Alfred Müller-Armack

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Alfred Müller-Armack (center) 1961.

Alfred August Arnold Müller-Armack (born June 28, 1901 in Essen , † March 16, 1978 in Cologne ) was a German economist , cultural sociologist , originator of the term and co-founder of the social market economy .

Live and act

In the 1920s he added his mother's maiden name to his name and published from 1929 under the name "Müller-Armack". His habilitation took place in 1926 with the thesis "Economic theory of economic policy." Before that, he had received his doctorate in 1923 at the University of Cologne . The title of the thesis was “The crisis problem in theoretical social economics. Attempt to re-establish the absolute theory of overproduction ”.

At the beginning of May 1933 he joined the NSDAP , hoping that the National Socialist regime , as a “strong state”, could implement a better and more stable economic policy than the Weimar Republic . Until 1945 he remained - a passive - party member, but formulated his hopes for the economic order that was now becoming possible in an empathetic pamphlet.

In the same year (1933) he published his work State idea and economic order in the New Reich, which was ideologically close to National Socialism. In 1940 he became a full professor and managing director of the Institute for Economic and Social Sciences at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster , where he took on advisory tasks for the Nazi regime and the Wehrmacht. At the age of 25 he was the youngest lecturer and in 1934 the youngest associate professor at the University of Cologne.

His first marriage ended in divorce after just six months. A new edition of his book “Staatsidee” was rejected by the Nazi rulers in 1935.

In confidential discussion groups in business, in which one did not necessarily assume the "final victory" of the German Reich, and where he also met Ludwig Erhard , he worked on concepts for an economic order after the war. From 1943 he worked in Vreden-Ellewick , where his research center for general and textile market economy had been relocated. With his study The Century Without God in 1948 he attempted a sociological religious interpretation of National Socialism , which he viewed in retrospect as a substitute religion in a time of apostasy.

After the Second World War he joined the CDU and in 1946, in his book Wirtschaftslenken und Marktwirtschaft (published 1947), he designed the idea and concept of the “ social market economy ” (he always wrote social with a capital “S”) as one with “social justice ... in a complementary relationship “a market economy . In 1950 he moved to the University of Cologne as a full professor of economic political science and in the same year founded the Institute for Economic Policy at the University of Cologne together with Franz Greiß as an independent economic research institute. From 1952 he worked in the Ministry of Economic Affairs under Ludwig Erhard as head of the policy department. In his theoretical and practical further development of the social market economy, he also considerably expanded the ideas of Ludwig Erhard and the ordoliberals . From 1958 to 1963 he was State Secretary for European Affairs. Müller-Armack was influenced by sociological neoliberalism and the Freiburg School as well as by Christian social teaching .

When negotiations for the UK to join the EEC failed in 1963 , Müller-Armack offered to resign. Nevertheless, he remained in office until the change of government in mid-October 1963. He then resumed teaching at the University of Cologne as an honorary professor. In 1970 Müller-Armack retired.

He largely withdrew from politics, but was a city councilor in Cologne from 1964 to 1969 (for the CDU). From 1964 to 1968 he was chairman of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung together with Franz Thedieck . After Ludwig Erhard's death, he became his successor to the Ludwig Erhard Foundation .

Until August 1977 he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank . He held a comparable position at Rheinische Stahlwerke , where he was chairman of the supervisory board from 1965 to 1969.

In 1971 he published his memoirs under the title On the Way to Europe . In 1972 he received the Ernst Hellmut Vits Prize from the Westphalian Wilhelms University (WWU) in Münster. In 1976 he was awarded the Alexander-Rustow badge .

In contrast to Erhard, he insisted until his death (1978) that the concept of the social market economy coincided with the real economic order.

"The style principle of the social market economy [is] amenable to permanent modification [...] I remind you of the savings promotion, of the further approaches to asset policy, of the dynamic pension formula, of the Works Constitution Act and everything that followed."

- Alfred Müller-Armack : The basic formula of the social market economy, in: Ludwig-Erhard-Stiftung (Hrsg.): Symposion I: Social market economy as a national and international order, Bonn 1978, p. 13

Müller-Armack married Irmgard Helene Emma Fortmann in 1934. He died in 1978 at the age of 76 in Cologne University Hospital. He is buried at the Riedering cemetery (Rosenheim district in Upper Bavaria).

Survival

  • Since 2002, the economics faculty of his home university in Münster has been awarding the Müller-Armack Prize named after him to the best graduates of the economics course .
  • The largest lecture hall in the WiSo building of the University of Cologne - lecture hall I - is called the Müller-Armack-Hörsaal.

Publications

  • Development Laws of Capitalism. Economic, historical and sociological studies on the modern economic constitution. Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1932
  • State idea and economic order in the New Kingdom. Junker & Dünnhaupt, Berlin 1933
  • Genealogy of economic styles. The intellectual-historical origins of the state and economic forms up to the end of the 18th century. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1941
  • To diagnose our economic situation. Küster, Bielefeld 1947
  • Economic governance and market economy. Verlag für Wirtschaft und Sozialpolitik, Hamburg 1947; Kastell, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-924592-28-4 (also included in economic system and economic policy )
  • The century without God. On the cultural sociology of our time. Regensberg, Münster 1948; Schmitt, Siegburg 2004, ISBN 3-87710-324-3
  • Diagnosing our present. To determine our intellectual-historical location. Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1949; 2nd expanded edition: Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-258-03023-5
  • Religion and economy. Spiritual historical backgrounds of our European way of life. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1959; Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart 1981, ISBN 3-258-03024-3
  • Studies on the social market economy. Institute for Economic Policy at the University of Cologne, 1960
  • Economic order and economic policy. Studies and concepts for the social market economy and European integration. Rombach, Freiburg 1966; Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-258-02515-0
  • Economic and financial policy under the sign of the social market economy. Festival ceremony for Franz Etzel . Seewald, Stuttgart 1967
  • On the way to Europe. Memories and views. Wunderlich, Tübingen 1971, ISBN 3-8052-0202-4
  • Genealogy of the social market economy. Early writings and advanced concepts. Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-258-01198-2 ; 2nd extended edition ibid. 1981, ISBN 3-258-03025-1 (collects early writings 1945–1948 - apart from economic management and market economy - as well as contributions to the intellectual foundations and the further development of the social market economy from 1953 to 1973)
  • The central question of research. The unity of humanities and natural sciences. In: ORDO . Vol. 28, 1975, pp. 13-23.
  • The basic formula of the social market economy . In: Ludwig-Erhard-Stiftung (Ed.): Symposion I: Social market economy as a national and international order . Verlag Bonn Aktuell, Bonn 1978, pp. 9-18.

literature

  • Daniel Dietzfelbinger: Social market economy as an economic style. Alfred Müller-Armack's life's work. Kaiser, Gütersloh 1998, ISBN 3-579-02617-8
  • Daniel Dietzfelbinger: From the sociology of religion to the social market economy: the life and work of Alfred Müller-Armack. In: Hanns Seidel Foundation (Ed.): Political Studies. 373, Volume 51, September / October 2000, pp. 85–99 ( PDF )
  • Christoph Holtwisch (Red.): The Social Market Economy - Made in Vreden ; Contributions of the Heimatverein Vreden on regional and folklore, Volume 99, Vreden 2019, ISBN 3-926627-79-4 with contributions by (among others) Daniel Dietzfelbinger, Markus Langen, Markus Pieper , Albrecht Ritschl and Franz Schoser
  • Rolf Kowitz: Alfred Müller-Armack. Economic policy as a calling. On the history of the development of the social market economy and the political work of the university professor. Deutscher Instituts-Verlag, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-602-14440-2
  • Bernhard Löffler: Social market economy and administrative practice. The Federal Ministry of Economics under Ludwig Erhard. Steiner, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-515-07940-8
  • Andreas Müller-Armack:  Müller-Armack, Alfred. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 487 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Friedrun Quaas: Social Market Economy. Reality and alienation of a concept. Haupt, Bern / Stuttgart / Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-258-06012-6
  • Bertram Schefold : From the intervention state to the social market economy. The way of Alfred Müller-Armack. Publishing house economy and finance, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-87881-135-7
  • Hans Willgerodt : Alfred Müller-Armack - The creator of the term “social market economy” . In: Journal for Economic Policy , vol. 50, 2001, issue 3, pp. 253–277 ( PDF )
  • Matthias Zimmer: Person and order. Introduction to the social market economy, (Herder-Verlag) Freiburg, Basel, Vienna 2020. ISBN 978-3-451-39984-8 page 16, 40–43

Commemorative and commemorative publications

Web links

Commons : Alfred Müller-Armack  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Death certificate No. 2851 from March 20, 1978, Cologne registry office. In: LAV NRW R civil status register. Retrieved June 28, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Markus Lingen : Alfred Müller-Armack, in: "The Social Market Economy - Made in Vreden"; Contributions of the Heimatverein Vreden on regional and folklore, volume 99, p. 175 ff., ISBN 3-926627-79-4
  3. ^ Nina Streeck: Alfred Müller-Armack (1901–1978), political economist . Regional Association of Rhineland, 2010
  4. ↑ Ralf Ptak : From ordoliberalism to the social market economy. Stations of neoliberalism in Germany. Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-4111-4
  5. ^ Friedrun Quaas: Social market economy. Reality and alienation of a concept . Haupt, Bern 2000, p-55.
  6. ↑ Otto Schlecht , Fundamentals and Perspectives of the Social Market Economy , JCB Mohr, 1990, ISBN 3-16-145690-4 , p. 13
  7. ^ Daniel Dietzfelbinger: From the sociology of religion to the social market economy: Life and work of Alfred Müller-Armack . In: Hanns Seidel Foundation (Ed.): Political Studies . 373, Volume 51, September / October 2000, pp. 85-99.
  8. ^ Klaus Nerger: Online directory of the gravesites of famous deceased
  9. ^ Alfred Müller-Armack Merit Medal ( Memento from September 25, 2018 in the Internet Archive ), Action Group Social Market Economy, accessed on September 26, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Müller-Armack, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller-Armack, Alfred August Arnold (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German economist, cultural sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH eat
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1978
Place of death Cologne