Robert Schirokauer was born in Berlin, Germany, on January 27, 1910. From 1932 to 1933, Schirokauer worked for the University of Berlin and as a Referendar (Assistant Judge) of the Berlin-Charlottenburg District Court. In 1932, he fled Germany for England under the name Robert Schirokauer Hartman. After leaving Germany, Hartman worked as a photographer in London and Paris before accepting a position as a Representative for Walt Disney Productions in 1934. He went on to work as an Instructor and Assistant Professor at the College of Wooster, Ohio (1945-1948), as an Associate Professor at Ohio State University (1948-1956), and as a Fulbright Professor and Research Professor at the National University of Mexico (1957-1973). Hartman also served as a Visiting Professor at MIT (1956-1957), at Yale University (1966), and at the University of Tennessee (1968-1969) in addition to writing a number of books, including Profit Sharing Manual (1948), The Partnership of Capital and Labor: Theory and Practice of a New Economic System (1958), The Structure of Value & Foundations of Scientific Axiology (1959), and The Knowledge of Good (1965). Hartman married Rita Emanuel in 1936 and the couple had one son, Jan Alfred (d. 2006). Hartman died on September 20, 1973 and is buried near his home in Parque de la Paz Cemetery in Cuernavaca, Mexico.