Bericht über die Tätigkeit des nationalökonomischen Seminars an der Universität Graz, Studienjahr 1914/1915

This brief report records Joseph A. Schumpeter’s account of the Nationalökonomisches Seminar at the University of Graz in the academic year 1914/1915. Its main historical significance lies in the contrast between institutional interruption and intellectual continuity: the war reduced the seminar’s normal rhythm, but Schumpeter still presents it as a disciplined site of economic training, discussion, and research orientation.

The report begins by marking the year’s restricted scope:

Nationalökonomische Seminarübungen fanden in diesem Studienjahr nur im Wintersemester statt.

English translation: Seminar exercises in political economy took place this academic year only in the winter semester.

This limitation is not treated as a neutral scheduling detail. Schumpeter explains that the seminar’s activity remained far below peacetime expectations, especially because participants were less prepared to undertake extended research projects. The report therefore frames wartime academic life as a weakening of sustained scholarly commitment rather than simply as a reduction in meetings.

Der Betrieb blieb natürlich weit hinter dem normaler Zeiten zurück, namentlich waren die Teilnehmer weniger geneigt als sonst, größere, sie auf längere Zeit in Anspruch nehmende Arbeiten zu übernehmen.

English translation: The operation naturally fell far short of that of normal times; in particular, the participants were less inclined than usual to undertake larger pieces of work that would occupy them over a longer period.

A second sign of disruption was the weakened presence of participants from economic and administrative “practice.” Schumpeter had evidently valued this connection as part of the seminar’s institutional development, and its loss narrowed the seminar’s practical and public character.

Auch war jener Grundstock von regelmäßigen Teilnehmern aus der „Praxis“, welcher sich langsam zu bilden beginnt, schwach vertreten.

English translation: That core of regular participants from "practice", which is slowly beginning to form, was also weakly represented.

The institutional consequence was that planned improvements could not be carried out. Schumpeter’s remarks imply ambitions beyond routine instruction: he wanted a more differentiated seminar structure, with specialized work in areas such as agrarian policy, banking, and trade policy, and with clearer separation between introductory and advanced participation.

So konnten in der Ausgestaltung des Seminarbetriebs keine Fortschritte erzielt werden.

English translation: Thus no progress could be achieved in the further development of the seminar.

Even so, the seminar did not cease to function. Schumpeter notes its enrolled participation and then describes a practice of meetings organized around new literature, theoretical questions, lectures, discussion, and concluding synthesis. The report thus preserves his pedagogical model of economics as a field formed through reading, presentation, critique, and collective argument.

Es nahmen 32 inskribierte Herren und einige Gäste an den Übungen teil.

English translation: Thirty-two enrolled gentlemen and several guests took part in the exercises.

The range of topics treated further shows the breadth of Schumpeter’s seminar conception. He mentions questions concerning socialism, living costs in Western Europe, the fiscal position of major states, labor performance in Australia, rural flight, entail, Taylorism, and currency. These subjects place the seminar at the intersection of theory, policy, comparative institutions, and current economic change.

The report is therefore more than an administrative notice. It documents a wartime setback in Graz academic life while also revealing Schumpeter’s ideal of the economics seminar as an organized research community. Its movement is from curtailed institutional development to continuing intellectual practice: the seminar could not expand as planned, yet it still enacted a modern program of economic inquiry shaped by theory, contemporary problems, and disciplined discussion.