Gerhard Fürst, the first President of the Federal Statistical Office, was born in Berlin on 1 May 1897 and died in Wiesbaden on 27 July 1988. In 1914, Gerhard Fürst obtained the university entrance qualification under war conditions. Following military service and captivity from 1914 to 1920, he studied political science and economics in Berlin and in 1923 he obtained a doctor’s degree in economics (Dr. rer. pol.).
In 1923, Gerhard Fürst joined the Reich Statistical Office in Berlin as a member of academic staff. First he was engaged in wage statistics, then in the preparation and evaluation of the census of population and occupation. In 1930, Fürst went to the League of Nations in Geneva where, until 1939, he was responsible for publications as Secretary of the Statistical Experts Committee. After a short period at the Consulate General in Geneva he returned to Berlin in 1940. In the IG-Farben Industrie company, Gerhard Fürst became acquainted with the user side of statistics. From 1940 to 1945, he was a market observer in the national accounting department of IG Farben Industrie. In 1945, Fürst was assigned the task of setting up the Hessian Land Statistical Office and he became its first head of office.
In 1948, the Statistical Office of the United Economic Territory was created, and Gerhard Fürst was appointed head of office. In 1949, the Office of the United Economic Territory was renamed Federal Statistical Office, and Fürst became its President.
Due to his outstanding performance, Fürst’s term was extended three times, which was quite unusual. At the age of 67, he retired from federal service at the end of 1964.
Despite many problems in the post-war years, Gerhard Fürst succeeded in setting up a functioning office from nothing. In the nearly 17 years of his activity as President of the Federal Statistical Office, Gerhard Fürst had a decisive influence on the work programme of federal statistics and on its organisational and legal design. He made official statistics a major information source for the government, the society, and the scientific community. His most important goal – and that of his successors – was always the creation of a statistical overall picture, even against the wishes of the Allied Powers. A special success in the set-up phase was the dedication of the new building of the Federal Statistical Office in 1956. Before, the locations of the Federal Statistical Office were distributed over the entire city of Wiesbaden.
In addition to his function of President of the Federal Statistical Office, Gerhard Fürst was member of the board of many national and international bodies, for instance, of the German Statistical Society, that is as Vice-President from 1948 to 1960, as President from 1960 to 1972, and as Honorary President from 1972 to 1988. From 1960 to 1964, he was Vice-President of the International Statistical Institute. In 1959, the university of Munich awarded him an honorary doctorate.