Gustav von Schmoller

Gustav von Schmoller
Gustav von Schmoller by Nicola Perscheid c. 1908
Born	(1838-06-24)24 June 1838 Heilbronn, Kingdom of Württemberg
Died	27 June 1917(1917-06-27) (aged 79) Bad Harzburg, German Empire
Academic career
Field	Economics
School or tradition	Historical school of economics
Influences	Karl Wolfgang Christoph Schüz [de]
Contributions	Inductive approach to economics

Gustav Friedrich (after 1908: von) Schmoller (German: [ˈʃmɔlɐ] ^ⓘ; 24 June 1838 – 27 June 1917) was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics.

He was a leading Sozialpolitiker (more derisively, Kathedersozialist, "Socialist of the Chair"), and a founder and long-time chairman of the Verein für Socialpolitik, the German Economic Association, which continues to exist.^[1]

The appellation "Kathedersozialist" was given to Schmoller and other members of the Verein by their enemies. Schmoller disavowed the "socialist" label, instead tracing his thought to the heterodox liberalism represented by Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui, Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi, John Stuart Mill, Johann Heinrich von Thünen, Bruno Hildebrand, Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie, Lorenz von Stein, and Émile de Laveleye and radicals such as Frederic Harrison and Edward Spencer Beesly.^[2] His goal was to reconcile the Prussian monarchy and bureaucracy "with the idea of the Liberal state and complemented by the best elements of parliamentarianism" to carry out social reform.^[2][3]