Edgar Salin

Edgar Bernhard Jacques Salin (10 February 1892 – 17 May 1974) was a German economist, historian, and translator. Born on 10 February 1892 in Frankfurt, he studied political economy and jurisprudence, completing his PhD at Heidelberg University in 1913 with a thesis on the economic development of Alaska under the supervision of Alfred Weber. After habilitating at Heidelberg in 1920 with a monograph on the political thought of Plato, Salin taught there and at Kiel before taking up a position as Professor of National Economy at the University of Basel in 1927, which he held until 1962.^[1] He served as Chancellor of Basel University. He founded the journal Kyklos at Basel in 1947.^[2]

Salin's economic theory integrated influences from John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, and Friedrich List.^[1] He supported far-reaching economic interventionism. In the 1920s he was associated with the poet Stefan George and his circle, and George's aestheticist outlook influenced Salin throughout his career.^[2] He was a proponent of European integration, and after World War II he became a prominent critic of ordoliberalism, particularly the work of Wilhelm Röpke. In addition to his economic research, Salin published a series of translations of Plato. He died on 17 May 1974 in Veytaux, Switzerland.^[1]

Salin was awarded the Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt in 1962 and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972.^[3]