X TRANSACTION INTRODUCTION
this has happened between the mid-1970s and the beginning
of the new century, and we are slowly starting to take our blind-
folds off,
the time has come again to read the book by Georg
Rusche and
Otto Kirchheimer.
Not that this book was ever completely shelved since the
date of its original publication in 1939, as the reissue of the
original Columbia University Press edition by Russell & Russell
in 1968 was crucial in saving it from being forever forgotten.
Furthermore, as the reader of these introductory notes will
come to appreciate shortly, hardly has the process of the pro-
duction and publication (and republication) of a book ever
been more embedded within the political, social, and cultural
events that the book itself, directly or obliquely, tried to ad-
dress.
And such is the case, starting with the very first idea, or
concept, of the book, by a fellow named Georg Rusche, whose
life
path was completely unknown
until1980,I in contrast with
the rather stronger limelight shed on his unenthusiastic co-
author, Otto Kirchheimer.
A RATHER "UNUSUAL HUMAN BEING"
Georg Rusche was born on November 17, 1900, in Hanover,
the son of a doctor and a Jewish woman, something that, as he
himself described his situation, would mark his life as of
"mixed" origins. Mter an education that was typical of the
middle class German youth of the time, he had a remarkable
university curriculum, taking courses in Frankfurt, Gottingen,
and Koln and working with such luminaries as Max Scheler,
Erwin
v. Beckerath, and Leonard Nelson. He became a doctor
of philosophy in 1924 and then a doctor of economics and
social sciences in 1926, both at
Koln University. In the rather
progressive environment of Saxony in the late 1920s he be-
came involved in prison work, at Bautzen prison, and doubt-
lessly that experience turned him toward a special interest in
matters of punishment that had not yet appeared in his stud-
ies,
both of his dissertations being of a more theoretical na-
ture.
Probably also under the influence of Karl Pribram, who