Front Page Groups & Collections Franz Oppenheimer

Franz Oppenheimer

1864 - 1943

About the Author

Franz Oppenheimer (1864-1943) was a German sociologist whose pioneering historical analysis of the development of the state was based upon the distinction between the “political means” of acquiring wealth (such as coercion and taxation) and the “economic means” (through peaceful and voluntary exchange).

In The Library:

• author: The State (1919)

Quotations:

• Franz Oppenheimer argues that there are two fundamentally opposed ways of acquiring wealth: the “political means” through coercion, and the “economic means” through peaceful trade (1922) (18 February, 2007)