Exkursionen als Beitrag zur praxisorientierten akademischen Lehre – Wilhelm Kählers Besichtigungen der pommerschen Wirtschaft in der Weimarer Zeit

In the German Weimar Republic of the 1920s, the field of economic science found itself in a crisis environment beyond the limits of its understanding. Very few contributions from academia found their way into practice, and thus the limited interplay between the two was of little consequence. During this era, universities responded by introducing various new approaches to make the teaching of economics more relevant to practice. In many universities, this included the participation of practitioners as lecturers and examiners. In addition, Professor Wilhelm Kähler of the University of Greifswald organised field trips within the province of Pomerania so that students could see economics in practice and better grasp its real‐world peculiarities. In this paper, the historical records of these excursions, as recorded in a log, are analysed and insights gained from the numerous teaching visits to companies, welfare institutions, organisations and associations as well as to municipalities, housing developments and infrastructural establishments. The paper concludes with an examination of how practical relevance in university teaching subsequently shifted during the Nazi era.