Andreas Pinkwart

• Being one of the first students at Handelshochschule Leipzig, enrolling in April 1898, Eugen Schmalenbach is today considered the founder of business administration in Germany. His scientific work influenced future academics in Germany and abroad more than anybody else before or after him. When we talk about fixed and proportional costs and how they affect a company when employment changes, these findings, considered self-evident today, go back to the Schmalenbach’s work. He played an important role in the development of the chart of accounts joining financial accounting, cost accounting and short-term profit and loss accounts. His basic teaching is the call for the valuation of business activities in a future-oriented manner because a merchant will give nothing for what once was – an insight which eventually was completely accepted during the economic crisis when it became apparent how worthless unused substance would have to remain.