Otto Neurath

Otto Neurath (December 10, 1882 – December 22, 1945) was an Austrian philosopher and member of the Vienna Circle. He wrote books in Basic English. In 1936 Charles Kay Ogden commissioned Otto and his wife Marie Neurath to produce International Picture Language  as part of a series of eight books in Basic English.

 Life 
Neurath was born in Vienna, the son of Wilhelm Neurath (1840–1901), a well-known Jewish political economist at the time. Otto's mother was a Protestant, and he would also become one. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna. In 1906, he gained his PhD in the department of Political Science and Statistics at the University of Berlin.

He married Anna Schapire in 1907, who died in 1911. Then, he married a close friend, the mathematician and philosopher Olga Hahn.

Neurath taught political economy at the New Vienna Commercial Academy in Vienna until war broke out. After that, 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.

 Reerences 

Category:1882 births
Category:1945 deaths
Category:Austrian philosophers
Category:Writers from Vienna