Bruno Hildebrand

Who was Bruno Hildebrand?

Bruno Hildebrand was a German economist representing the "older" historical school of economics. His economic thinking was highly critical of classical economists, especially of David Ricardo. His magnum opus was Economics of the Present and the Future. The basic aim of this work was to establish laws of economic development. Hildebrand also stated that economic development was linear not cyclical. He supported socialist theory on the basis of religion, basic morals, and his beliefs of the negative effect of propriety on economic behavior.

An economics professor in Marburg, he was accused of high treason with respect to the turmoil of 1848 and condemned to death. He avoided the execution of this sentence by escaping to Switzerland, where he served as an associate professor at the University of Zurich. Together with Alfred Escher he was a co-founder and CEO of the Swiss Northeastern Railway, and also was the founder of the Swiss National Bureau/ Federal Statistical Office and also created and directed the publication 'Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik'; for his contributions he was granted honorary Swiss citizenship. He became a professor at the University of Bern.