Frederick Hertz

Frederick Hertz (1878 to 1964) was a British sociologist, economist and historian of Austrian origin, born in Vienna as Friedrich Otto Hertz. He studied law and economics at the University of Vienna and in Munich, took his doctorate in Vienna in 1903 and joined the Austrian Social Democrats. After service in the war economy committee of the Austro-Hungarian war ministry he worked as a counsellor at the Austrian Federal Chancellery until 1930, then became professor of world economy and sociology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg. The Nazis dismissed him in 1933 and attacked him as a Jew, Freemason and pacifist for his publications on race and nationality. He lived as a private scholar in Vienna until 1938, then emigrated to London, where he received British citizenship in 1946 under the name Frederick Hertz. His works include Modern Theories of Race (1904), Race and Civilization (1915), Nationality in History and Politics (1944) and the three-volume The Development of the German Public Mind (1957 to 1962). He died in London in 1964.