Jürgen Kuczynski

Jürgen Kuczynski
Jürgen Kuczynski (1981)
Born	Jürgen Kuczynski 17 August 1904 Elberfeld (Wuppertal), Germany
Died	6 August 1997 Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany
Occupation	Economist Historical economist
Political party	KPD SED PDS
Spouse(s)	Marguerite Steinfeld (1904-1998)
Children	Thomas Peter Madeleine
Parent(s)	Robert René Kuczynski Berta Gradenwitz/Kuczynski

Jürgen Kuczynski (German pronunciation: [ˈjʏʁɡn̩ kuˈtʃɪnskiː]; born Elberfeld 17 September 1904: died Berlin 6 August 1997) was a German economist. A lifelong Communist, he worked with the US Army during the Second World War while in exile in England. He returned to Germany after the war (initially with the US Army), settling in East Germany and becoming one of its leading intellectuals.

Jürgen Kuczynski was eldest of the six recorded children born to the distinguished economist and demographer Robert René Kuczynski and his wife Berta Gradenwitz/Kuczynski, who was a painter. The children were gifted and the family was prosperous. His sister Ursula later became a spy who worked for the Soviet Union. She subsequently became an author, using the name Ruth Werner, by which she is often identified in the sources.

The children grew up in a small villa in the Schlachtensee quarter in the south-west of Berlin. Coming from a distinguished family of Berlin-based left-wing academics, while an adolescent Jürgen Kuczynski met the communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.

Between 1910 and 1916 Kuczynski attended a private school in Berlin-Zehlendorf, before progressing to an academically focused secondary school in the city. He successfully completed his schooling in 1922 and went on to study at Erlangen, Berlin and Heidelberg subjects that included Philosophy, Statistics and Political economy. In 1926 he went as a research student to the USA where he undertook post-graduate studies at Washington, D.C.'s Brookings Institution.