Viktor Mataja

Born on 20 July 1857 in Vienna.[1]

Studies in law at the University of Vienna (1878 to 1882) after commercial training.[1]

Doctorate in law (Dr. iur.) at the University of Vienna in 1883.[1]

Habilitation with a work on ground rent and entrepreneurial profit, alongside his work at the Vienna Chamber of Commerce.[1]

Publication of “Der Unternehmergewinn” (Entrepreneurial Profit) (1884) — a Habilitation thesis on marginal utility theory.[2]

Publication of the ground-breaking work which, on the basis of marginal utility theory, prepared the ground for modern law and economics.[1]

Appointment as associate professor in 1890.[1]

Appointed full professor at the University of Innsbruck on 19 September 1892.[1]

Supernumerary ministerial counsellor (Ministerialrat extra statum) from 6 November 1892.[1]

Honorary professor at the University of Vienna from 1897.[1]

First term as Minister of Commerce.[1]

Publication of “Die Reklame” (Advertising) (1910), a pioneering work in the science of advertising (2nd ed. 1916, 4th ed. 1926).[1]

Second term as Minister of Commerce.

President of the Central Statistical Commission from 1914 to 1917.[1]

From 22 December 1917 to 27 October 1918, first Minister of Social Welfare in the Seidler and Hussarek governments — the first such minister in a European industrialised country. Towards the end of the war, Mataja had previously served as Minister of Commerce, then as minister without portfolio.[1]

President of the Central Statistical Commission from 1919 to 1922.[1]

Publication of “Entwicklung der Reklame” (The Development of Advertising) (1926), at the same time the 4th edition of “Die Reklame”.[3]

Editor of “Lehrbuch der Volkswirtschaftspolitik” (Textbook of Economic Policy), to which Mataja also contributed pieces of his own.[1]

Died on 19 June 1934 in Vienna.[1]