History
The School of Business and Economics at Humboldt-Universitaet is an
academic teaching and research institute with a rich history and
tradition. Its origins date back to 1886 when
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet started a research group in statistcis
for the political sciences. The early years were heavily influenced by
political economists and statisticians such as Richard Boeckh,
Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz, Gustav von Schmoller, and Adolph Wagner.
Later, distinguished economists such as Theodor Beste, Heinrich von
Stackelberg, the Nobel laureate Wassily Leontief, and Max Weber became
members of the institute. In 1904 Berlin's business community decided
to construct a building for a new commercial college on the grounds
between Spandauer Strasse, Neue Friedrichstrasse (now
Anna-Louise-Karsch-Strasse), and Heilig-Geist-Gasse. The Holy Ghost
Chapel, believed to have been built around 1300 and therefore one of
the oldest preserved buildings in Berlin, was integrated into the
construction plan. Berlin-Commercial College was inaugurated on October
27, 1906. Friedrich Leitner, Konrad Mellerowicz, Willi Prion, Johann
Friedrich Schär, Werner Sombart, Heinrich von Stackelberg, as well as
Max and Alfred Weber were among the renowned economists and social
scientists that comprised the faculty of the new college. In 1918, Hugo
Preuß, one of the fathers of the Weimar Constitution, presided over the
college for a short time before becoming Secretary of the Interior of
the newly-founded republic. In 1928, the school entered a dark phase of
its history. Carl Schmitt, a theorist of national socialism, gained
influence at the college, and assaults on Jewish faculty members and
students became common-place. Many lecturers were expelled including
Constantin von Dietze, Emil Lederer and Moritz Julius Bonn, three
internationally prominent researchers. Others, such as Jens Jessen and
Johannes Popitz, initially followed the new leadership, but later lost
their lives when they decided to oppose it. Franz Eulenburg, a
prominent political economist and statistician, was murdered. After
World War II, the collage was integrated into the newly established
Humboldt-Universitaet with a significant involvement from the
well-known East German economist Jürgen Kuczynski. The new department
was dedicated as "a critical trustee of Berlin's traditions and an
active developer of socialism, with deep foundations in Berlin and its
economy." After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the School of Business and
Economics was re-established and re-opened in 1993 by an
internationally-staffed commission under the direction of Wilhelm
Krelle, a distinguished economist from Bonn. The commission designed a
research and teaching profile mandating a high academic standard, an
international orientation, and an interdisciplinary as well as a
quantitative (statistic-mathematical) focus.
