Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 25, No. 3, 1981, p. 459-473.
It is pointed out that the Schwinger variational principle of scattering theory applies to the case of linear and nonlinear relaxation problems in quantum statistics. By means of this principle it is possible to derive closed sets of equations for expectation values. To illustrate this variational method and to clarify the connection to other standard approaches some simple examples are treated for which the equations of motion are already known.