Wilhelm Röpke
| Wilhelm Röpke | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 10, 1899 Schwarmstedt, German Empire |
| Died | February 12, 1966 (aged 66) Geneva, Switzerland |
| Nationality | German |
| Institution | University of Marburg, University of Istanbul, Graduate Institute of International Studies |
| Field | Economics, Ethics |
| School or tradition |
Ordoliberalism |
| Alma mater | University of Marburg |
| Influences | Ludwig von Mises |
| Influenced | Konrad Adenauer, Ludwig Erhard, Henry Hazlitt, F. A. Hayek |
| Contributions | Theoretical foundation of the German economic miracle |
Wilhelm Röpke (October 10, 1899 – February 12, 1966) was Professor of Economics, first in Jena, then in Graz, Marburg, Istanbul, and finally Geneva, Switzerland, and one of the spiritual fathers of the social market economy, theorising and collaborating to organise the post-World War II economic re-awakening of the war-wrecked German economy, deploying a program sometimes referred to as the sociological neoliberalism (compared to ordoliberalism, a more sociologically inclined variant of German neoliberalism).
With Alfred Müller-Armack and Alexander Rüstow (sociological neoliberalism) and Walter Eucken and Franz Böhm (ordoliberalism) he elucidated the ideas, which then were introduced formally by Germany's post-World War II Minister for Economics Ludwig Erhard, operating under Konrad Adenauer's Chancellorship. Röpke and his colleagues' economic influence therefore is considered largely responsible for enabling Germany's post-World War II "economic miracle". Röpke was also a historian.
Röpke's opposition to the German Nazi regime led him (with his family) in 1933 to emigrate to Istanbul, Turkey, where he taught until 1937, before accepting a position at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, where he lived until his death, in 1966.
In his youth, Röpke was first inspired by socialism and afterwards by the Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises. Despite this, the post-World War II economic liberation enabling Germany to once again lead Europe, which Röpke and his allies (Walter Eucken, Franz Böhm, Alfred Müller-Armack and Alexander Rüstow) were the intellectual muscle behind, occurred by implementing policy divergent to that advocated by Ludwig von Mises. Though the two men shared some beliefs in certain areas, Röpke & co. instead formed the school of ordoliberalism and advocated free trade but with more central bank and state influence than what Austrian School economists suggest is required. Unlike many mainstream Austrian School economists, Röpke and the ordoliberalists conceded that the market economy can be more disruptive and inhumane unless intervention is permitted a role to play.
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