The Verein für Socialpolitik (German: [fɐˈʔaɪn fyːɐ̯ zoˈtsi̯al.poliˌtiːk]; literally: Association for Social Policy), or the German Economic Association, is a society of economists in the German-speaking area.
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History
The Verein was founded in Eisenach in 1872 as a response to the "social question". Among its founders were eminent economists like Gustav von Schmoller, Lujo Brentano and Adolph Wagner, who sought a middle path between socialist and laissez-faire economic policies. On the contrary, the liberal publicist Heinrich Bernhard Oppenheim, critical of their "fanciful positions", dubbed them the Kathedersozialisten (socialists of the chair), meant as pejorative term. Gradually the Verein became less focused on social policy per se, and dealt with wider areas of economic policy and theory, especially after the First World War.
Among its later members were prominent sociologists like Max Weber and Werner Sombart. They took part in the famous Werturteilsstreit with the older generation of the Verein just before the First World War. The Verein was dissolved in 1936 under the Nazis, but was re-created in 1948 at a conference in Marburg.
Today, the Verein is headquartered in Berlin. It currently has around 3,800 individual members and 48 corporate members. It publishes a monograph series, the Schriften des Vereins für Sozialpolitik, as well as two journals: the German Economic Review and Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik. The verein annually awards the Gossen Prize to German-speaking economists under the age of 45. Another award given by the association is the Gustav Stolper Prize; it is named after economist Gustav Stolper, and is not subject to any age restrictions.
Important members
Lujo Brentano (1844–1931), German economist and social reformer, co-founder of the Verein
Karl Bücher (1847–1930), German economist
Gustav Cohn (1840–1919), German economist
Constantin von Dietze (1891–1973), agronomist, lawyer, economist, and theologian
Ernst Engel (1821–1896), German statistician and economist
Walter Eucken (1891–1950), German economist
Carl Geibel (1842–1910), founding member, German book dealer and publisher
Martin Hellwig (born 1949), German economist
Ignaz Jastrow (1856–1937), German economist and historian
Georg Friedrich Knapp (1842–1926), German economist
Roland Kirstein (born 1965), German economist and professor
Emil Lederer (1882–1939), Bohemian-German economist and sociologist
Wilhelm Lexis (1837–1914), German statistician, economist, and social scientist
Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919), German liberal politician and Protestant parish pastor
Karl Rathgen (1856–1921), German Economist
Alexander Rüstow (1885–1963), German sociologist and economist