Dr. Rainer Schickele was born on July 22, 1905 in Berlin, Germany.  He attended Real Gymnasium at Freiburg, Baden, Germany and received his Diploma in 1924.  Schickele then attended the College of Agriculture, University of Berlin from which he received his Bachelor of Science (1926), his Master of Science (1930) and his Doctor of Philosophy (1931).  After receiving his Ph.D., Schickele did post-graduate work at Iowa State College (1931-1932) and then at the Brookings Institute (1933-1934).  He later received the postdoctoral fellowship of the Social Science Research Council (1939-1940) and he chose to conduct his research at Harvard University.  In 1935, Schickele became an instructor at Iowa State College and an associate professor in 1944.  During his time at Iowa State, Schickele was very active in the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station.  After teaching at Iowa State, Schickele taught at George Washington University (1945-1946) before becoming Chairman of the Department of Agricultural Economics at North Dakota Agricultural College, now North Dakota State University.  Schickele resigned as chair in 1954 in order to serve as head of the land and water use branch of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.  Schickele remained with FAO until 1965 when he joined the Agricultural Development Council, funded by John D. Rockefeller, III.  In 1967, Schickele went to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to help build an Agricultural Economics department at the university and within the government.  Once he reached the ADC’s retirement age, Schickele served as a visiting professor at Michigan State, University of Minnesota and the University of Tennessee.  He then served as a visiting scholar at Berkeley for several years.  Schickele is the author of numerous papers and essays relating to farm practices that range from the free market to land tenure and planning.  He is also the author of two books on agricultural practices.

In 1934 Schickele married Elizabeth Wilcox in Washington D.C.  They had two sons: Peter, who taught at Julliard and composed numerous pieces of music for choirs and musicians, and David (1937-1999), who wrote and directed numerous documentaries and toured with the Robert Shaw Chorale.
 
 

Rainer Schickele Papers  |  Agriculture and Bonanza Farming