GOTTFRIED ACHENWALL: BIOGRAPHY AND CONTRIBUTIONS - SCIENCE - 2025

Gottfried Achenwall was an economist born in Prussia in 1719. He was one of the pioneers of statistical science and is considered the father of this subject, although the English deny that claim. Thus, he was the first to use the name "statistics" to call this discipline.

The word comes from status, with a meaning of "state or situation." Similarly, Achenwall was the one who began using graphs and tables to order the data he obtained. Apart from this great contribution, the rest of his main works focused on the study of various European countries.

The novelty of this information was the use of statistics to analyze its economic, social and political reality. Achenwall was also a teacher for many years; he taught classes in various subjects: from statistics to philosophy. This last discipline was also quite important in his later works.

For his research on the continent, the economist visited the countries he wanted to talk about, obtaining first-hand information.

Biography of Gottfried Achenwall

Studies and first jobs

Gottfried Achenwall came to the world in 1719 in Elbing, a town in then East Prussia. There are not many data of his childhood, since there are hardly any references until 1738, when he began to study in Jena. After this, he continued his training in Halle and then returned to Jena.

Between 1743 and 1746 he was working as a controller in Dresden, returning later to resume his studies in Leipzig. It was at the Faculty of Philosophy in the latter city that Achenwall obtained his master's degree in 1746.

The following year, in 1747, Achenwall marched to Marburg (Marburg in German). There he began to work as a teacher's assistant in various subjects, such as international law, natural law or history. His main job was reading the essays that were presented on these topics.

It was at this time that he began to do his first research on a discipline that he himself baptized as statistics.

Teaching career

A few years later, in 1748, he was claimed to join the University of Göttingen; It was in that place where he developed the rest of his teaching career. Achenwall achieved great prestige as a professor of philosophy and law.

However, after a long time teaching these subjects, he decided to change. In 1761 he went on to teach Natural Law and Politics classes. In just a few months he obtained a doctorate in both types of jurisprudence.

As for his personal life, in 1752 he married Lady Walther. This was not unknown to the society of her time, since she had achieved some success as a writer after publishing several works.

Royal counselor

Achenwall's career had its moment of public service. Specifically, he was appointed advisor to the Court and was part of the Electoral Court of Hanover.

Likewise, he obtained the financial support of King George III to travel to various European countries and complete his works on Europe.

Death

Achenwall remained a member of the University of Göttingen until the time of his death. It was in that city where he died in 1772, at the age of 52.

Contributions

Father of statistics

Statistics, although it was not yet called that, was born in the middle of the 17th century. Hermann Conring is credited with the creation of this discipline, which consisted in describing the most notable events of some State, but systematizing the data.

It was not until the works of Achenwall that it received the name of statistics, whose etymology comes from status; that is, "state" or "situation." In any case, some experts claim that the term had already been used in Italy, although it had not been defined in depth.

Achenwall did elaborate that definition in his book Compendium of the political constitution of European countries and peoples, published in 1749. In this work he uses the term to name what he called “science of the State”, proceeding to analyze data from various governments.

It should be noted that some English authors claimed for their country the paternity of the name of the discipline, since they argue that the contribution of William Petty was ignored.

The novelty of Achenwall's work is that he used the word statistics to refer to all numerical data and their concentration, but he did not stop here: he also began to present them in graphs and tables.

In this way, statistics came to be defined as the quantitative description of the different social, economic or political aspects of a State.

Relationship with politics

Since his works dealt with the characteristics of various countries, they were also considered from a political point of view.

In fact, he himself spoke about statistics as the "science of things that belong to the State, calling State everything that is a civil society and the country in which it lives, with all that is active and effective.; statistics deals with the phenomena that can favor or defend the prosperity of the State.

To finalize that sentence, Achenwall wrote: "politics teaches how states should be, statistics explain how they really are."

Book about Europe

Achenwall only had time to analyze the reality of some European countries, since he died very young. He dealt with Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, Holland, France, Russia, Sweden and Denmark.

His work, in which he showed data on all aspects of those countries, was very important at the time. In fact, it influenced how these countries were governed and organized for the next 40 years.

The book is divided into two parts. In each one, Achenwall looked at a group of different countries. His early death prevented him from publishing a third part with another group of nations.

Other works

In addition to what is considered his culminating work, the author wrote other books, including Principles of Political Economy. In this work he reviewed the history of the States of Europe from the point of view of law and political economy.

Achenwall also touched on economics and politics. In these he was considered a follower of the school of "moderate mercantilists."

References

1. Enciclonet. Achenwall, Godfrey (1719-1772). Obtained from mcnbiografias.com
2. ITA. Gottfried Achenwall. Retrieved from theodora.com
3. Dictionary of Political Economy. Achenwall Gottfried. Retrieved from gluedideas.com
4. Upclosed. Gottfried Achenwall. Retrieved from upclosed.com
5. Ostasiewicz, Walenty. The Emergence of Statistical Science. Recovered from wir.bg.ue.wroc.pl
6. Cristo M., José Antonio. Educational Statistics. Retrieved from educando.edu.do
7. INE. History of Statistics. Obtained from ine.es
8. Hernández Hurtado, Juan. Brief History of Statistics. Recovered from researchgate.net