MEMORANDUM

express myself clearer than that.” (Schumpeter to Leontief, 21 February 1930, transl.
by ob).
The statement perhaps said more about Schumpeter than about Leontief. Schumpeter
had his own worries and didn’t share them all with Leontief. His years in Vienna had
given him many foes, particularly due to Schumpeter’s brief and unsuccessful career as
banker. He was misjudged on untrue rumors. 118 But he seemed to think that the situation
would soon change and then he would be better able to exert influence. In Bonn he knew
that any protégé of his would be blocked from achieving habilitation. One of his foes was
indeed Werner Sombart who eventually would block Schumpeter from being offered a
chair at Berlin University. That would also impact on Leontief in an unforeseen way, as
we shall see.
Schumpeter added that what he just stated had nothing to do with the question of
whether Germany was the right place for Leontief in the future. Schumpeter would make
no judgment on that, especially as it did not fall under his duties to scare a promising talent
away from Germany. In Schumpeter’s view Leontief’s prospects in Germany were not too
bad, if the next two-three years could be bridged over in a way which did not expose him
or tie him up in any direction. 119
Schumpeter’s advice was carefully set out but Leontief may not have been able to see
fully through it. Of course, Schumpeter was not able to see better than others the ominous
turn events would take in Germany within three years. Schumpeter at this time considered
his own future to be in Germany and that that would be the best choice for Leontief too.
(That they would be colleagues at Harvard within three years was hardly imaginable for
any of them at this time.)
In line with Schumpeter’s advice and his own inclinations Leontief re-joined the staff
of the Kiel Institute from 1 April 1930. The project he had got approved in his contract
was a closer investigation of the structure and development of the iron market. It had been
studied along with other markets in Versuch but not with very satisfactory results. His
project was in the Institute jargon from the very beginning spoken of as the Eisenaufsatz
(“Iron study”). To make his demand and supply analysis work for iron and other industrial
raw materials had become of major importance for Leontief. The problems were all on the
supply side.
Leontief wrote to Schumpeter in May 1930 to tell him what he was working on after
rejoining the Kiel Institute, intimating that his choice of looking closer at the iron market
had not been done without some doubts. He regarded the risk of failure as far from
negligible but on the not too demanding field of agricultural products there was hardly
118 See Stolper (1994).
119 Schumpeter to Leontief, 21 February 1930, transl. by ob.
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