READ Famous Economists from Germany

7.4k views 148 items Follow

List of notable or famous economists from Germany, with bios and photos, including the top economists born in Germany and even some popular economists who immigrated to Germany. If you're trying to find out the names of famous German economists then this list is the perfect resource for you. These economists are among the most prominent in their field, and information about each well-known economist from Germany is included when available.

This is a list that includes people like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

This historic economists from Germany list can help answer the questions "Who are some German economists of note?" and "Who are the most famous economists from Germany?" These prominent economists of Germany may or may not be currently alive, but what they all have in common is that they're all respected German economists.

Use this list of renowned German economists to discover some new economists that you aren't familiar with. Don't forget to share this list by clicking one of the social media icons at the top or bottom of the page. (148 items)

1

Adolf Damaschke Died at 70 (1865-1935) Adolf Wilhelm Ferdinand Damaschke was a German politician and economist.

2

Adolf Reichwein Died at 46 (1898-1944) Adolf Reichwein was a German educator, economist, and cultural policymaker for the SPD. He was also a resistance fighter in Nazi Germany.

3

Adolf Soetbeer Died at 78 (1814-1892) Adolf Soetbeer was a German economist, born at Hamburg. In 1840 he became librarian and in 1843 Secretary of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, where he laid the foundation of the excellent system ...more

4

Adolph Lowe Died at 102 (1893-1995) Adolph Lowe was a German sociologist and economist. His best known student was Robert Heilbroner. He was born in Stuttgart and died in Wolfenbüttel.

5

Adolph Wagner Died at 82 (1835-1917) Adolph Wagner was a German economist and politician, a leading Kathedersozialist and public finance scholar and advocate of agrarianism. Wagner's law of increasing state activity is named after

6

Alexander Rüstow Died at 78 (1885-1963) Alexander Rüstow was a German sociologist and economist. In 1938 he originated the term neoliberalism at the Colloque Walter Lippmann. He was one of the fathers of the "Social Market ...more

7

Alfred Weber Died at 90 (1868-1958) Alfred Weber was a German economist, geographer, sociologist and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography.

8

Armin Falk age 50 Armin Falk is a German economist. He holds a chair at the University of Bonn since 2003.

9

Axel A. Weber age 61 Axel Alfred Weber, Prof., Dr. is a German economist, professor and banker. He taught at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is a board member and chairman of the board of UBS. ...more

10

Axel Dreher age 45 Axel Dreher is a German economist. He earned a master's degree from the University of Mannheim in 1999 and a Ph.D. in 2003. He is among the 500 top economists of the world according to the top ...more

11

Axel Ockenfels age 49 Axel Ockenfels is a German economist. He is professor of economics at the University of Cologne. He also is Director of the Cologne Laboratory of Economic Research, Speaker of the ...more

12

Bärbel Höhn age 65 Bärbel Höhn is a German politician for Alliance '90/The Greens. She has been a member of the Bundestag since the German federal election, 2005, after serving as Minister of Agriculture ...more

13

Bruno Hildebrand Died at 66 (1812-1878) Bruno Hildebrand was a German economist representing the "older" historical school of economics. His economic thinking was highly critical of classical economists, especially of David ...more

14

Carl Brinkmann Died at 69 (1885-1954) Carl Brinkmann was a German sociologist and economist, focusing on socioeconomics and the history of political economy. Brinkmann was born in Tilsit, East Prussia, now in Kaliningrad, and died ...more

15

Christoph Müller age 52

16

Dieter Kempf age 65

17

Eduard Heimann Died at 78 (1889-1967)

18

Emil Lederer Died at 57 (1882-1939) Emil Lederer was a Bohemian-born German economist and sociologist. Purged from his position at Humboldt University of Berlin in 1933 for being Jewish, Lederer fled into exile. He helped ...more

19

Ernst Engel Died at 75 (1821-1896) Ernst Engel was a German statistician and economist, famous for the Engel curve and the Engel's law.

20

Erwin Huber age 71 Erwin Huber is a German politician. He was chairman of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria from 2007 to 2009.

21

Étienne Laspeyres Died at 79 (1834-1913) Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres was Professor ordinarius of economics and statistics or State Sciences and cameralistics in Basel, Riga, Dorpat, Karlsruhe, and finally for 26 years in ...more

22

Eugen Dühring Died at 88 (1833-1921) Eugen Karl Dühring was a German philosopher and economist, a socialist who was a strong critic of Marxism.

23

Eugen Schmalenbach Died at 82 (1873-1955) Eugen Schmalenbach was a German academic and economist. He was born in Halver, and attended the Leipzig College of Commerce starting in 1898. That college later became part of Leipzig ...more

24

Ferdinand Zimmermann Died at 69 (1898-1967) Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann was a German author. He used his pseudonym of Ferdinand Fried to publish. Zimmermann was born in Bad Freienwalde, studied economics and philosophy at Berlin, and ...more

25

Francis Lieber Died at 72 (1800-1872) Francis Lieber, known as Franz Lieber in Germany, was a German-American jurist, gymnast and political philosopher. He edited an Encyclopaedia Americana. He was the author of the Lieber Code ...more

26

Franz Böhm Died at 82 (1895-1977) Franz Böhm was a German politician, lawyer, and economist.

27

Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch Died at 75 (1808-1883) Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch was a German economist. He was responsible for the organizing of the world's first credit unions.

28

Franz Josef Radermacher age 68 Franz Josef Radermacher is a German mathematician and economist. He is Professor of Informatics at Ulm University. He is one of the co-founders of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative that ...more

29

Franz Oppenheimer Died at 79 (1864-1943) Franz Oppenheimer was a German-Jewish sociologist and political economist, who published also in the area of the fundamental sociology of the state.

30

Friedrich Engels Died at 75 (1820-1895) Friedrich Engels was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, together with Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working ...more

31

Friedrich List Died at 57 (1789-1846) Georg Friedrich List was a leading 19th-century German-American economist who developed the "National System" or what some would call today the National System of Innovation. He was a ...more

32

Friedrich von Hermann Died at 73 (1795-1868) Friedrich Benedict Wilhelm von Hermann was a German economist and statistician.

33

Georg Friedrich Knapp Died at 84 (1842-1926) Georg Friedrich Knapp was a German economist who in 1905 published The State Theory of Money, which founded the chartalist school of monetary theory, which takes the statist stance that money ...more

34

Georg Friedrich Sartorius Died at 63 (1765-1828) Georg Friedrich Sartorius was a German research historian, economist and professor at Göttingen University. Sartorius was born in Kassel, where he attended gymnasium. Then he studied ...more

35

Georg von Cancrin Died at 71 (1774-1845) Count Yegor Frantsevich Kankrin was a Russian aristocrat and politician best known for spearheading reforms in the Russian financial system early in the 19th century.

36

George Akerlof age 77 George Arthur Akerlof is an American economist and Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He won the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. In ...more

37

Gerhard Scherhorn age 88 Gerhard Scherhorn is a German Professor and economist.

38

German Gref age 54 German Oskarovich Gref is a Russian economist of German ethnicity, the founder of Center of the Strategic Development. He was the Minister of Economics and Trade of Russia from May 2000 to ...more

39

Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz Died at 69 (1901-1970) Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz was a German economist. He became a crucial assistant of Allen Dulles in Europe and was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1945 for his skillful ...more

40

Gottfried Achenwall Died at 53 (1719-1772) Gottfried Achenwall was a German philosopher, historian, economist, jurist and statistician. He is counted among the inventors of statistics.

41

Gottlieb Hufeland Died at 57 (1760-1817) Gottlieb Hufeland was a German economist and jurist. Born in Danzig, in the province of Royal Prussia, Hufeland was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, and completed his university ...more

42

Götz Briefs Died at 85 (1889-1974) Götz Briefs was a Catholic social theorist, social ethicist, social philosopher and political economist, who together with Jesuit Gundlach, influenced the social teachings of Pope Pius XI.

43

Günter Faltin age 73 Günter Faltin is a German economist and entrepreneur.

44

Günter Reimann Died at 101 (1904-2005) Günter Reimann was an expert on finance and currencies as founder & editor of International Reports, a New York based weekly publication he sold to the London Financial Times in 1983. ...more

45

Gustav von Schmoller Died at 79 (1838-1917) Gustav von Schmoller was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics.

46

Gustav von Schönberg Died at 69 (1839-1908) Gustav von Schönberg was a German economist. Schönberg studied law and politics at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. After successfully completing these studies in 1860, he ...more

47

Hans F. Sennholz Died at 85 (1922-2007) Hans F. Sennholz was a German-born American Austrian School economist who studied under Ludwig von Mises. He was drafted into the Luftwaffe during World War II and became the pilot of a ...more

48

Hans Singer Died at 96 (1910-2006) Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer was a development economist best known for the Singer–Prebisch thesis, which states that the terms of trade move against producers of primary products. He is one of the ...more

49

Hans Tietmeyer age 86 Hans Tietmeyer is a German economist and regarded as one of the foremost experts on international financial matters. He was president of Deutsche Bundesbank from 1993 until 1999 and remains one ...more

50

Hans-Bernd Schäfer age 74 Hans-Bernd Schäfer is a German economist and a pioneer in the field of law and economics in Germany and Europe. Schäfer is professor emeritus at the University of Hamburg and former ...more

1 Adolf Damaschke Died at 70 (1865-1935) Adolf Wilhelm Ferdinand Damaschke was a German politician and economist.

2 Adolf Reichwein Died at 46 (1898-1944) Adolf Reichwein was a German educator, economist, and cultural policymaker for the SPD. He was also a resistance fighter in Nazi Germany.

3 Adolf Soetbeer Died at 78 (1814-1892) Adolf Soetbeer was a German economist, born at Hamburg. In 1840 he became librarian and in 1843 Secretary of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, where he laid the foundation of the excellent system ...more

4 Adolph Lowe Died at 102 (1893-1995) Adolph Lowe was a German sociologist and economist. His best known student was Robert Heilbroner. He was born in Stuttgart and died in Wolfenbüttel.

5 Adolph Wagner Died at 82 (1835-1917) Adolph Wagner was a German economist and politician, a leading Kathedersozialist and public finance scholar and advocate of agrarianism. Wagner's law of increasing state activity is named after

6 Alexander Rüstow Died at 78 (1885-1963) Alexander Rüstow was a German sociologist and economist. In 1938 he originated the term neoliberalism at the Colloque Walter Lippmann. He was one of the fathers of the "Social Market ...more

7 Alfred Weber Died at 90 (1868-1958) Alfred Weber was a German economist, geographer, sociologist and theoretician of culture whose work was influential in the development of modern economic geography.

8 Armin Falk age 50 Armin Falk is a German economist. He holds a chair at the University of Bonn since 2003.

9 Axel A. Weber age 61 Axel Alfred Weber, Prof., Dr. is a German economist, professor and banker. He taught at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and is a board member and chairman of the board of UBS. ...more

10 Axel Dreher age 45 Axel Dreher is a German economist. He earned a master's degree from the University of Mannheim in 1999 and a Ph.D. in 2003. He is among the 500 top economists of the world according to the top ...more

11 Axel Ockenfels age 49 Axel Ockenfels is a German economist. He is professor of economics at the University of Cologne. He also is Director of the Cologne Laboratory of Economic Research, Speaker of the ...more

12 Bärbel Höhn age 65 Bärbel Höhn is a German politician for Alliance '90/The Greens. She has been a member of the Bundestag since the German federal election, 2005, after serving as Minister of Agriculture ...more

13 Bruno Hildebrand Died at 66 (1812-1878) Bruno Hildebrand was a German economist representing the "older" historical school of economics. His economic thinking was highly critical of classical economists, especially of David ...more

14 Carl Brinkmann Died at 69 (1885-1954) Carl Brinkmann was a German sociologist and economist, focusing on socioeconomics and the history of political economy. Brinkmann was born in Tilsit, East Prussia, now in Kaliningrad, and died ...more

15 Christoph Müller age 52

16 Dieter Kempf age 65

17 Eduard Heimann Died at 78 (1889-1967)

18 Emil Lederer Died at 57 (1882-1939) Emil Lederer was a Bohemian-born German economist and sociologist. Purged from his position at Humboldt University of Berlin in 1933 for being Jewish, Lederer fled into exile. He helped ...more

19 Ernst Engel Died at 75 (1821-1896) Ernst Engel was a German statistician and economist, famous for the Engel curve and the Engel's law.

20 Erwin Huber age 71 Erwin Huber is a German politician. He was chairman of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria from 2007 to 2009.

21 Étienne Laspeyres Died at 79 (1834-1913) Ernst Louis Étienne Laspeyres was Professor ordinarius of economics and statistics or State Sciences and cameralistics in Basel, Riga, Dorpat, Karlsruhe, and finally for 26 years in ...more

22 Eugen Dühring Died at 88 (1833-1921) Eugen Karl Dühring was a German philosopher and economist, a socialist who was a strong critic of Marxism.

23 Eugen Schmalenbach Died at 82 (1873-1955) Eugen Schmalenbach was a German academic and economist. He was born in Halver, and attended the Leipzig College of Commerce starting in 1898. That college later became part of Leipzig ...more

24 Ferdinand Zimmermann Died at 69 (1898-1967) Ferdinand Friedrich Zimmermann was a German author. He used his pseudonym of Ferdinand Fried to publish. Zimmermann was born in Bad Freienwalde, studied economics and philosophy at Berlin, and ...more

25 Francis Lieber Died at 72 (1800-1872) Francis Lieber, known as Franz Lieber in Germany, was a German-American jurist, gymnast and political philosopher. He edited an Encyclopaedia Americana. He was the author of the Lieber Code ...more

26 Franz Böhm Died at 82 (1895-1977) Franz Böhm was a German politician, lawyer, and economist.

27 Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch Died at 75 (1808-1883) Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch was a German economist. He was responsible for the organizing of the world's first credit unions.

28 Franz Josef Radermacher age 68 Franz Josef Radermacher is a German mathematician and economist. He is Professor of Informatics at Ulm University. He is one of the co-founders of the Global Marshall Plan Initiative that ...more

29 Franz Oppenheimer Died at 79 (1864-1943) Franz Oppenheimer was a German-Jewish sociologist and political economist, who published also in the area of the fundamental sociology of the state.

30 Friedrich Engels Died at 75 (1820-1895) Friedrich Engels was a German social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, together with Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working ...more

31 Friedrich List Died at 57 (1789-1846) Georg Friedrich List was a leading 19th-century German-American economist who developed the "National System" or what some would call today the National System of Innovation. He was a ...more

32 Friedrich von Hermann Died at 73 (1795-1868) Friedrich Benedict Wilhelm von Hermann was a German economist and statistician.

33 Georg Friedrich Knapp Died at 84 (1842-1926) Georg Friedrich Knapp was a German economist who in 1905 published The State Theory of Money, which founded the chartalist school of monetary theory, which takes the statist stance that money ...more

34 Georg Friedrich Sartorius Died at 63 (1765-1828) Georg Friedrich Sartorius was a German research historian, economist and professor at Göttingen University. Sartorius was born in Kassel, where he attended gymnasium. Then he studied ...more

35 Georg von Cancrin Died at 71 (1774-1845) Count Yegor Frantsevich Kankrin was a Russian aristocrat and politician best known for spearheading reforms in the Russian financial system early in the 19th century.

36 George Akerlof age 77 George Arthur Akerlof is an American economist and Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He won the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. In ...more

37 Gerhard Scherhorn age 88 Gerhard Scherhorn is a German Professor and economist.

38 German Gref age 54 German Oskarovich Gref is a Russian economist of German ethnicity, the founder of Center of the Strategic Development. He was the Minister of Economics and Trade of Russia from May 2000 to ...more

39 Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz Died at 69 (1901-1970) Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz was a German economist. He became a crucial assistant of Allen Dulles in Europe and was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1945 for his skillful ...more

40 Gottfried Achenwall Died at 53 (1719-1772) Gottfried Achenwall was a German philosopher, historian, economist, jurist and statistician. He is counted among the inventors of statistics.

41 Gottlieb Hufeland Died at 57 (1760-1817) Gottlieb Hufeland was a German economist and jurist. Born in Danzig, in the province of Royal Prussia, Hufeland was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, and completed his university ...more

42 Götz Briefs Died at 85 (1889-1974) Götz Briefs was a Catholic social theorist, social ethicist, social philosopher and political economist, who together with Jesuit Gundlach, influenced the social teachings of Pope Pius XI.

43 Günter Faltin age 73 Günter Faltin is a German economist and entrepreneur.

44 Günter Reimann Died at 101 (1904-2005) Günter Reimann was an expert on finance and currencies as founder & editor of International Reports, a New York based weekly publication he sold to the London Financial Times in 1983. ...more

45 Gustav von Schmoller Died at 79 (1838-1917) Gustav von Schmoller was the leader of the "younger" German historical school of economics.

46 Gustav von Schönberg Died at 69 (1839-1908) Gustav von Schönberg was a German economist. Schönberg studied law and politics at the universities of Bonn and Berlin. After successfully completing these studies in 1860, he ...more

47 Hans F. Sennholz Died at 85 (1922-2007) Hans F. Sennholz was a German-born American Austrian School economist who studied under Ludwig von Mises. He was drafted into the Luftwaffe during World War II and became the pilot of a ...more

48 Hans Singer Died at 96 (1910-2006) Sir Hans Wolfgang Singer was a development economist best known for the Singer–Prebisch thesis, which states that the terms of trade move against producers of primary products. He is one of the ...more

49 Hans Tietmeyer age 86 Hans Tietmeyer is a German economist and regarded as one of the foremost experts on international financial matters. He was president of Deutsche Bundesbank from 1993 until 1999 and remains one ...more

50 Hans-Bernd Schäfer age 74 Hans-Bernd Schäfer is a German economist and a pioneer in the field of law and economics in Germany and Europe. Schäfer is professor emeritus at the University of Hamburg and former ...more