Otmar Emminger

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Otmar Erich Anton Emminger (born March 2, 1911 in Augsburg ; † August 3, 1986 in Manila ) was a German economist and from July 1, 1977 to December 31, 1979 President of the Deutsche Bundesbank .

Life

The son of the lawyer and politician Erich Emminger studied law and economics in Berlin, Munich, Edinburgh and at the London School of Economics from 1928 to 1932 . In Berlin he became a member of the Catholic student union Askania (now K.St.V. Askania-Burgundia ), in Munich the KSSt.V. Alemannia Munich , both in KV . After his first legal state examination in 1931, he first became a legal trainee, but interrupted his legal preparatory service to study in Great Britain and to work as a research assistant in Berlin in 1934 and at the German Institute for Economic Research from 1935 to 1936 . In December 1934, Emminger had already completed his doctorate at the Munich State Economics Faculty, became a trainee lawyer again in 1936 and passed the assessor exam in 1938. The Nazi Party , he joined in the year 1937th During the Second World War he served in the Air Force of the Wehrmacht and was promoted to first lieutenant on September 1, 1942 . In March 1945 he was a captain in the staff of the 11th Flak Division and first general staff officer .

After military service and imprisonment, he became an employee of the Bavarian Economic Working Group in 1945 and, in 1947, senior councilor in the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs. In 1949 he took over the economic department of the German delegation to the European Economic Council in Paris (OEEC), today's OECD. At the end of 1950, the Bank deutscher Länder in Frankfurt / Main (the predecessor institution of the Deutsche Bundesbank) asked him to join their service. In the spring of 1951 he took over the management of the main economics and statistics department .

From March 1953 to 1969 Emminger was a member of the board of directors, first of the Bank deutscher Länder, then the Deutsche Bundesbank, from 1969 to 1977 he was its vice-president. From July 1, 1977 to December 31, 1979 he was President of the Deutsche Bundesbank.

From 1958 to 1977 he was vice-president and temporarily also president of the monetary committee of the EEC ( European Economic Community ).

Emminger campaigned consistently for the stability of the DM, he fought against the massive influx of dollars from the USA (" dollar glut ") and insisted on the Bundesbank's strict independence from the government. The Bundesbank only gave its approval for the European Monetary System (EMS) after it had implemented significant changes. This decision was not easy for Emminger; in his dissertation he had already dealt with the introduction of flexible exchange rates and later helped to shape the separation of exchange rates from the dollar standard himself.

Emminger was an influential representative of the Bundesbank; his international experience and rhetorical talent probably contributed to this. Because he consistently advocated the price stability of the DM and the independence of the Bundesbank, he was called "Mister DM" abroad.

On June 30, 1977, Karl Klasen retired; he had been President of the Bundesbank since 1969. Emminger became his successor; he was followed on January 1, 1980 by Karl Otto Pöhl .

Emminger has received numerous honors: including the Grand Cross of the Federal Order of Merit , the Bavarian Order of Merit , the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic with star and shoulder ribbon, the Great Golden Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria , the Grand Cross of the Royal North Star Order of Sweden.

In July 1986 Emminger traveled to Manila on behalf of the German government ( Kohl II cabinet ) , where he wanted to make his monetary policy experience available to President Corazon Aquino . There he died of heart failure.

Works (selection)

  • The English currency experiments of the post-war period. Currency devaluation and overcoming the crisis . Dissertation Munich 1934
  • Interim balance of the DM revaluation (1970)
  • Inflation and the International Monetary System (1973)
  • On the Way to a New International Monetary Order (1976)
  • Defense of the DM. Plea for stable money , Frankfurt am Main 1980
  • D-Mark, dollar, currency crises. Memories of a former Bundesbank President , Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-421-06333-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Section A-F. (PDF) 2017, p. 862 , accessed on August 2, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ Autobiography, p. 50
  3. ↑ spiegel.de January 3, 1977: Popular armchair
  4. ↑ Der Spiegel 33/1986, p. 80: Obituary
  5. ↑ pdf
  6. ↑ American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research , 1976 - 21 pages
  7. ↑ Die Zeit: A memorial by my own hand

literature

  • Wolfgang Johann in Siegfried Koß, Wolfgang Löhr (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon des KV. 6th part (= Revocatio historiae. Volume 7). SH-Verlag, Schernfeld 2000, ISBN 3-89498-097-4 , p. 25 f.
  • Academic Monthly March / April 1986 page 13
  • Egbert Lammers : Common academic years in Berlin in Academic Monthly Gazette Dec 1987 p. 8ff

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Emminger, Otmar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Emminger, Otmar Erich Anton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist and President of the Deutsche Bundesbank
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1986
Place of death Manila