Gustav von Schmoller

German economist who broadened the study of economics by insisting that it be studied dynamically in the context of history and sociology.

He served as professor of civic administration at the universities of Halle, Strassburg, and Berlin. He was also a member of academies in Berlin, Munich, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Rome.

In the early 1860s Schmoller defended the commercial treaty between France and the German Customs Union, negotiated with Prussian leadership. This defense curtailed his career in Württemberg but gained favor for him with Prussian authorities, and he was appointed official historian of Brandenburg and Prussia in 1887. He became a member of the Prussian state council in 1884 and representative of the University of Berlin in the Prussian upper house in 1889.

Schmoller was the founder and leader of the Association of German Academic Economists. He was also editor of several publications series, one of which was later known as Schmoller's Yearbook (from 1881). One of the first great organizers of research in the social sciences, he dominated for several decades the development of economics and of related social sciences.

One of the reasons why Schmoller is not more widely known today is that most of his books and articles were not translated.

He died at Bad Harzburg on 27 June 1917 at age 79.