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Economists Germany Public Finance Transcript

Germany. Wolfgang Stolper’s Seminarschein for a public finance seminar. Schumpeter, 1932

Back in the day before German universities began awarding Bachelor and Master degrees instead of their historical Diplom and Magister degrees (a process initiated in August 2002 and essentially completed by 2010), German students collected their certificates seminar-by-seminar, signed by their instructors, that together constituted their entry tickets required for degree examinations. I began teaching in a German university (Freie Universität Berlin) in 1994 and have signed such “Seminarscheine” for my students. The printed fonts had changed and typed insertions replaced hand-written ones, but the Scheine themselves were essentially identical to those used by earlier generations.

Below we have the image of the Seminarschein obtained by Wolfgang Stolper who attended Joseph Schumpeter’s advanced seminar in public finance in 1932. Official course transcripts are of considerable informational value but when it comes to antiquarian charm, I’ll take a stack of Seminarscheine any day over a registrar’s one page (stamped) transcript.

__________________________________

Stolper’s Seminarschein
for a Schumpeter seminar
in Bonn, 1932

Staatswissenschaftliches Seminar
der Universität Bonn

Bonn, den 26 Juli 1932
Herr Wolfgang Stolper hat im Sommer-Winterhalbjahr 1932 an meinem finanzwissenschaftlichen Vollseminar—Proseminar
Besprechungen zur _____________________________
mit gutem Fleiß und gutem Erfolg teilgenommen und folgende Arbeiten geliefert:

Hausarbeiten

Aufsichtsarbeiten
mit Auszeichnung:
gut:  ___1___
voll befriedigend:
genügend:
nicht genügend:

[signed] Schumpeter

Translation

Political Science Seminar
of the University of Bonn

Bonn, 26 July 1932
Mr. Wolfgang Stolper was enrolled in my public finance advanced/ introductory seminar during the summer/winter semester 1932.
Tutorial on  _______
His participation demonstrated good work and good performance, completing the following assignments:

Written home assignments

Proctored written examinations
with distinction: [blank]

[blank]
good:  ___1___

[blank]
satisfactory: [blank]

[blank]
sufficient: [blank]

[blank]
insufficient: [blank]

[blank]

[signed] Schumpeter

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Economists’ Papers Archive. Wolfgang F. Stolper papers, 1892-2001. Add. 02/207: Box 23, Folder unlabeled (job search 1940-41 correspondence).

Image Source: Harvard University Archives, from Schumpeter’s 1932 German passport. J. Schumpeter Papers. Box 2 (Correspondence and Papers relating to death of JAS), Folder “Dept of Labor–citizenship”.