L. Albert Hahn

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Ludwig Albert Hahn (born October 12, 1889 in Frankfurt am Main , † October 4, 1968 in Zurich ) was a German banker , economist and university professor . Hahn, who received several doctorates, was for many years a board member of the Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Bank AG in Frankfurt am Main, professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main and a well-known monetary and economic theorist.

Life and work

Real estate in the Taunus

L. Albert Hahn was born as the son of the long-established Frankfurt banking family Hahn. His parents were Louis Alfred Hahn (* 1856; † 1921) and Rebecca (or Regine) Hahn geb. Goldschmidt. He attended the Goethe-Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main until his Abitur in 1908. He then studied law and economics at the universities of Freiburg, Heidelberg, Berlin and Marburg . In 1912 he was promoted to Dr. jur. PhD. He passed the first state examination in Kassel. During his legal clerkship he was at the regional court in Frankfurt am Main and at the district court in Königstein . As a volunteer , he started at Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Bank , whose predecessor institute was founded in 1821 by his great-grandfather LA Hahn.

In 1916 L. Albert Hahn completed his legal training in Berlin with the Assessor exam . After a subsequent study of philosophy at the University of Marburg, he received his doctorate in 1919 for Dr. phil. In the same year he was admitted to the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court .

At the end of 1919 he joined the board of directors of Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Bank. It was thanks to his work for the bank during the inflationary period after the First World War that the bank survived this period without significant losses. During this time he published his first book Economical Theory of Bank Loans (1st edition 1920), in which he refuted the prevailing assumption that a bank could only issue as a loan what had previously been deposited into the bank by customers . Hahn's second finding, which caused even more sensation, was that offensive lending would increase the amount of money and thus stimulate economic growth. That sounded like Keynesianism - 15 years before Keynes' General Theory was published . The banking crisis of 1931 was also survived under his leadership. As one of the few banks, the Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Bank did not need any support from the Reich government, which enabled it to maintain its independence. In 1933 Hahn moved from the management board to the bank's supervisory board . Hahn had already accepted the call to Frankfurt University in 1928 and became an honorary professor for monetary and currency theory.

Ten years after the first edition of his book, he was much more critical of expansionary monetary policy, which he now saw as inflation-driving and crisis-inducing. After the publication of Keynes' General Theory (1936) he became an anti-Keynesian by recalling the first edition of his book, now considered a sin of youth: “Everything that is wrong and exaggerated about Keynes I said much earlier and more clearly . ”Contrary to Keynes it became clear in Hahn's later writings that all economic policy measures of the state are only to be aimed at the prevention of the crisis.

After the seizure of power of the Nazis , the teaching license was revoked as Jews in 1933 and he received in June 1933 a disbarment as a lawyer. Under pressure from the National Socialists, the family sold the bank in 1936 and emigrated to the USA via Switzerland. Hahn dedicated the years of the Second World War to his scientific work. He represented his scientific findings in numerous lectures, articles, books and guest lectures, including in New York, Zurich and Paris. While Hahn was considered a scientific outsider, he nevertheless made key contributions to economic theory . Contrary to the thesis put forward by the Keynesians that the American post-war economy would suffer from a general lack of demand, he bought shares and made several million dollars on the New York Stock Exchange out of little money within a few years.

When he first heard Ludwig Erhard at an event in the late 1940s , he decided to invest in German standard stocks. He had drawn the right conclusion that the West German economic recovery would succeed. In 1954 he again acquired a substantial share in the parental bank. He became a consultant and later a member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Bank. Hahn did not think much of quantitative economic and financial analysis. He considered prognoses with great mathematical effort to be a waste of time. A feeling for the general economic climate seemed more important to him. Hahn remained connected to his hometown Frankfurt throughout his life and only consideration for his wife prevented him from settling in the bombed Frankfurt after his return to Europe. It is worth mentioning here also that even his parents in nearby Koenigstein im Taunus could build a summer residence (with function also of a guest house) which is a Jugendstil - Ensemble with the Sanatorium Dr. Oskar Kohnstamms educated. Despite these references to Germany, he chose Paris as his place of residence. L. Albert Hahn died on October 4, 1968 in a Zurich hospital after a brief but serious illness a few days before he was 79 years old.

He is buried in the main cemetery in Frankfurt am Main . Because he left the Jewish community, he was not buried in the family grave.

Fonts (selection)

  • Economic theory of bank credit. Mohr, Tübingen 1920, (3rd edition, ibid 1930).
  • Our currency situation in the light of monetary theory. After a lecture given on January 9, 1924 at the Frankfurt Society for Trade, Industry and Science. Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, Frankfurt am Main 1924.
  • Gold advantage and gold prejudice. A Monetary Policy Study. Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, Frankfurt am Main 1924.
  • Credit and crisis. A lecture on the tasks and limits of monetary economic policy. Mohr, Tübingen 1931.
  • The Economics of Illusion. A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Economic Theory and Policy. Squier et al., New York NY 1949, ( full text online ).
  • Common sense economics. Fritz Knapp, Frankfurt am Main 1954, ( full text in English online ).
  • Autonomous economic policy and exchange rate stability. Monetary theoretical considerations on the monetary policy of the Bank of German States. Fritz Knapp, Frankfurt am Main 1957.
  • Between inflation and unemployment. Extended version of a lecture given on September 5, 1958 to the members of the Association of Private Credit Institutions in Hessen eV Fritz Knapp, Frankfurt am Main 1958.
  • Money and credit. Monetary policy and economic theory considerations. Fritz Knapp, Frankfurt am Main 1960.
  • Monetary Integration - Illusion or Reality? In: Wilhelm Meinhold (ed.): International currency and financial policy. (Presented to Adolf Weber as a birthday gift on December 29, 1961 on the occasion of his 85th birthday). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961.
  • About monetary integration. Lecture (= Walter Eucken Institut. Lectures and essays. 7, ISSN  0509-6065 ). Mohr, Tübingen 1961.
  • The American economic policy, the dollar and the D-Mark (= Walter Eucken Institute. Lectures and essays. 10). Mohr, Tübingen 1963.
  • Fifty years between inflation and deflation. Mohr, Tübingen 1963 (In addition to a description of one's own life, the book contains essays from several decades on monetary theory, economic and currency policy).
  • Retrospect and Prospect. Lecture given on the occasion of his 75th birthday on October 12, 1964 in Frankfurt am Main. Published as a private print by Deutsche Effecten- und Wechsel-Bank, Frankfurt am Main. Mohr, Tübingen 1965.
  • National and international aspects of American monetary policy (= Walter Eucken Institute. Lectures and essays. 13). Mohr, Tübingen 1966.
  • Money and gold. Lectures and essays, 1962–1968 (= Publications of the List Society. 64, ZDB -ID 741638-6 ). With a foreword by Edgar Salin . Kyklos-Verlag et al., Basel 1969.

literature

  • Michael Hauck: Albert Hahn . An outcast son of Frankfurt, banker and scientist. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-7973-1138-2 .
  • Professor Hahn: A conclusion . In: Die Zeit , No. 29/1962
  • Heinz Sturm-Godramstein: Jews in Königstein , City Archives 1998
  • Bernd Kulla: Hahn, Ludwig Albert. In: Harald Hagemann , Claus-Dieter Krohn (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking economic emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Adler – Lehmann. Saur, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-598-11284-X , pp. 225-227.
  • Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): Biographical manual of the German-speaking emigration after 1933. Volume 1: Politics, economy, public life . Munich: Saur, 1980, p. 263
  • Hahn, Albert L. , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 136
  • Barbara Dölemeyer : Short biographies of lawyers of Jewish origin in the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court district; in: 125 years: Frankfurt am Main Bar Association, p. 154.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dölemeyer: Short biographies
  2. ^ Hauck, Michael: Albert Hahn: an outcast son of Frankfurt, banker and scientist: a documentation . Societäts-Verlag, [Frankfurt am Main] 2009, ISBN 978-3-7973-1138-2 , p. 194 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Gerald Braunberger: The man who understood the crises In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , March 8, 2009, p. 38.
  4. ↑ a b Old problems arise again . In: Die Zeit , No. 52/1956
personal data
SURNAME Hahn, L. Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hahn, Lucius Albert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German banker and economist
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1968
Place of death Zurich