Bernhard Harms

Bernhard Harms
Founder of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Born	Christoph Bernhard Cornelius Harms (1876-03-30)March 30, 1876 Detern, Germany
Died	September 21, 1939(1939-09-21) (aged 63) Berlin, Germany
Nationality	German
Alma mater	University of Leipzig (Diplom), University of Tübingen (PhD)
Occupation(s)	Founder of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and Chair of Economics

Christoph Bernhard Cornelius Harms (30 March 1876 – 21 September 1939) was a German economist and one of the first professors to undertake research in the field of international economics. He founded the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany's leading economic research institute, in 1914. Harms was Chair of Economics at the University of Kiel and head of the Institute until he was dismissed from office in 1933 by Nazi Party officials.

Education

Christoph Bernhard Cornelius Harms was born in Detern, Ostfriesland, on June 30, 1876 to Menno F. Harms (1845–?) and Anna M. Ries (1844–1921). In 1887, he attended the Städtische Volksschule in Aurich, and later Gymnasium in Norden. From 1890 to 1893 he completed an apprenticeship (Ausbildung) as a bookbinder in Celle. Harms began a degree in political science at the University of Leipzig (1897), then began a PhD in Economics at University of Tübingen (1900). He completed his doctoral dissertation under Gustav von Schönberg, a founder of the theory of world economy. Two years later, he completed his habilitation.

Harms married in 1902 and had three children.

Harms began teaching as a professor at the University of Jena in 1906, then transferred to the University of Kiel in 1908 where he was Chair of Economics. There, he founded the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Construction of Bernhard-Harms-Weg, named in honor of the Institute's founder (1971)

Founded on February 18, 1914, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy has been one of the leading economic research institutes in Germany. It began as the Königliches Institut für Seeverkehr and Weltwirtschaft an der Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Royal Institute for Maritime Transport and World Economics at the University of Kiel). Over the years, Harms worked to build the university's name, attracting well established economists such as Jacob Marschak, Wassily Leontief, Adolph Löwe, Gerhard Colm, and Hans Philipp Neisser. The original mission of the Institute was to challenge the traditional scholar of nationally oriented political economy, and instead opting for a more international view on economic and political affairs.

Expulsion and death

After the electoral victory of the Nazi Party in the March 1933 elections, Harms attempted to protect his Jewish colleagues from persecution. But on April 25, 1933, the Ministry of Culture enacted a new law, the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. Harms was subsequently removed from the university and later from the Institute. In 1933, Harms worked as an honorary professor in Berlin, then moved to the University of Marburg in 1934. He died in Berlin in 1939. His grave was placed in front of the original building of the Instituteon Düsternbrooker Weg in Kiel.

Legacy

Bernhard Harms Prize

The 1968 award ceremony of the Bernard Harms Prize

Every two years since 1964, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy has awarded the Bernhard Harms Prize of €25,000 to individuals "with a distinguished record in the field of international economics." Award winners give presentations on their research at the Bernhard Harms Lectures at the Institute, which are then published in the Institute's journal, Review of World Economics / Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv.

Year	Winner	Institution
2018	Carmen Reinhart	Harvard University
2016	Marc Melitz	Harvard University
2014	Abhijit Banerjee	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2012	Gene Grossman	Princeton University
2010	Raghuram Rajan	University of Chicago
2008	Kenneth Rogoff	Harvard University
2006	Robert Feenstra	University of California
2004	Maurice Obstfeld	University of California
2002	Stanley Fischer	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2000	Jeffrey D. Sachs	Harvard University
1998	Elhanan Helpman	Harvard University
1996	Assar Lindbeck	Institute for International Economic Studies
1994	Martin Feldstein	Harvard University
1992	Rudiger Dornbusch	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1990	Anne O. Krueger	Duke University
1988	Jagdish Bhagwati	Columbia University
1986	W. Max Corden	Australian National University
1984	Bela Balassa	Johns Hopkins University
1982	William Fellner	Yale University
1980	Erik Lundberg	Stockholm School of Economics
1978	Charles P. Kindleberger	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1976	Harry G. Johnson	University of Chicago
1974	Fritz Machlup	Princeton University
1972	Gottfried Haberler	Harvard University
1970	Wassily Leontief	Harvard University
1968	Hermann Josef Abs	Deutsche Bank
1966	Roy Harrod	Christ Church, Oxford
1964	Gerhard Colm	Washington, D.C.

Bernhard Harms Medal

Since 1980, the Bernhard Harms Medal is awarded to individuals "who have contributed to the Kiel Institute's research on the world economy in the tradition of Bernhard Harms."

Year	Winner	Institution
2004	Otmar Issing	European Central Bank
2004	Helmut Hesse	University of Göttingen
2000	Reinhard Mohn	Bertelsmann AG
2000	Marcus Bierich	Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Instituts für Weltwirtschaft
1999	Václav Klaus	Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic
1995	Herbert Grubel	Simon Fraser University
1994	Birgit Breuel	Treuhandanstalt
1992	Ingo Walter	New York University
1992	Helmut Schlesinger	Deutsche Bundesbank
1991	Juergen B. Donges	University of Cologne
1989	Tyll Necker	Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie
1989	Karl Schiller	Jesteburg-Osterberg
1988	Rudolf Scheid	Frankfurt am Main
1986	Gerhard Fels	Kiel Institute for the World Economy
1986	Hans D. Barbier	Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
1984	Karl Gustaf Ratjen	Kiel Institute for the World Economy
1984	Wolfgang F. Stolper	University of Michigan
1983	George Frank Ray	University of Greenwich
1983	Tadeusz M. Rybczynski	Lazard
1981	David Grove	IBM, University of Washington
1980	Kurt Pentzlin	Bahlsen
1980	Otto Ernst Pfleiderer	Heidelberg University

Selected publications

• Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Deutschen Buchbinderei in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Tübingen und Leipzig 1902
• Die Münz- und Geldpolitik der Stadt Basel im Mittelalter. Tübingen 1907 (= Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft, Ergänzungsheft 23)
• Der Stadthaushalt Basels im ausgehenden Mittelalter: Quellen und Studien zur Basler Finanzgeschichte. Tübingen 1909–1913
• Volkswirtschaft und Weltwirtschaft, Versuch der Begründung einer Weltwirtschaftslehre, Jena 1912
• Der auswärtige Handel in: Philipp Zorn, Herbert von Berger (Schriftleitung): Deutschland unter Kaiser Wilhelm II. Hrsg. von Siegfried Körte, Friedrich Wilhelm von Loebell u. a. 3 Bände. R. Hobbing, Berlin 1914.
• Ferdinand Lassalle und seine Bedeutung für die deutsche Sozialdemokratie [Kopie von 1919], Jena 1919
• Vom Wirtschaftskrieg zur Weltwirtschaftskonferenz, Jena 1927
• Strukturwandlungen der Deutschen Volkswirtschaft, Vorlesungen gehalten in der Deutschen Vereinigung für Staatswissenschaftliche Fortbildung. Berlin 1928

External links

• Newspaper clippings about Bernhard Harms in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW