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Gustav von Schmoller (June 24, 1838 - June 27,
1917) was the leader of the "younger"
Germany|German historical school of economics and
probably the most distiguished Continental
(European) economist of the time around 1900.

==Life==

Schmoller was born in Heilbronn. His father was a
Württemberg civil servant. Young schmoller
studied Staatswissenschaften (a combination of
economics, history and civil administration) in
Tübingen. During his academic career he held
posts of a professor in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle
(1864-72), Strassburg (1872-82), and Berlin
(1882-1913), then the most important university in
Europe, if not in the world.  He was a leading
member of the Kathedersozialisten (socialists of
the chair), and a founder and long-time chairman
of the Verein für Socialpolitik, the German
Economics Association, which today still exists. 
Schmoller's influence on academic policy, economic
and fiscal reform, and economics as an academic
discipline for the time between 1875 and 1910 can
hardly be overrated.  

==Work== 

As an outspoken leader of the "younger" historical
school, Schmoller was against what he saw as the
axiomatic-deductive approach of the Austrian
school. This lead to the controversy known as the
Methodenstreit, which today often appears as being
one of the main reasons for the later demise of
the whole historical school, although - as Joseph
Schumpeter|Schumpeter had pointed out - this was
really a quarrel within that school. In fact,
Schmoller's primarily deductive approach,
requesting careful study, comparative in time and
space, of economic performance and phenomena
generally, and his insistence on the cultural
specificity of economics, stand in stark contrast
to some classical economics|classical and all
neoclassical economics|neoclassical economists, so
that he and his school soon after his death, but
at the latest around 1935, fell out of the
mainstream.  

Today, Schmoller is largely forgotten within
"standard textbook economics", even within
Germany. Schmoller is becoming slowly reevaluated
since the late 1980s, especially within some
branches of heterodox economics, especially
development economics, evolutionary economics and
neo-institutional economics.

==Bibliography==

===Works by Schmoller===

One of the reasons of Schmoller's being forgotten
is that his myriad of books were not translated
into English, because at his time, Anglo-American
economists generally read German.  An exception is
*The Significance of the Mercantile System, New
York: Macmillan, 2nd ed. 1910.
His magnum opus, 
*Grundriss der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre,
Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1900-1904,
is not available in translation, which makes
reception today very difficult.  The Grundriss has
often been mentioned as one of the most disparaged
books in economic history as compared to how many
people have actually read it; it might even
outrank Karl Marx|Marx's Das Kapital in this
respect.

===Important recent books on Schmoller in
English===
* Backhaus, Jürgen G. (1994), ed. Gustav
Schmoller and the Problems of Today. History of
Economic Ideas, vol.s I/1993/3, II/1994/1.
*Backhaus, Jürgen G. (1997), ed. Essays in Social
Security and Taxation. Gustav von Schmoller and
Adolph Wagner Reconsidered. Marburg: Metropolis.
*Balabkins, Nicholas W. (1988). Not by theory
alone...: The Economics of Gustav von Schmoller
and Its Legacy to America. Berlin: Duncker u.
Humblot. The best short monograph on Schmoller,
brilliant on his thought and its relevance today. 

*Koslowski, Peter, ed. The Theory of Ethical
Economy in the Historical School. Wilhelm Roscher,
Lorenz v. Stein, Gustav Schmoller, Wilhelm Dilthey
and Contemporary Thought. Berlin etc.: Springer.
*Shionoya, Yuichi (2001), ed. The German
Historical School: The Historical and Ethical
Approach to Economics. London etc.: Routledge.