German Economic Thought and the Marxist Critique of Political Economy, 1843-1941

Abstract

GERMAN ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND THE MARXIST CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, 1843-1941 This thesis analyses important episodes in the relationship between Marxist economics and the German economic tradition in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Previous scholars have often viewed the confrontation between Marxist economics and German-language economics—and academic economics more generally—as a clash between the Marxists and the Austrian marginalists. This clash hinged on a singular point of difference (their theories of value) and a singular moment (Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk’s critique). Viewed through this narrow lens, the relationship between Marxist economists and university economists is often assumed to have always been starkly antagonistic. This thesis corrects this view by depicting the far more nuanced, complex, sympathetic, flexible, and negotiable conversations that took place between Marxist economists and their German academic counterparts. Beginning with Friedrich Engels, the thesis depicts how Marxist thinkers sought to remedy Marx’s dogged refusal to engage with contemporary economic ideas and his lack of interest in the German economic tradition. It demonstrates how and why they considered dialogue with academic German economists to be important and how they ‘translated’ Marx’s work to make it digestible to a German audience. Alongside these ‘orthodox’ Marxists, the thesis examines the ways in which the academic German economists responded to the challenge of Marxist economics. German economic thought broadly includes members of the ‘historical school’ (including Gustav Schmoller and Werner Sombart) as well as those who did not belong to this dominant methodological group (anti-socialists such as Julius Wolf and non-historical Kathedersozialisten such as Adolph Wagner). The thesis demonstrates that Marx’s success as a generator of economic ideas is due, in no small part, to the complex and lively reception he received amongst this diverse economist community.