ABSTRACT
The realist-descriptive school may be regarded as an outgrowth from the younger historical school (the school of Schmoller). The realist-descriptive school works, in fact, upon the same methodological principles as the historical school, but devotes more attention to the economic problems of the present day. Among investigators attached to this school who belonged to a somewhat earlier generation than our own, I may mention Albert Schäffle (ob. 1904, Bau und Leben des sozialen Körpers, second edition, 1896), and Lexis (ob. 1914, Volkswirtschaftslehre, second edition, 1915. Of contemporary representatives of the realist-descriptive school, I will enumerate in alphabetical order: B. Harms; H. Herkner (Die Arbeiter-frage, eighth edition, Berlin, 1923); Passow (editor of Beiträge zur Lehre von den Unternehmungen, Jena, 1925); J Pesch, S.J. (Lehrbuch der Nationalökonomie, five vols., Freiburg, 1904–1925); Schumacher (Weltwirtschaftliche Studien, 1911, and other works); Adolf Weber (Der Kampf zwischen Kapital und Arbeit, fourth edition, 1921); K. Wiedenfeld (Das Persönliche im modernen Unternehmertum, Leipzig, 1911, second edition, 1920); Zwiedineck-Südenhorst (“Lohntheorie und Lohn-politik” in Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, fourth edition, Jena, 1923), who is also of note as a theoretician.
