HIRSCH, JULIUS

HIRSCH, JULIUS (1882–1961), economist. Born in the Rhineland, Germany, Hirsch began teaching at the Graduate Business School in Cologne in 1911. During World War i he was deputy head of the German price control administration. As secretary of state in the German Ministry of Economics from 1919 to 1923, he took part in negotiations on German reparations, designed plans for the stabilization of German currency, and was instrumental in drafting anti-trust legislation and creating economic advisory councils. A visit to the United States in 1924 resulted in Das amerikanische Wirtschaftswunder (1926), a study of U.S. mass production and distribution, and of the non-Marxist policies and tactics of the U.S. labor movement. From 1926 to 1933 Hirsch taught in Berlin, both at the university and at the Graduate Business School, and served as a consultant to many public institutions. He left Germany for Denmark in 1933, and for several years was a professor at the Copenhagen Graduate Business School. In 1941 he emigrated to the United States, where he taught at the New School for Social Research. He also served as chief consultant for the U.S. Office of Price Control, and later as a private economic consultant.

Hirsch's professional interests were focused on two major topics – distribution and quantitative economic analysis – and both are reflected in his numerous publications. These include Das Warenhaus in Westdeutschland (1910), Die Filialbetriebe im Detailhandel (1913), Die deutsche Waehrungsfrage (1924), Deutschlands Betriebskapital (1927), and New Horizons in Business (1955).

His wife edith (1900–2003), the daughter of the Berlin banker Adolph Jarislowsky, was active from 1931 to 1933 in establishing kitchens for the unemployed based on the principle of self-help. In the United States she was active in her husband's firm. Her special interests were agro-economics, the world food situation, and commodity problems. Specializing in agricultural trends and food distribution, she served as a consultant to the Department of Agriculture in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1946 she wrote Food Supplies in the Aftermath of World War ii. To give the book more credibility, it was issued under her husband's name; but in 1993 it was republished under the name of its rightful author. She was a professor of economics at the New School of Social Research. She was a board member of the *Leo Baeck Institute in New York.

bibliography:

K.C. Behrens (ed.), Der Handel heute: In Memoriam Julius Hirsch (1962).