Ludwig Erhard Revives German Economy: From Stunde Null to Wirtschaftswunder

When WW2 ended in 1945, Germany had been decimated in several ways: millions of innocent Germans had died in concentration camps; young German men had died fighting at the front; civilians had died in the bombing of German cities. The physical infrastructure of the nation was in shambles: roads, bridges, railroads, water pipes, sewage pipes, electrical generation, telephone service, etc., were largely destroyed.

But in one further way the nation suffered. Its economy had been ravaged by the Nazi government. Meaningful work was scarce, and the threat of starvation real.

The Nazis had devastated the nation’s economy by means of their political ideology: “Nazi” means “National Socialist.”

The brutal and inhumane practices of the Nazis included high rates of taxation, government control of wages and prices, and government ownership of various businesses and industries. According to their socialist principles, they regulated nearly every transaction. Freedom to negotiate or make deals was non-existent.

The inevitable effects of these National Socialist policies included extreme scarcity of consumer goods and a thriving black market. Although it was dangerous to participate in the black market, individuals could find the freedom to negotiate and make deals there.

Many observers thought that Germany would be locked into a “third-world” status for many decades to come. The standard of living in postwar Germany was one of the lowest in the entire world.

Economically, the nation was starting over with nearly no resources. Historians called it Stunde Null - the ‘zero hour’ at which some rebirth might begin. Without material resources, this new beginning would be fueled by the visionary ideas of Ludwig Erhard.

The beginning of Germany’s amazing recovery was a set of ideas advanced by Ludwig Erhard. Within a single decade, Germany’s economy would be one of the strongest in the world.

Ludwig Erhard’s ideas centered on the idea of liberty. The National Socialists had taken away nearly every form of personal freedom, and especially economic freedom. Erhard would reverse the damage done by the Nazis. He would do that by increasing personal liberty, and especially the freedom of the individual to make economic choices.

Erhard, simply put, saw that economic recovery would come through a respect for personal freedom and through honoring the dignity of the individual and the individual’s liberty to make choices. Charles Moritz’s Current Biography reports that

On June 20, 1948, following the collapse of the West German economy, the occupation government introduced the currency reform and issued the new German mark, which aimed at increasing the purchasing power of the German wage earner. On the following day Erhard announced the removal of price controls and rationing, a move that he felt was necessary to make the full benefits of currency reform available to the people. Erhard reportedly took this step on his own initiative despite the misgivings of the American military governor, General Lucius D. Clay, and other Allied authorities. Although at first there were food shortages, accompanied by occasional disturbances, the economy soon revived. Meanwhile, Erhard kept up public morale by applying Seelenmassagen (soul massages) in the form of optimistic radio talks and newspaper articles.

Erhard’s economic leadership brought about a Wirtschaftswunder - an ‘economic miracle’ in which Germany’s exports increased by 700 percent between 1948 and 1962. Unemployed neared zero, and the national currency, worthless in 1947, was one of the world’s most stable currencies in the late 1950s.

By the time he was elected chancellor of West Germany in October 1963, Ludwig Erhard had already done his most important work during his years as Economics Minister under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

Possessing academic inclinations, Erhard authored several books on economics, and viewed his work less from the perspective of partisan politics and more from the perspective of a theoretical fiscal and monetary scholar.

Trakl the Compassionate Prophet: A Kinder, Gentler Apocalypse

Like several other artists during the years immediately prior to World War One, the Austrian poet Georg Trakl was haunted by insights that his society was headed for a self-destructive event, and that in this society there was a moral emptiness and a moral superficiality.

Trakl was a prophet.

In Western Civilization, the prophetic tradition, going back 3,000 to 4,000 years, can be characterized by three concepts. The prophet is social critic, a spokesman for God, and seer who has visions of the future.

Within the literary prophetic paradigm, there are subtypes: on the one hand, the condemnatory prophet who utters wrath and judgment; on the other hand, the compassionate prophet who sees the impending doom and empathizes with the soon-to-be victims.

One locus classicus for the compassionate prophet is the event during which Jesus wept about the future of the city of Jerusalem. He expresses a deep personal sadness for the residents of the city, even while explaining the terror which the Romans will inflict on it (cf. Luke 19, Matthew 23).

According to scholar Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Trakl falls into the pattern of the compassionate prophet:

The relationship of prophet to decadence is less that of one who condemns than of one who transfigures. In this respect, Trakl is as different from the other Expressionists in their vitriolic anger as Dostoievski, the underground man, was from Tolstoy, the rationalist utopian. Although seeing decay and corruption everywhere, Trakl never makes himself a force for their destruction, but for their atonement. Rather than separate himself as justified saint over against the bleak reality of his era, Trakl identifies himself so fully with it, rather in the manner of Hosea, the prophet who fornicates with a prostitute, that at times he appears himself to be a demonic visionary.

To support this hypothesis, Leiva-Merikakis cites lines from Trakl’s poem das Grauen. Clearly, Trakl presents a vision of coming destruction:

Ich sah mich durch verlass’ne Zimmer gehen.

As the poem continues, Trakl’s empathy moves him from merely reporting what he observes. His compassion moves him to an identification with the future destruction:

Doch plötzlich: Stille! Dumpfe Fieberglut
Läßt giftige Blumen blühn aus meinem Munde

‘Poisonous flowers’ emerge from Trakl’s mouth, perhaps in a state of delirium. Trakl sees himself as burdened with unpleasant task of predicting a dark future. He takes no joy in his role as seer. He does not wish ill on those who will suffer in the coming disaster. Perhaps he even feels some guilt about it.

But if Trakl identifies with the destruction, he does so only in part, because he also identifies with the destroyed. He may pronounce judgment, but he includes himself among those being judged:

Aus eines Spiegels trügerischer Leere
Hebt langsam sich, und wie ins Ungefähre
Aus Graun und Finsternis ein Antlitz: Kain!

Sehr leise rauscht die samtene Portiere,
Durchs Fenster schaut der Mond gleichwie ins Leere,
Da bin mit meinem Mörder ich allein.

Comparing himself to the fratricidal Cain, Trakl sees himself to be both murderer and victim.

While Leiva-Merikakis correctly points to Das Grauen to support and explain his hypothesis about Trakl being a compassionate prophet, Trakl’s body of work abounds with other texts which also support and exemplify this view of the poet.

Trakl’s poem Abendland arrived at its final state by means of three or four early drafts. These drafts have survived. Both the future disaster, and Trakl’s compassion for its victims, are seen in the text. The suffering is clear:

Silbern weint ein Krankes
Am Abendweiher,
Auf schwarzem Kahn
Hinüberstarben Liebende.

And later:

O des Knaben Gestalt
Geformt aus kristallenen Tränen.

Toward the end of the final draft, Trakl exclaims:

Ihr sterbenden Völker!

These are representative of many other phrases which are found in all four or five drafts of the poem.

Likewise, Trakl’s compassion for those who will suffer in the coming disaster manifests itself. In one draft, he uses the first person to include himself:

Und wir haben im Schlaf geweint.

He describes the Schwermut and das dunkle Lied der Schmerzen without making them into a punishment or a condemnation. And he includes, perhaps, a hint about a coming atonement or redemption:

Auch freut die Stille der Kinder
Die Nähe der Engel
Auf kristallener Wiese.

Trakl’s poetry, famous for its dark and foreboding tone, is softened by his identification with those who suffer, and by his allusions to a future atonement. Indeed, according to Leiva-Merikakis, Trakl sees his own poetry as part of that atoning process.

The Socialist Attack on Religion: Hitler Attempts to Erase Faith

When Hitler’s National Socialist party seized power in Germany in early 1933, it began a multifaceted effort to eliminate organized religion.

One aspect of this undertaking was to promote a resurgence of ancient Norse mythologies. This ancient belief system consisted of a polytheistic myths. The harsh nature of these myths included human sacrifice, vengeance killings, and the relegation of women to an inferior status.

A second aspect of the Nazi effort - remember that ‘Nazi’ means ‘National Socialist’ - was the promotion of atheism. Most Nazi institutions were officially atheist, as were many of the Nazi leaders. (Those Nazi leaders who weren’t atheists engaged in various Wicca activities like Norse mythology and nature worship.)

The third and final aspect of the National Socialist attempt to eliminate religious faith was to infiltrate and subvert existing religious institutions. The people who been members of religious societies or churches for many years didn’t want to quit being a part of those groups.

So the Nazis worked to deceive the members: The church’s building was still open at the same time on Sunday mornings, so people thought they they were “going to church.” But the National Socialists had replaced the decorations inside the church with Nazi banners and swastikas. The person who gave the speech was no longer a Christian minister talking about Jesus, but a Nazi talking about Hitler.

When the National Socialists first seized the government in 1933, they signed a commitment called a ‘concordat’ and they promised to let religious groups have some freedom. But they quickly broke that promise. Published research from the Weiße Rose Stiftung (The White Rose Foundation) reports that

According to the concordat between the Third Reich and the Holy See in 1933, Catholic youth organizations were permitted uniforms, insignia, and banners. Despite that agreement, they were harassed, persecuted and finally outlawed in 1938.

All varieties of Christianity were targeted by the National Socialists: Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and others. The Nazi’s own youth club swallowed up some of the other youth groups which had existed before 1933.

Young people in these groups discovered that when their local church youth group was blended into the National Socialist Hitlerjugend, the group ceased to be a safe place. These high school students then left, and resisted by forming their own groups.

On December 18, 1933, the Protestant Youth was incorporated into the Nazi State Youth organization.

Christians formed several resistance movements, and these movements worked together. One of them was the Bekennende Kirche (The Confessing Church). The word ‘confessing’ meant that they would confess what they knew to be true, and thereby oppose the National Socialists.

Yet, as soon as they realized that the cross had to be exchanged for the swastika, they founded the ‘Young Reformation Movement.’ It was part of the ‘Bekennende Kirche’ (Confessional Church). It was in this group that Christians who resisted National Socialism united.

The quotes above are taken from a 1991 publication by the Weiße Rose Stiftung, edited by Franz Josef Müller, and including work by Ulrich Chaussy, Christiane Moll, Franz Josef Müller, Britta Müller-Baltschun, and Hans Wrobel.