Neurath taught political economy at the New Vienna Commercial Academy in Vienna) until war broke out. Subsequently, he directed the Department of War Economy in the War Ministry. In 1917, he completed his habilitation thesis "Die Kriegswirtschaftslehre und ihre Bedeutung für die Zukunft" ("War Economics and Their Importance for the Future") at Heidelberg University. In 1918, he became director of the Deutsches Kriegswirtschaftsmuseum (German Museum of War Economy, later the "Deutsches Wirtschaftsmuseum") at Leipzig. Here he worked with Wolfgang Schumann, known from the Dürerbund for which Neurath had written many articles. During the political crisis which led to the armistice, Schumann urged him to work out a plan for socialization in Saxony. Along with Schumann and Hermann Kranold developed the "Programm Kranold-Neurath-Schumann". Neurath then joined the German Social Democratic Party in 1918–19 and ran an office for central economic planning in Munich. When the Bavarian Soviet Republic was defeated, Neurath was imprisoned but returned to Austria after intervention from the Austrian government. While in prison, he wrote "Anti-Spengler", a critical attack on Oswald Spengler's "Decline of the West".