Johann Philipp von Bethmann

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Johann Philipp Freiherr von Bethmann (born June 27, 1924 in Frankfurt am Main ; † September 19, 2007 there ) was a German banker and publicist.

life and work

As the youngest of four children of the banker Moritz Freiherr von Bethmann (1887–1966) and his wife Maximiliane Gräfin Schimmelpenninck (1889–1966), he attended high school in Marburg and then completed a banking apprenticeship with an internship at home and abroad. During the Second World War he was badly wounded while fighting in Lithuania. After his release from American captivity, he joined the Bethmann Bank in Frankfurt in 1953 and headed it until 1983.

In 1952 he married Margrit Vorwerk (1930-2014). Since 1984, von Bethmann was married to Bettina (* 1942), b. Roemer, married.

In numerous publications, especially since the early 1980s, von Bethmann, who was a member of the CDU from 1958 to 1980, commented on monetary policy . To overcome deflation , he recommended that the central bank lower the key interest rate sharply in one step and then only increase it again in single steps. The central bank should notify the public of this beforehand. Because Bethmann had the theory that the level of the interest would depend on the expectations of the market. In this context, he proposed that every period of inflation would be followed by a period of deflation.

His monetary theory was based on the principle of debt claims : "Every monetary claim in the economy logically corresponds to an equally high monetary obligation, a debt ... and the result is the amazing equation: the sum of all debts corresponds to the sum of all money." Because of his always Karl Otto Pöhl, President of the Bundesbank at the time, referred to him as the “ Hackethal of the bankers”, making critical remarks on money market policy .

Johann Philipp von Bethmann was a member of the Administrative Committee of the Free German Hochstift from 1960 to 1983 , and from 1968 to 1979 as its chairman. From 1968 to 1969 he was a member of the CDU parliamentary group in the city council of Frankfurt.

Freiherr von Bethmann was a great sponsor and patron and was committed to preserving the Frankfurt tradition. In 1966, for example, he donated the new cover of the Golden Book of the City of Frankfurt in the tradition of his grandfather, who donated the original cover. He was a member of the Frankfurt Historical Commission . In 1984 he donated the Johann-Philipp-von-Bethmann-Studienpreis , which has been awarded annually by the commission to young scientists for outstanding projects to research the history of Frankfurt. In addition, von Bethmann, known as an excellent speaker of the Frankfurt dialect , was a co-founder of the “Citizens Committee Paulskirche ” and cultivated the Frankfurt dialect with Stoltze readings.

Prizes and awards

Fonts

  • More courage to be free , 1957.
  • The economy concerns everyone , 1957.
  • Bankers are people too. 225 years of banking house Gebrüder Bethmann , Frankfurt 1973.
  • Modern banking policy. Analyzes and opinions from the German banking industry with Franz Bieling and Günter Dürre, 1974.
  • The interest rate and the economy. Critical comments from a banker , Baden-Baden 1977.
  • Friedrich Stoltze - poet, politician and patriot , 1978.
  • The interest rate disaster: The book on the crisis , Königstein 1982.
  • The betrayed capitalism. The causes of the crisis , Königstein 1984.
  • Deflation follows inflation. Unheard of warnings , Frankfurt / Main, 1986.
  • The deflationary spiral. On the way to the second world economic crisis , Frankfurt / Main 1987, ISBN 978-3610047023
  • The house of cards of our prosperity. Why capitalism cannot yet triumph , Düsseldorf 1991.
  • Unpaid bills. Monetary policy has come to an end , Frankfurt / Main 1994.

literature

  • Walter Habel, who is who? , Lübeck 1993.
  • Walter Habel, who is who? , Berlin 1970.

Web links

Single receipts

  1. ^ Obituary in the Handelsblatt on September 25, 2007
  2. ↑ Commemoration of the departure to freedom. In: welt.de . July 11, 1997, accessed October 7, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Bethmann, Johann Philipp von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bethmann, Johann Philipp Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 27, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 2007
Place of death Frankfurt am Main