Alfred Braunthal (10 February 1897 – 4 February 1980) was an

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

trade unionist and social scientist. Born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to a Jewish family, Alfred was the younger brother of

Julius The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...

and

Bertha Braunthal Bertha Braunthal (1 February 1887 – 1968) was a communist politician in Germany from the party's creation in 1920 till her emigration to London in 1933. She was also a first-wave feminist. Sources sometimes identify her as Bertha Braunthal-C ...

, who both later became prominent in the workers' movement. Alfred studied philosophy, history and economics in Vienna and Berlin, receiving a doctorate in 1920. In 1921, he became working for the ''

Leipziger Volkszeitung The ''Leipziger Volkszeitung'' or ''LVZ'' (German for ''Leipzig People's Newspaper'') is a daily regional newspaper in Leipzig and western Saxony, Germany. First published on 1 October 1894, the LVZ was formerly an important publication of the ...

'' newspaper, writing about finance, and also teaching at the Tinz Heimvolkshochschule. From 1925 until 1928, he was the principal at this social democratic school. He also wrote about economics from a Marxist viewpoint, and from 1929 worked at the Research Center for Economic Policy. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Braunthal fled to

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, where he spent time as

Hendrik de Man Henri (Hendrik) de Man (17 November 1885 – 20 June 1953) was a Belgian politician and leader of the Belgian Labour Party (POB-BWP). He was one of the leading socialist theoreticians of his period and, during the German occupation of Belgium d ...

's assistant. In 1936, he emigrated to the United States, settling in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. There, he began as research director of the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union, his writing on economics becoming more concerned with immediate, practical matters, and becoming influenced by

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

. He was also active in the

German Labour Delegation The German Labour Delegation (GLD) was a social-democratic organisation of German emigrants in the United States during the time of Nazi Germany. The GLD was founded on 10 March 1939 in New York City, with the support of the Jewish Labor Committee ...

. In 1949, Braunthal became the first head of the economic and social department of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, based in Brussels. From 1960, he also served as an assistant general secretary of the federation. He retired in 1968.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braunthal, Alfred 1897 births 1980 deaths Austrian emigrants to the United States Austrian social scientists Austrian trade unionists Writers from Vienna Austrian expatriates in Germany Austrian expatriates in Belgium