The Soul of the German Historical School

Book excerpt: This volume is a collection of my essays on Gustav von Schmoller (1838– 1917), Max Weber (1864–1920), and Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883–1950), published during the past fifteen years. These three intellectual giants are connected with the German Historical School of Economics in different ways. In the history of economics, the German Historical School has been described as a heterodox group of economic researchers who flourished in the Germ- speaking world throughout the nineteenth century. The definition of a “school” is always problematic. Even if the core of a certain idea were identified in the continuous and discontinuous process of the filiation and ramification of thought, it is still possible to trace its predecessors, successors, and sympathizers in different directions, creating an amorphous entity of a school. It is beyond question, however, that Schmoller was the leader of the younger German Historical School, the genuine school with a sociological 1 reality. Schmoller was indeed the towering figure of the Historical School at its zenith.