- Walter Eucken
Walter Eucken (
17 January 1891 -20 March 1950 ) was a Germaneconomist and father ofordoliberalism . His name is closely linked with the development of the "social market economy ".Life
Walter Eucken was born in
Jena ,Thuringia . His father was thephilosopher Rudolf Eucken , who won the 1908Nobel Prize in Literature .At first more interested in history, Walter Eucken chose to study economics in
Kiel ,Jena andBonn . He graduated in 1913, shortly before he had to serve as officer at the fronts ofWorld War I . In 1921, Eucken got his first professorship inBerlin . In 1927 he moved toFreiburg , where he was professor of economics until his death. During the Nazi period, Eucken was associated to the resistance movement ("Freiburg Bonhoeffer Circle").He died in
London , UK.In 1954, four years after Eucken's death, a group of friends and former students founded the
Walter Eucken Institut . Its president isJames M. Buchanan since 2004.Theory
Eucken's
ordoliberalism , which is the German variant ofneoliberalism , claims that thestate has the task to provide thepolitical framework foreconomic freedom . The state should form an economical order instead of directing economical processes.The idea of ordoliberalism was introduced for the first time in 1937 in "Ordnung der Wirtschaft", a periodical published by
Walter Eucken ,Franz Böhm andHans Großmann-Doerth . It was then further developed inORDO , a German scholarly journal first published byWalter Eucken andFranz Böhm in 1948.Links
* [http://www.eucken.de/en/index.htm Walter Eucken Institute]
* [http://www.eucken.org/ Walter Eucken Archive in Frankfurt am Main / Germany]
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