Leopold Kohr

Leopold Kohr (born 5 October, 1909 in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria, died February 26, 1994 in Gloucester, England) was an economist, jurist, political scientist and a practicing philosopher known for his opposition to "bigness" in social organization and for inspiring the "small is beautiful" movement.

Life and Work

Kohr grew up in the small town of Oberndorf near Salzburg, and it remained his ideal of community. He obtained doctorate degrees in law at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and political science at the University of Vienna. He also studied economics and political theory at the London School of Economics.

In 1937 Kohr became a freelance correspondent during the Spanish Civil War, where he was impressed by the limited, self-contained governments of the separatist states of Catalonia and Aragon, as well as the small Spanish anarchist city states of Alcoy and Caspe. He became close friends with journalist George Orwell and shared offices with correspondents Ernest Hemingway and Andre Malraux. [http://www.leopold-kohr-akademie.at/lka/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=2 Description of Gerald Lehner's "The Biography of philosopher and economist Leopold Kohr."] at [http://www.leopold-kohr-akademie.at/ Kohr Academie web site] .]

Kohr fled Austria in 1938 after it was annexed by Nazi Germany and immigrated to the United States and became a citizen.Kirkpatrick Sale, foreword to E.P. Dutton 1978 edition of Leopold Kohr's "Breakdown of Nations."] [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9404EFDE143AF93BA15751C0A962958260 Dr. Leopold Kohr, 84; Backed Smaller States] , New York Times obituary, February 28, 1994.] [http://www.leopold-kohr-akademie.at/lka/modules/biografie/index.php?id=1:1 Leopold Kohr Akadamie biography] ]

Kohr taught economics and political philosophy at New Jersey's Rutgers University from 1943 to 1955. From 1955 to 1973 he served as professor of Economics and Public Administration at the University of Puerto Rico. There he developed his concepts of village renewal and traffic calming. He also advised the independence movement of the nearby island of Anguilla.

From 1955 until 1966 Kohr lived with the Welsh painter Diana Lodge, widow of Oliver W F Lodge, whom he had got to know in America during the second world war. She changed her surname to Kohr by deed poll, but changed back to Lodge after their separation. A clause in Lodge's will prevented their marriage, which would have entailed the loss of Diana's income. Brought up as a Roman Catholic, Kohr was godfather to Diana's eldest grandson, the mathematician David Trotman. He was very proud of the fact that the Christmas carol "Silent Night" was written and composed as "Stille Nacht" in his home village of Oberndorf bei Salzburg.

After many rejections by American and British publishers, Kohr's first book "The Breakdown of Nations" was published in 1957 in Britain after a chance meeting with British anarchist Sir Herbert Read. The book was dedicated to Diana Lodge's younger son Colin, born in 1944.

In 1973 Kohr moved to Wales, whose Welsh Independence movement he had long advised and supported. He taught political philosophy at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth.cite web|url=http://www.rightlivelihood.org/recip/kohr.htm|title=Right Livelihood Award: Leopold Kohr|accessdate=2008-02-22] After his retirement in Kohr settled in Gloucester, England, close to the home of Diana Lodge in Slad, near Painswick, and to the home of Colin Lodge in Stroud.

In 1983 in Stockholm, Sweden, Kohr received the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the Alternative Nobel Prize, "for his early inspiration of the movement for a human scale.” In 1984 Salzburg created the Leopold Kohr Academy and the [http://www.tauriska.at/kohr/kohr_fr.htm Cultural Association "Tauriska"] to put his theories of regional autonomy into practice.

Kohr was planning to return to his hometown of Oberndorf to live when he died in 1994. After a Catholic funeral mass and cremation in Gloucester, his ashes were buried at the local cemetery in the family plot in Oberndorf. Salzburg journalist Gerald Lehner completed a biography of Kohr in 1994.

Author Ivan Illich describes Kohr as "a funny bird—meek, fay, droll, and incisive," as well as "unassuming" and even "radically humble." [http://www.schumachersociety.org/publications/illich_94.html The Wisdom of Leopold Kohr] , Ivan Illich, Fourteenth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, October 1994, Yale University.]

Philosophy

Kohr described himself as a "philosophical anarchist." Kohr protested the "cult of bigness" and economic growth and promoted the concept of human scale and small community life. He argued that massive external aid to poorer nations stifled local initiatives and participation. His vision called for a dissolution of centralized political and economic structures in favor of local control.

In his first published essay "Disunion Now: A Plea for a Society based upon Small Autonomous Units," published in Commonweal in 1941, Kohr wrote about a Europe at war: "We have ridiculed the many little states, now we are terrorized by their few successors." He called for the breakup of Europe into hundreds of city states. Kohr developed his ideas in a series of books, including "The Breakdown of Nations" (1957), "Development without Aid" (1973) and "The Overdeveloped Nations" (1977).

From Leopold Kohr's most popular work "The Breakdown of Nations":

There seems to be only one cause behind all forms of social misery: bigness. Oversimplified as this may seem, we shall find the idea more easily acceptable if we consider that bigness, or oversize, is really much more than just a social problem. It appears to be the one and only problem permeating all creation. Whenever something is wrong, something is too big. And if the body of a people becomes diseased with the fever of aggression, brutality, collectivism, or massive idiocy, it is not because it has fallen victim to bad leadership or mental derangement. It is because human beings, so charming as individuals or in small aggregations have been welded onto overconcentrated social units.

Kohr was an important inspiration to the Green, bioregional, Fourth World, decentralist, and anarchist movements, Kohr contributed often to John Papworth's `Journal for the Fourth World', Resurgence. One of Kohr's students was economist E. F. Schumacher, another prominent influence on these movements, whose best selling book "Small Is Beautiful" took its title from one of Kohr's core principles. Similarly, his ideas inspired Kirkpatrick Sale's books "Human Scale" (1980) and "Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision" (1985). Sale arranged the first American publication of "The Breakdown of Nations" in 1978 and wrote the foreword.

References

Bibliography

*"Small is Beautiful: Selected Writings from the complete works." Posthumous collection, Vienna, 1995.
*"The Academic Inn", Lolfa, 1993.
*"The Inner City: From Mud To Marble", Lolfa, Dyfed, 1989.
*"Development Without Aid: The Translucent Society", Schocken Books, 1979.
*"The Overdeveloped Nations: The Diseconomies Of Scale", Schocken, 1978.
*"The City Of Man: The Duke Of Buen Consejo", Univ Puerto Rico, 1976.
*"Is Wales Viable?", C. Davies, 1971.
*"The Breakdown of Nations", Routledge & K. Paul, 1957; Chelsea Green Publishing Company edition, 2001.

ee also

* Anarchism
* Bioregionalism
* City state
* Decentralization
* Human scale
* Secession
* Simple living

External links

* [http://www.leopold-kohr-akademie.at/lka/modules/info/index.php?id=1:1 Leopold Kohr Akademie]
* [http://www.schumachersociety.org/publications/illich_94.html The Wisdom of Leopold Kohr] , Ivan Illich, Fourteenth Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures, October 1994, Yale University.
* [http://www.cesc.net/radicalweb/realnations/kohr.html Leopold Kohr Online links to Kohr articles]
* [http://www.panarchy.org/kohr/1941.eng.html Leopold Kohr's essay "Disunion Now: A Plea for a Society based upon Small Autonomous Units"] (1941)
* [http://www.vtcommons.org/journal/2005/09/kirkpatrick-sale-breakdown-nations Kirkpatrick Sale comments on Kohr and "Breakdown of Nations"]