In the German text, the word Schema is frequently used to refer to Marx’s construction of rather abstract equations or mathematical models to illustrate his conception of how economic reproduction and accumulation take place under capitalism. These are often referred to in English as Marx’s “schemas” or “reproduction schemas” or “accumulation schemas.” (In German, the plural of Schema is Schemata, both the singular and plural forms coming, of course, from ancient Greek, in which skhema meant “form,” “figure,” “plan,” or the like; derived from a Greek verb meaning “to hold”; thus in a sense, a skhema was something that “held” a certain shape.)
However, in addition to “schema” a longer phrase may also be used, such as “schematic presentation” or “schematic model.” For example, in the translation of Volume 2 of Capital by David Fernbach (New York: Penguin, 1978), the following heading appears on page 581: “Schematic Presentation of Accumulation.” Marx used the German words Schematische Darstellung der Akkumulation. That is the heading for Section 3 under “Chapter 21: Accumulation and Reproduction on an Expanded Scale.” And that is the fourth chapter under Part Three of Volume 2. Part Three bears the heading: “The Reproduction and Circulation of the Total Social Capital,” and it is Part Three of Volume 2 that Luxemburg focuses on primarily in her books The Accumulation of Capital and Anti-Critique.
In translating this material, one difficulty is that in ordinary English the word “schema” is not very commonly used; the more common English word “scheme” has strong connotations of something unsavory, such as a “conniving schemer” might cook up, although there is also a neutral connotation, as in the phrase “the grand scheme of things.” Fernbach is right to use “schema” in his translation of Volume 2 of Marx’s Capital (rather than, for example, “diagram,” as used by Agnes Schwarzschild in her 1951 translation of the Accumulation of Capital). On the other hand, the Tarbuck edition of Anti-Critique uses the term “model” for the German word Schema. Therefore I have sometimes used the phrase “schematic model” for the German Schema, or I have used the English word “model,” and sometimes followed it by [or “schema”].