Reinhard Kamitz

This article deals with the politician; for the philosopher see Reinhard Kamitz (philosopher) .

Reinhard Kamitz (born June 18, 1907 in Halbstadt , Braunau district , Austria-Hungary , † August 9, 1993 in Vienna ) was an Austrian politician . From 1952 to 1960 he was a non-party finance minister .

Life

His father, the lawyer Wenzel Kamitz, moved to Vienna as early as 1910, where he made a career that he crowned with the office of President of the Administrative Court on October 28, 1931. Reinhard Kamitz attended the secondary school and the Technological Trade Museum in Vienna, where he graduated in 1925. He then studied at the University of World Trade and received his doctorate in 1933 with the dissertation "Rationalization under wage pressure." From 1934 to 1938 he was in the service of 1926 by Ludwig von Mises founded and in 1931 by Friedrich August von Hayek continued the Austrian Institute for Economic Research , whose leadership he in 1936 by Oskar Morgenstern took over. In 1938 this was attached to the Berlin Institute for Economic Research. In that year he acquired the Venia legendi at the University of World Trade. In February 1939 he moved to the Vienna Chamber of Commerce . In 1940 he was promoted to head of the economic department, and in 1944 he took over the management of this organization, which had been downgraded to the Gau economic chamber. He joined the NSDAP in 1940 and also applied for admission to the SS ; before 1938 he was an employee of the NSDAP's intelligence service in Vienna. As a political suspect, he was downgraded to the rank of simple concept official in 1945, he also lost his lectureship. On January 1, 1947, he came under the wing of President Julius Raab in the newly established Chamber of Commerce . In June 1948 he became head of the economic policy department, in April 1950 deputy secretary general. From 1960 to 1968 he was President of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank . In the fall of 1966, Kamitz suffered a stroke from the consequences of which he could no longer recover.

Kamitz was buried at the Döblinger Friedhof in Vienna.

Raab-Kamitz course

As a non-party finance minister , he was a member of the Julius Raab government from 1952 to 1960. The two politicians promoted an ordoliberal policy that became known as the Raab-Kamitz course .

The first goal was to combat inflation, which in 1951 had amounted to almost 28 percent in Austria (then 17 percent in 1952). A policy of “scarce money” (introduction of credit restrictions, higher liquidity regulations for banks, increase in the discount rate ) allowed inflation to be reduced to 5 percent as early as 1953. A restrictive budget policy and the increase in some consumption taxes sank the national debt, from almost 60% of the GDP, to eight (!) Percent (in 1957) and remained at this low level until the Kreisky era .

In the foreign trade, Kamitz relied on extensive liberalization: for example, foreign exchange control was abolished and federal guarantees were offered for export transactions, which significantly increased Austria's share in world trade. In the domestic economy, price controls and state management measures were dismantled (e.g. abolition of food cards for meat and fat on July 1, 1953). Economic growth was stimulated by various investment-promoting measures and - among them - the promotion of private saving . With tax-privileged public bonds, infrastructure projects such as motorway construction, electrification of the railways and expansion of the telephone network were financed.

The three tax reforms from 1953 to 1958 nevertheless led to a higher tax revenue (later theoretically shown in the Laffer curve ) with a sharp reduction in tax rates . State income from taxes doubled between 1953 and 1960, with the favorable economic situation also playing a role.

Although Kamitz is almost forgotten by the general public today, according to Roman Sandgruber he is considered “the outstanding finance minister of the Second Republic”, to whom the basic elements of the Austrian economic miracle go back.

Honors

• 1956: Large Golden Decoration of Honor on Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria (January 19)
• 1958: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1960: Bavarian Order of Merit
• Grand Cross of the Belgian Order of the Crown
• Grand Cross of the Spanish Civil Order of Merit

literature

• Fritz Diwok, Hildegard Koller: Reinhard Kamitz. Pioneer of Prosperity . With escort. by Heinrich Treichl and Alois Brusatti . Molden, Vienna et al. 1977, ISBN 3-217-00840-5 .
• Ernest F. Enzelsberger: Reinhard Kamitz, the "real" and the so-called " Austrokeynesianism " . In: Österreichisches Jahrbuch für Politik 17, 1993, ISSN  0170-0847 , pp. 599–616.
• Festschrift of the Austrian Economic Association for the 80th birthday of R. Kamitz . Austrian Economic Association, Vienna 1987.
• Christian Terink: The Austrian monetary policy in the era of Julius Raab and Reinhard Kamitz against the background of essential political and economic policy aspects . Linz 1996, (Linz, University, diploma thesis, 1996).
• Wolfgang Fritz: For the emperor and the republic. Austria's finance minister since 1848. Vienna 2003.

Web links

• Literature by and about Reinhard Kamitz in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Reinhard Kamitz in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Archive recordings with Reinhard Kamitz in the online archive of the Austrian Mediathek (radio reports, parliamentary debates)
• Reinhard Kamitz on the website of the Austrian Parliament
• Reinhard Kamitz in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

swell

1. ↑ Der Standard , January 24, 2005; Falter 27/2005 from July 6, 2005.
2. ↑ Roman Sandgruber : The dog and the sausage. 50 years of the Raab-Kamitz course . In: Die Presse , October 31, 2003