Franz Oppenheimer
Sociologist and economist Franz Oppenheimer (1864-1943) was born in Berlin, the son of a reform rabbi. Oppenheimer was appointed to the first-ever German academic chair of sociology at the prestigious University of Frankfurt. An advocate of liberal socialism, he believed that social inequities could be eradicated by redistributing large agricultural landholdings in favor of a cooperative agrarian system. Oppenheimer had taken an early interest in Zionism, laying the groundwork for theories of cooperative farming in Palestine. However, by 1913 his opposition to nationalism grew and he withdrew from Zionist activity. His prodigious writings, such as The Basic Principles of a Marxian Society, expanded on tenets proposed by Karl Marx. It was, predictably, one of his works burned during the book burnings. In 1938, Oppenheimer left Germany for the United States where he taught and also founded The American Journal of Economics and Sociology.http://www.franz-oppenheimer.de ![[externer Link]](../_shared/images/link.gif){kind=small}