Hans Cohrssen

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Hans RL Cohrssen (born September 19, 1905 in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , † January 10, 1997 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German-American Freiwirt , co-founder of the US Free Economic League ( Freiwirtschaftsliga ) and close collaborator of Irving Fishers (1867 -1947). After the Second World War , in which he had participated as a volunteer in the US Army , he was instrumental in building up democratic German radio.

Life

Hans Cohrssen was born as the son of the Jewish department store owners Siegfried and Helene Cohrssen. His father, who was originally called Salomon Cohen, had himself renamed at a young age and gained a Nordic-sounding name with “Siegfried Cohrssen”. His parents' house in Neustadt still exists; It is located at Hauptstrasse 43. After completing school, Corssen learned the trade of a wholesale merchant (iron and metal trade) and then worked as an employee for three years in his learned trade.

As a young man, Cohrssen studied the views of Mahatma Gandhi , which impressed him greatly. In his search for like-minded people, he came across supporters of the life reform movement and through them the natural economic order of Silvio Gesell . In 1926 he emigrated to the United States , where he earned his living first as a partner in a health food store and later as a taxi driver in New York . The New York stock market crash of October 1929 and the subsequent global economic crisis led Cohrssen to search for economic causes. In doing so, he remembered Silvio Gesell's free economics, of which he had heard in circles of the life reform movement, but of which he had "only superficial knowledge". He found the information he was looking for in the library of the Stable Money Association , a monetary policy organization founded by Irving Fisher and friends. When it had to close, Fisher gave him the library. It became the theoretical basis for Cohrssen's further activities.

In 1931 Cohrssen founded the Free Economic League with friends who had also immigrated from Germany . Her goal was to publicize the ideas of Silvio Gesell and in particular the results of the free-market money experiments in the United States. However, Cohrssen and his friends were not the first to spread free economy ideas in the USA. A pioneer in this regard is the doctor and naturopathic doctor and naturopath Hugo Fack , who was also of German origin and who translated, wrote and published numerous free-market publications into English, including the monthly magazine Freedom and Plenty , which he edited and which appeared from 1930, and the American edition of 1934 natural economic order ( natural economic order ). The members of the Free Economic League spread the free economic views in a variety of ways. Cohrssen has written articles for magazines, lectured in clubs and private societies, and wrote letters to members of the US Congress . He also turned to Irving Fisher and made him aware of the free-trade Schwundgelexperiment von Wörgl (1932). Fisher invited him for a face-to-face meeting and reported on a plethora of inquiries relating to Free Economic League publications that sought Fisher's comments. Irving Fisher was already convinced of Silvio Gesell's monetary policy ideas and was considering the idea of ​​publishing a manual on them. He asked Cohrssen for help. At the turn of 1932/33 the book Stamp Scrip was published . In addition to Irving Fisher, Hans Cohrssen and Herbert Wescott Fisher are named as co-authors.

During the time of the Great Depression, the book initially encountered many interested parties. The Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce printed $ 100,000 for fraud. The state of Oregon decided to spend $ 80 million in wasted money to fund public works. In addition there were 450 cities and municipalities that were ready to issue Schwundgeld. However, the experiments ultimately failed due to the ban on banks and emergency money, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt pronounced in early March 1933. Other publications followed by Fisher, in which Cohrssen was instrumental, including the book Stable Money: A History of the Movement (1934). Only a year later it appeared under the title Fixed Currency. The German translation for the history of the development of the idea .

Cohrssen began his military service for the USA in 1941, came to Austria in 1945 as a radio officer in the US Army and was the founder and until March 1946 head of the US occupation station Rot-Weiß-Rot in Salzburg . From 1947 he worked on setting up the Hessischer Rundfunk in Frankfurt am Main.

In 1989 Cohrssen founded the Irving Fisher Society in Frankfurt am Main.

Hans Cohrssen was married to the theater actress Martha Marbo from 1953 . The marriage produced a son and a daughter.

Awards

Web links

Publications

  • WÄRA . In: The New Republic . 8/1932
  • Stamp Scrip (together with Irving Fisher and Herbert Wescott Fisher). Adelphi Company: 1932
  • Mussolini and the Ethiopian War . In: Irving Fisher Institute . New Haven. 9/1935
  • The Campaign of 1936 and Sweden . In: Irving Fisher Institute . New Haven nd [1936?]
  • Belgian devalutation. Success or Failure? . In: The People's Money . New York. 9/1935
  • Science's beginning experiment for a healthy monetary order . In: The Wörgl outdoor experiment (Ed .: International Association for Natural Economic Order). no year Pp. 17-24
  • One who set out to change the world. Memories of a witness of the century . Knecht-Verlag: Frankfurt am Main 1999 (paperback). ISBN 3782007441

Individual evidence

  1. See Wochenblatt-Reporter.de/Eberhard Dittus: GRANDFATHER SALOMON ... - A SONG TOUCHES THE HEARTS. 10 years memorial. Klezmer concert in the Alte Winzinger Church (April 30, 2019) ; accessed on January 29, 2020
  2. Gedenkstaette-Neustadt.de: expropriated and robbed (announcement of an event on January 27, 2018; there is also a historical photo of the Cohrssen department store.); accessed on January 30, 2020
  3. ^ Hans RL Cohrssen: Working with Irving Fisher . In: Working Papers / Money and Currency (Ed. Wolfgang Gebauer / Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt). Frankfurt 1991. p. 3 ( PDF online )
  4. Hans Cohrssen: One who set out to change the world. Memories of a witness of the century . Knecht-Verlag: Frankfurt am Main 1999 (paperback). P. 19f
  5. Michael Crone: Hans Cohrssen. One who set out to change the world. Memory of a witness of the century (review). In: radio and history. Communications from the study group broadcasting and history. Information from the German Broadcasting Archive . 23rd volume No. 4/1997. P. 265, SpI-S. 266, column II
  6. ^ Hans RL Cohrssen: Working with Irving Fisher . In: Working Papers / Money and Currency (Ed. Wolfgang Gebauer / Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt). Frankfurt 1991. p. 4
  7. ^ Günter Bartsch: The NWO movement Silvio Gesells. Historical floor plan 1891–1992 / 93 . Volume 1 in the series Studies on Natural Economic Order . Gauke - specialist publisher for social economy: Lütjenburg 1994. p. 92
  8. Werner Zimmermann : To open banks. Experience and result of my world tour 1949/50 . Drei Eichen Verlag: Munich 1950. pp. 39–41 (short biography Hugo Fack)
  9. This was the English translation of the Natural Economic Order made by Philip Pye ; Hugo Fack shortened the first chapter of the book and left out the second chapter ( Free-Land ) entirely; see Werner Onken : Silvio Gesell and the natural economic order. An introduction to life and work . Gauke - Verlag für Sozialökonomie: Lütjenburg 1999. ISBN 3-87998-439-5 . P. 62
  10. A digitized copy of the Stamp Scrip font can be found here .
  11. ^ Hans RL Cohrssen: Working with Irving Fisher . In: Working Papers / Money and Currency (Ed. Wolfgang Gebauer / Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt). Frankfurt 1991. p. 4f
  12. Catalog.Hathitrust.org: money Stable; a history of the movement by Irving Fisher; assisted by Hans RL Cohrssen .
  13. Tristan Abromeit: Irving Fisher and Hans Cohrssen Notes, Notes and Links (PDF) ; accessed on January 28, 2020