Robert René Kuczynski

Robert René Kuczynski
Born 12 August 1876
Berlin, German Empire
Died 25 November 1947
Oxford, Great Britain
Residence Germany, Great Britain
Nationality Germany
Fields Economist, Demographer
Institutions Berlin Handelsschule, Brookings Institution, London School of Economics, Colonial Office
Alma mater Universities of Berlin, Freiburg, Strasbourg and Munich
Doctoral advisor Lujo Brentano
Known for Kuczynski rates, figures on the extent of the slave trade

Robert René ('René') Kuczynski (1876–1947) was a leftwing German economist and demographer and is said to be one of the founders of modern vital statistics.

Early life

His father Wilhelm was a successful banker; his mother Lucy (née Brandeis) a progressive thinker who grew up in Paris in exile among French and German intellectuals.[1] Robert married Berta Gradenwitz in 1903.[1] Berta's father was a successful property developer and estate agent in Berlin.[1] Against this wealthy family background, Robert took a decidedly different path as an academic who allied himself with the working class.[1] René studied at the universities of Munich, Freiburg and Strasburg and completed his doctoral dissertation in 1897 under Lujo Brentano.[1]

Career

He moved to the United States in 1899 for an internship at the United States Census Bureau and then worked at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. During this time he cultivated contacts with people like Eugene V. Debs.[1] He returned to Germany in late 1903, and In 1904 he became director of the Statistical Office in Elberfeld and in 1906 took the same position in Berlin -Schoneberg. He became a strong supporter of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and knew many of its leaders personally.[1]

He studied rent and income in Berlin before the first World War and found that 600,000 people lived in flats which house five or more people per room.

In 1926, Kuczynski chaired the Kuczynski Committee, working with the German League for Human Rights, which organized the campaign for a referendum on the expropriation of the Prussian landed aristocracy during the Weimar Republic.

In 1928 he led the German delegation to the tenth anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

In 1933, after Hitler had come to power, Kuczynski left Germany and went with around 20,000 books (half of the large family library) to Great Britain. There he lectured at the London School of Economics and became later adviser for the British Colonial Office. His most noted work was in the 1930s when he published figures on the extent of the slave trade between Africa and the Americas over the preceding three centuries. His figure of 15 million slaves became widely used by other researchers, but is no longer thought to be correct.

Family

Kuczynski and wife Berta Gradenwitz had six children. Among them the GDR-economist Jürgen Kuczynski, Brigitte Kuczynski, and Ursula Kuczynski.[2][3]

Works

References and sources

References
  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Green, John (2017). A Political Family: The Kuczynskis, Fascism, Espionage and The Cold War. Routledge. pp. 11–20. ISBN 9781138232327.
  2. ↑ The Spy Museum, 2007
  3. ↑ Richard C.S. Trahair. Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies and Secret Operations. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut – London 2004, p. 156-157. ISBN 0-313-31955-3
Sources
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