MEMORANDUM

very much wanted to meet with Schumpeter and discuss both the habilitation and the
problems of his current work (Eisenaufsatz), which was not yet finished. 151
Schumpeter got in touch with Löwe and concurred in that it would be better to do the
habilitation after Leontief’s year in New York. By that the habilitation issue was on the
shelf until Leontief returned from the United States 1932 (which didn’t happen).
Schumpeter again deplored the unfortunate fact that he was not able to put it through in
Bonn. In Frankfurt the ground was better as he knew both Pribram and Zizek, and even
more so when Löwe also was in place. He thus gave up the idea of habilitation before
departure with a remark that it would be foolish to venture a Husarenritt which even if
might work, would be risky.
Schumpeter then extended an invitation to Leontief for dinner in his Bonn home on
Friday 13 May 1931. 152 But Leontief declined the invitation to finish the Eisenaufsatz. He
had been waiting day after day for 3-4 weeks for statistical calculations to be done in Kiel.
They had finally arrived and then he wanted to finish and submit the manuscript to
Weltwirtschaftliches as soon as possible, hoping to see the article in print before he left for
America. Leontief suggested that perhaps he might instead visit Bonn in first week of June.
Schumpeter who was as keen to meet with Leontief as he was to see Schumpeter, invited
him for Wednesday 3 June at 13:30 zum Mittagessen. 153
Leontief left Berlin on 3 June and met with Schumpeter in his home at the agreed time.
After another day in Bonn he then visited in succession Frankfurt and Heidelberg and
returned to Berlin on 7 June. He wrote to Schumpeter that the trip had come off according
to plan. Schumpeter’s prior letters to Frankfurt had resulted in a very friendly welcome for
him in Frankfurt. The purpose of visiting Frankfurt was and met with Zizak and Pribram
was of course to prepare the ground for habilitation but this could absolutely not be stated.
Zizak had very thoroughly presented the statistical seminar for him, also at some length
elaborated on advanced topics. Leontief got less time with Pribram as he was about to leave
for America. Pribram had asked whether Leontief’s visit was due to any specific purpose,
which Leontief denied. He left with the impression that neither Pribram nor Zizak had any
clue about Leontief’s real motivation. But the secrecy also meant that Leontief had no way
of assessing the attitude they might take to his habilitation sometime in the future.
Mannheim, whom Leontief knew from earlier, was ill and but Leontief talked with on the
telephone. Leontief also spent time with Eugen Altschul and was impressed with how
energetic he was.
In Heidelberg Leontief had stayed with Marschak. He had an interesting conversation
with Carl Brinkmann and visited Lederer twice discussing his recent book on technical
151 Leontief to Schumpeter, 21 April 1931
152 Schumpeter to Leontief, 29 April 1931.
153 Leontief to Schumpeter, 26 May 1931. Schumpeter to Leontief, 29 May 1931.
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