Ludwig Erhard: biography, photo, family, reforms. The German economic miracle of Ludwig Erhard

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Ludwig Erhard, whose biography will be discussed later, is a well-known West German statesman. In 1963-66. he was federal chancellor. From 1966 to 1967 he was chairman of the Christian Democratic Union.

Ludwig Erhard: biography

His father was a Catholic and his mother an evangelical Protestant. Ludwig Erhard received his secondary education in Nuremberg and Fürth. During the First World War, he fought in the artillery. In 1918 Erhard was wounded. Due to this injury, he was diagnosed with significant atrophy of his left hand. After completing seven operations, he was declared unfit for physical labor. Ludwig Erhard and his family were engaged in small business. However, the injury became a major obstacle to continuing to work at his father's enterprise.

University education

At the Nuremberg Institute, Ludwig Erhard began to study economics. He continued his education at the University of Frankfurt. Recalling his student days, Ludwig Erhard said that during this period he felt extremely lonely. In order not to forget how his voice sounds, hewent to the park, where he talked aloud to himself. While studying at the University of Frankfurt, Erhard noted the very low quality of teaching. In this regard, he turned to the dean's office, where he was advised to get acquainted with Franz Oppenheimer. He walked towards the man. From the moment they met, Ludwig Erhard believed that Oppenheimer was one of the best German scientists who laid the foundation for the liberal worldview.

Self-education

Shortly before the Great Depression, Ludwig Erhard became self-taught. Some time later, he took up the post of deputy director of the Institute for Business Research in Nuremberg. In 1942, disagreements with the Nazis forced him to leave the establishment. The following year, Ludwig Erhard becomes head of a small research center. It was created under the "imperial group of industry". The focus of the center was on developing economic reforms that were expected to be necessary after the fall of the Nazi regime.

Government activity

From September 1945, Ludwig Erhard served as Minister of State for the Economy of Bavaria. Then he was the head of a special department dealing with money and credit issues in Bizonia. In May 1948, Erhard became director of the Economic Department. Back in 1946, he began to talk about the need for reforms in the economic sphere. Ludwig Erhard's reforms were announced on 18-20June 1948. At the same time, the statesman carried out personal work on liberalization in the economic sector of Germany. According to the American model, a stable currency was introduced instead of the Reichsmark. At the same time, Erhard abolished centralized pricing and government planning for most of the products. So the enterprises of the country received freedom of action. Despite the fierce resistance of the Social Democrats, Erhard continued to adhere to a liberal position, advocated financial stability.

Working in the German government

After the formation of the country, Erhard becomes Minister of Economics during the reign of Konrad Adenauer. He was also the latter's successor as Federal Chancellor. After the Korean War, the "German miracle" happened. Ludwig Erhard, given the difficult situation in foreign trade, was forced to compromise and apply illiberal restrictions. The cost of raw materials imported by German industry increased by an average of 67%. At the same time, the prices of goods exported from the country - only by 17%. To ensure rapid economic growth, it was necessary to capture the foreign market and force other manufacturers out of it. If the industry of the state at that time had turned out to be uncompetitive, this step would only worsen the state of the economic sector. A new global war was expected.

This created panic, followed by consumer hype. Between the then Chancellor Adenauer and the Minister foreconomic development was in dispute. The conflict took on a fairly wide scale, going beyond the narrow party management. Erhard's concessions allowed him to gain time. After that, the war itself began to work for Germany. A stable economy with an affordable labor force began to fill the market space, which needed products, with goods of its own production. Due to low taxes, Germany's GDP growth rate in the middle of the 20th century reached the highest level among all the developed countries that existed at that time, while the level of price increase was the lowest. Following the transformations in the economic sector, the housing and construction reform began.

Ludwig Erhard: retirement

In the course of his work, the statesman completely abandoned the manipulations with state regulation, which were very popular in the East and were quite actively used by his predecessors in Germany. Erhard strictly defined the country as a state of Western culture, a market economy. Adenauer retired in 1963. Erhard became the new chancellor of Germany. However, his directness, which worked well in times of bitter controversy under the cover provided by Adenauer, was absolutely not suitable to become the mainstream of the new era. In 1966, under pressure from his associates, he was forced to resign. Until his very last days, Erhard remained the oldest deputy in the Bundestag.

Historical role

The economic miracle of Ludwig Erhardmade him the most famous statesman of his era. He was forced to work in conditions where government intervention in the economic sector was more than real. He was well aware that in an era of great influence of socialist ideas, it is necessary to use a wide range of measures to ensure the social protection of the population. However, the key direction that developed the concept of Ludwig Erhard was the preservation of financial stability and economic freedom. Inflation and centralism were his main enemies. Erhard wanted to minimize any manifestation of statism.

At the same time, he did not seek to fight the resistance force. He thought it would be wiser to put her on his side. This was the essence of the strategy that came to be called the social market economy. Priority was given to the market mechanism, but not to public security.

Conclusion

Erhard always tried to explain to the population as fully as possible the specifics of the reforms he carried out, instead of engaging in demagogy, as was customary in the 20th century. He was willing to coax every single citizen of Germany to the point where he felt ashamed of not supporting the government's efforts to keep the currency stable. CSU leader Strauss recalled that as soon as the market economy was discussed, Erhard overslept his talent as an orator. He captivated and infected his audience with his enthusiasm. Erhard knew how to convince, he quickly won over and gained confidencesupporters.