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Charlotte Leubuscher was a pioneer of economics. She was the first female economist to habilitate in Germany and yet she is hardly known. The University of Siegen named a building after her and is bringing this extraordinary scientist back into the spotlight.
Many still call it "the old health department". But anyone walking around the "Unteres Schloss" Campus of the University of Siegen today will pass the Charlotte Leubuscher House. Among other things, it is home to Plural Economics and the name was a conscious decision. The naming was initiated in 2018 by a working group that included Dr. Svenja Flechtner, Junior Professor of Plural Economics. "We were looking for a personality we could identify with," she says. And it was clear: This building should be named after a woman. "Unfortunately, there aren't that many women in the history of economics," says Svenja Flechtner.
The research led to Charlotte Leubuscher (1888-1961). She was the first woman in Germany to habilitate in economics. She studied political science at a time when women had just been admitted to the university and obtained her doctorate in Berlin in 1913. According to Flechtner, she could have become one of the first full professors if the National Socialists had not revoked her teaching license in 1933 due to her "Jewish-born" grandfather.
Leubuscher thought differently about economics. Even her dissertation on the English railroad workers' strike combined precise empirical analysis with socio-political classification. In the Weimar Republic, she diagnosed a "crisis of social policy" and called for social issues to be understood as part of the overall economic order. She later broadened her view to include international trade relations and colonial structures. A research trip to South Africa in the early 1930s led to a study on industrialization and the situation of the black population. An unusually global perspective for German economics at the time.
"Her work was very contextual," says Svenja Flechtner. "She not only describes, but also reflects on the normative effects of economic policy." This is precisely what makes her suitable for plural economics in Siegen. "When you read her texts, you are impressed by her detailed knowledge. You can still learn a lot today."
Leubuscher emigrated to England in 1933. Among other things, she worked at the London School of Economics and contributed to the "African Survey" on British colonial policy. But she was denied a permanent professorship. "Her story in England reads like the story of the precariat in academia," says Svenja Flechtner. Temporary contracts, contract work, low visibility. "This went on until her death in London in 1961."
Leubuscher was, as letters suggest, matter-of-fact, sober, little interested in academic small talk. She found networking difficult. An edgy personality. No marriage, no children, completely focused on her topics. "This research trip to South Africa, all alone, that was her thing," says Svenja Flechtner. The fact that Leubuscher had no biographical connection to Siegen was and is not a problem for her. "Who else would make her visible? We make the connection by engaging with her."
Dr. Svenja Flechtner, Dr. Reinhard Schumacher and Dr. Matthias Storring recently published the essay "Charlotte Leubuscher - Von der Sozialen Frage zur Pionierin der Entwicklungsökonomik" in the book "Ökonominnen. Women in the history of economics". "If I could travel back in time, I would love to meet her," says the Siegen-based academic about Charlotte Leubuscher. There is still no portrait in the foyer, no explanatory sign on the wall. But the name is part of the university structure and thus raises awareness of an economist who deserves to be saved from oblivion.
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Svenja Flechtner
Tel.: 0271/740-2414
svenja.flechtner@uni-siegen.de
Junior Professor Dr. Svenja Flechtner researched the economist Charlotte Leubuscher, after whom a bu ...
Quelle: Carsten Schmale
Copyright: University of Siegen
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