- Wilhelm Röpke
Wilhelm Röpke (
October 10 ,1899 inSchwarmstedt –February 12 ,1966 inGeneva ) was one of the most important spiritual fathers of the Germansocial market economy .For Röpke (professor of economics, first in
Jena , then inGraz ,Marburg ,Istanbul ,Geneva ),right s, moral habits ("Sitte"), and social norms and values were decisive elements with which not the market, but the state and central bank continually need to be concerned. With a "conforming" social, economic, and financial policy, the task of which is to protect the weak "beyond the market", to equalize interests, set rules of the game, and limit market power, Röpke strove for an economic order of "economichumanism ", something which he also referred to as the "third way". Röpke stood for a society and social policy in which human rights are given the highest importance. He believed that individualism must be balanced by a well-thought-out principle of sociality and humanity.Nevertheless, he was a strong critic of extensive welfare. A "pocket money state" would gain more and more influence on life and ownership of his citizens, resulting in a non-communistic form of submission (Röpke referred in particular to the German policy before and during
World War II ). Therefore, social policy should never sacrifice thefree market .Until the late 1950s, Wilhelm Röpke advised the government of the first German Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer . His name is linked with the school ofOrdoliberalism .ee also
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Contributions to liberal theory
*Liberalism
*Mont Pelerin Society
*Neosocialism External links
* [http://www.mises.org/content/roepke.asp A biography of Röpke] - by Shawn Ritenour
* [http://www.mises.org/books/germanquestion.pdf The German Question] - 1946 book by Röpke
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0354/is_3_45/ai_n6140123 An essay about Röpke] - by John Attarian
* [http://countrystudies.us/germany/136.htm The Social Market Economy] - U.S. Library of Congress
* [http://www.iwp.uni-koeln.de/GB/library/elib.htm#archiev Wilhelm Röpke - Library Collections (including his entire correspondence in original)] - Library of the Institute for Economic Policy, University of Cologne, Germany
* [http://www.iwp.uni-koeln.de/DE/Bilbiliothek/bib.htm#wilhelm_roepke Wilhelm Röpke - Library Collections (German Page)] - Library of the Institute for Economic Policy, University of Cologne, Germany
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