bonn, before starting on a career as a teacher. He dabbled in journalism, serving for a while as editor of the Frankfurter Zeitung in the late 1870s.

In the 1880s, Bücher shifted to an academic career. After submitting his habilitation thesis at the University of Munich in 1881, Bücher went on to teach at Dorpat (Russian Baltics) then Basel (Switzerland, from 1882 to 1890), where came under the influence of historicist economist Albert Schäffle, before moving on to Karlsruhe polytechnic hochschule.  In 1892, Karl Bücher was appointed as professorial chair in Nationalökonomie at the University of Leipzig, where he would remain until his retirement in 1917. Bücher succeeded Albert Schäffle as editor of the Zeitschrift für gesamte Staatswissenschaft in 1901.

Karl Bücher is best known for his 1893 treatise on industrial evolution.  There he outlined his famous theory of household-town-nation "stages" of industrial evolution.  His propensity of making these seem like "progress" elicited a sharp rebuke from Sombart.

 

  

top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Major Works of Karl Bücher

  • De gente Aetolica amphictyoniae participe, 1870 [bk]
  • Die Aufstände der unfreien Arbeiter, 1874 [bk]
  • Die gewerbliche Bildungsfrage und der industriesse Rückgang, 1877 [bk]
  • Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter, 1882 [bk]
  • Die Bevölkerung von Frankfurt am Main im XIV. und XV. Jahrhundert, 1886, v.1
  • Zur Geschichte der internationalen Fabrikgesetzgebung, 1888 [bk]
  • Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, 1893. [1898 2nd ed.] [1901, 3rd ed] [1904 4th ed] [1910 7th ed.][Eng. 1907 trans. Industrial Evolution, bk]
  • Arbeit und Rhythmus, 1896 [bk], [1899 ed, 1901 ed]
  • Die Wirtschaft der Naturvölker, 1897 [bk]
  • Die Allmende in ihrer wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Bedeutung, 1902 [bk]
  • Der deutsche Buchhandel und die Wissenschaft, 1903 [bk]
  • "Volkswirtschaftliche Entwicklungsstufen", 1914, Grundriss der Sozialökonomik,  Abt. 1, Pt. A.1 p.1-18
  • Beiträge zur wirtschaftsgeschichte, 1922
HET

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top

Resources on Karl Buecher

 

 
top1.gif (924 bytes)Top
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All rights reserved, Gonçalo L. Fonseca