Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi

Johann Heinrich Gottlob von Justi (28 December 1717 – 21 July 1771) was one of the leading German political economists in the 18th century.

Justi was born in Brücken. From 1750 to 1753, Justi taught at the Theresianum Knights Academy in Vienna where he established close contacts with Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz whose administrative reforms exerted a strong influence on his political ideas. After briefly settling in Erfurt and Leipzig, Justi was appointed Director of Police in Göttingen in 1755. In Göttingen Justi started his systematic study of contemporary French works, in particular Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws. In 1757, he accepted an invitation of the Danish minister Bernstorff to Copenhagen. In 1758, he settled in Altona. Hoping for a permanent position in Prussia, Justi moved to Berlin in 1760. Five years later, in 1765, he was appointed Prussian Inspector of Mines, Glass, and Steel Works. In 1768, he was accused of misappropriating government funds and imprisoned in Küstrin. New archival research by Andre Wakefield has revealed in how far Justi's activities as Prussian official in the Neumark can be considered 'a disaster in almost every way'. After being released in April 1771 he moved back to Berlin where he died soon after.

Justi's oeuvre consists of more than 50 independent works dealing with philosophical, literary, technological, geological, chemical, physical as well as political and economic issues. For most of his life, Justi did not hold a permanent position in academia or public administration but had to live from the royalties of his writings. Accordingly, he tried to present at least two new titles at each of the two large annual German book fairs in Leipzig and Frankfurt. This circumstance accounts for the manifold textual similarities that can be found within Justi's works.

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