MEMORANDUM

interested in seeing their son again but it seems surprising that it would happen via an
official appointment by the Soviet government.
The Berlin office of the Soviet Ministry of Finance was part of the Soviet legation.
The ambassador had since 1921 been Nikolai N. Krestinsky, a Bolshevik since 1903 who
had been Commissar of Finance and held high-ranking political posts. After siding with
Trotsky in the power struggle with Lenin since 1921 he had been demoted but found
trustworthy enough to take on the important post of ambassador in Berlin.
There were, however, some means in the Leontief textile factory which had escaped
confiscation. One of Leontief Sr.’s step sisters had at the end of the nineteenth century
married a Russian born entrepreneur who had been naturalized in England and owned a
machinery factory in Manchester. The Leontief textile factory had outstanding credit with
this firm from advance payments on orders that were cancelled. To have these funds
returned to Russia would have run the risk of confiscation. Leontief’s father was in a
position to dispose of these financial assets after moving to Germany in 1927. 85
Leontief’s time in Berlin coincided with the best years of the Weimar republic. Berlin
had a particularly lively cultural scene in 1925-1927. Leontief could hardly afford the time
and money to enjoy very much of it. But he enjoyed the theatre and there were cheap
tickets to be had. He also went to concerts, often they were concert rehearsals of the Berlin
Philharmonic, conducted by the legendary Wilhelm Furtwängler. 86 Another memory was
the Brecht/Weill Dreigroschenoper, which premiered in 1928.
After the three Gasthörer semesters Leontief reckoned at the end of 1926 that he
needed only two semesters as matriculated student to complete his dissertation. He
proceeded accordingly and completed the dissertation over the next two semesters. But the
swift rush through the doctoral study met at first with disapproval by the university and
skepticism in the Ministry supervising the universities. Leontief won through the
administrative hindrances thanks to support from his doctoral advisors, Bortkiewicz and
Sombart, but also from others. His doctoral dissertation was approved and the oral exam
passed in the beginning of 1928 by which time Leontief had already worked at started to
work at Institute für Weltwirtschaft in Kiel.
The administrative entanglements that needed to be resolved, are recounted in some
detail below, as well as details of the evaluation of Leontief’s dissertation, and his oral
examination. But first a brief look at two articles published by Leontief during his Berlin
85 This is another shrouded issue in the Leontief family history but may indicate that Leontief Sr. in
the access to the funds had the support of his family in Leningrad.
86 Wilhelm Fürtwangler was the principal conductor 1922-1945 and maintained within reason an
anti-nazi stand until the end, while Herbert von Karajan with a different attitude was waiting
eagerly in the wings to replace him.
28