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The following text has been machine translated from the German with no human editing.
Born in Berlin, Dr. Richter – who served as executive director of the Centre for New Institutional Economics at Saarland University until 2020 – studied Business Science and Economics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. Following his habilitation, a Rockefeller Fellowship took him to institutions including the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Having served as a full professor of economics at the University of Kiel from 1961 to 1964, he moved to Saarland University in 1964 and, despite receiving honourable offers of a professorship from the universities of Regensburg, Berlin and Mannheim, always remained loyal to Saarbrücken.
As one of the leading figures in theoretical macroeconomics, a pioneer of modern institutional economics and the organizer of the international Wallerfangen conferences, he played a decisive role in shaping the internationally outstanding profile of Business Science and Economics in Saarbrücken. Through visiting professorships and research stays, he maintained diverse links with American universities and devoted himself intensively to the partnership with the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) that he had initiated. He offered numerous students of economics and business administration at Saarland University the opportunity to spend an academic year at the University of Michigan, with Saarland University recognizing their examination results there.
In addition to serving on several committees of the German Research Foundation (DFG), the honouree acted as editor of the *Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft*, which he renamed the *Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics* as part of the process of anglicizing its contributions to Business Science and Economics.He also chaired the Committee on Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy of the 'Verein für Socialpolitik' and, as Dean, headed the Faculty of Law and Business Science and Economics at Saarland University from 1971 to 1973, a period marked by the transition from the old to the new higher education legislation.
Even after his retirement, Prof. Richter remained active in academia and research. For example, the fourth edition of his textbook *New Institutional Economics*, co-authored with Erik G. Furobotn and translated into English, Russian and Chinese, was published in 2020, and his *Essays on New Institutional Economics* appeared in 2015. He also edited the textbook series *Neue ökonomische Grundrisse* for Mohr-Siebeck Verlag and is one of the founders of the *International Society for New Institutional Economics*. In 2018, he published his memoir-style account 'Studying and Teaching Business Science and Economics: West Germany after 1945' (with Mohr-Siebeck, , Tübingen) and, in 2020, his 'Theoretical Economics – A Personal Summary' with Tectum Verlag in Baden-Baden.
Dr. Wolfgang Müller, University Archives
