Werner Ehrlicher (economist)

Werner Ludwig Ehrlicher (born February 22, 1920 in Effelter in Upper Franconia ; † April 23, 2012 in Hamburg ) was a German economist and financial scientist .

Life

Adolescence

The Catholic Werner Ehrlicher was the son of forester Karl Ehrlicher and his wife Hedwig, b. Sporrer, in Effelter in Upper Franconia. His father, who studied forestry before the First World War , took over the Ludwigsstadt forestry office after his return from the war in 1921 , and the young family of four moved into the large forester's house there. Karl Ehrlicher remained a reserve officer after the war and became a member of the Stahlhelm , analogously to this his wife was a member of the Bund Queen Luise in the 1920s and was later transferred to the Nazi women 's association. Both were politically emphatically conservative and German-national .

Werner Ehrlicher attended elementary school in Ludwigsstadt from 1926 to 1930. Since there were no higher schools here, he and his brother Kurt Ehrlicher (* 1918), who was almost two years older, went to the Old Humanistic Gymnasium in Bamberg , which he graduated from high school in March 1938 after eight years of humanistic training and a stay at the Aufseesianum boarding school. His three younger sisters attended a secondary school in Saalfeld . Werner Ehrlicher initially viewed humanistic training as a waste of time, but rather became interested in silviculture because of his father's profession . Until 1933 he belonged to the youth movement, was later transferred to the Hitler Youth and became a Hitler Youth leader of lower rank. In 1934/35 he tried in vain to be admitted to the Reichsschule Feldafing in order to receive an elitist education.

Military career

After completing his compulsory national labor service , Ehrlicher began training as a flag boy with the Wehrmacht in Münster in 1938 . He wanted to be used as an aviator in the Air Force , but after passing all the exams he learned that people wearing glasses are not allowed to fly. So he was used in the air intelligence force and attended the war school in Halle . He took part in the French campaign and was then stationed as a lieutenant in Paris . Before the start of the German-Soviet war , his unit was moved to the border with the Ukrainian SSR . This was followed by a rapid advance to the Dnieper . In 1942 Ehrlicher led the radio company of an anti-aircraft division west of Moscow used in ground combat . In the following two years he remained as head of a flight reporting company about 50 km behind the front. The last service in World War II was to stop Russia on its advance into Germany, where he led his last assault in April 1945 as chief of a tank hunting battalion.

academic career

Education

After Ehrlicher's father retired in June 1945, the parents moved to Bamberg . Since no university was open after the war, he began a technical internship in a machine factory. In autumn 1945 the Bamberg Theological and Philosophical University was first reopened. There he attended philosophical and scientific lectures and began studying technology and philosophy. But as early as December of the same year, the competent authority of the military government established after the war prohibited further studies because of his work in the Hitler Youth at the time.

In January 1946, some faculties at the University of Erlangen began teaching . Since Ehrlicher's preferred forestry studies were not possible here, he continued his philosophy studies here and also began studying law and political science. During this time he worked with the business economist Karl-Michael Kirsch . However, since a full professor was soon appointed to Tübingen and two others were dismissed because they belonged to National Socialist organizations , two professors from the Nuremberg Commercial College only continued his studies in a makeshift manner, and there were hardly any suitable specialist books and teaching material. A well-known, meanwhile doctorate in economics made the library of her doctoral supervisor available to him, where Ehrlicher studied economics for a year, mostly self-taught , and wrote a thesis on John Maynard Baron Keynes (1883-1946). After studying for a total of around 1¾years, initially under Carl Brinkmann (1885–1954), he passed the exam in September 1947 . Georg Weippert (1899–1965), newly appointed to the University of Erlangen, accepted him as a doctoral student with the dissertation topic On the Problem of Economic Synthesis for a Doctorate . In January 1949 he began the two-part dissertation The Problem of the Moment of Time in the Theory of Saving and Investing and received his doctorate the following year. At the political science seminar of the University of Erlangen he was an honest assistant to Rudolf Stucken (1891–1984) and taught as a private lecturer even before his habilitation . In addition, he continued to study philosophy and economics. In 1955 he received his habilitation with the thesis Money Capital Formation and Real Capital Formation .

Teaching

Ehrlicher initially taught at the University of Erlangen as a private lecturer. As early as 1956/57 he represented the chair for public finance at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg for two semesters. Only now did he deal intensively with finance. Back at the University of Erlangen, after Stucken's retirement , he held the chair for economics until 1959. In anticipation of the chair for economics and finance at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , Ehrlicher turned down offers at various universities. His wish came true and he began teaching in Freiburg in the spring of 1959. With the essay German financial policy since 1924 he achieved his breakthrough as a financial scientist in 1961/62. In 1962 he became a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Finance . A year later Ehrlicher was appointed full professor at the University of Hamburg , where he soon became director of the Institute for Public Finance. As a successor to Fritz Voigt (1910–1993), the German Savings Banks Organization offered him the management of the Institute for Savings, Giro and Credit Systems. This institute already had a good library, and over the next 20 years it built it into the leading library in the financial field. From then on, his main field of research was mainly in monetary theory and monetary policy. In 1966 he was offered a call back to the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg , which Ehrlicher refused. The German Savings Banks and Giro Association approached him to establish an archive on current monetary and credit policy. According to his interests, they found a scientific journal that included banking studies to be a better solution overall, so the banking economist Helmut Lipfert (1924–2008) was won over as co-editor of the journal Kredit und Kapital , first published in 1968 . It quickly became the international forum for the debate between monetarism and fiscalism .

In the winter semester of 1967/68 Ehrlicher was elected as the first economist after Karl August Fritz Schiller (1911–1994) as rector of the University of Hamburg. This election marks the beginning of the student unrest, a slogan by two students " Under the gowns - Muff of 1000 years " went around the world. He was nevertheless able to win over the college of professors, which had also been divided under this revolution, so that he was re-elected as rector for the 1968/69 term of office. The main focus of his activity as rector was solving financial and organizational problems together with his faculty colleagues and assistants. Ehrlicher turned down an offer to the University of Cologne , currently the most important financial science chair in the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1972 he followed the call to the University of Freiburg due to defamation from student circles (“Nothing is more dispensable than honest”) and his own wish not to live in a big city for life and soon became director of the Institute for Public Finance . The institute for savings, giro and credit was relocated to Freiburg and built his own home here. Ehrlicher was elected chairman of the committee for monetary theory and monetary policy of the Society for Economic and Social Sciences, Verein für Socialpolitik , in 1976. When he retired in 1988, the Freiburg Institute for Savings, Giro and Credit Systems was also dissolved.

Lectures through the ages

In 1960 Ehrlicher held his inaugural lecture at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg on the subject of monetary, financial and income policy in the context of the economic system . After returning to Freiburg, on April 26, 1972, he gave a lecture on the same subject. When he retired, the farewell lecture followed again on the same topic. With these three variations of the lecture on the same topic Ehrlicher wanted to show the change in the tension between fiscalism and monetarism as well as the change in his own attitude towards the most important economic policy areas, monetary, financial and income policy.

After retirement

After his retirement, Ehrlicher did not want to do any more teaching, but further publications and lectures on current economic policy problems followed. He remained a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Quotes

“I think you have to agree on definitions at some point. Of course, you can keep mixing things up so that one calls money, the other calls wealth, and the third calls credit. It's a convention story. "

- Werner Ehrlicher : Panel discussion “What is money?” Ulm, November 29, 1984

“[...] a monetary superstructure has emerged that has largely lost its connection to the real sector. The original function of financing trading and promoting the optimal allocation of capital through interest rate movements has now faded into the background.
The financial markets have become an independent area that largely seeks its own objective, namely to earn as much money as possible as quickly as possible by trading in money. "

- Werner Ehrlicher : 1999

Private life

Ehrlicher married Christel Karaschewski in Bamberg in 1954. They lived together in Freiburg im Breisgau and have two daughters. Ehrlicher lived in Hamburg in the last years of his life. On April 27, an obituary for him appeared in the Frankfurter Allgemeine .

Awards

Ehrlicher was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class in 1989.

Works (selection)

• Werner Ehrlicher: The problem of the moment in the theory of saving and investing. 1950.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Money capital formation and real capital formation. Tübingen: Mohr, 1956.
• Werner Ehrlicher: German financial policy since 1924 . In: Institute “Finances and Taxes” 65 (1961).
• Werner Ehrlicher: Problems of long-term structural changes in the capital stock . In: Writings of the Verein für Socialpolitik . New episode, volume 30 , no. 2 , 1964, ISSN  0505-2777 , pp. 871-897 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: Monetary Theory . In: Erwin E. von Beckerath (pm) et al. (Ed.): Concise dictionary of the social sciences . Research and teaching - trade policy . tape 4 . Fischer, Mohr, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Stuttgart / Tübingen / Göttingen 1965, p. 231-258 .
• Werner Ehrlicher et al .: Municipal financial equalization and spatial planning . In: Publications of the Academy for Spatial Research and Regional Planning: Abhandlungen 51 (1967).
• Werner Ehrlicher: Changes in the capital problem in the industrial age . In: Kredit und Kapital 1 (1), 1968, pp. 76–97.
• Werner Ehrlicher: On the 50th anniversary of the University of Hamburg . In: Universität Hamburg 1919–1969 . Hamburg 1969.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Municipal financial equalization and spatial planning . In: Information letters for spatial planning R 6.1.5 (1970).
• Werner Ehrlicher: The monetary, financial and income policy in the economic system context . In: Kredit und Kapital 5 (4), 1972, pp. 407–437.
• Werner Ehrlicher: On the reorganization of the Deutsche Bundesbank's instruments . In: Kredit und Kapital 6 (2), 1973, pp. 111-133.
• Werner Ehrlicher: German financial policy 1949–1974 . In: Wirtschaftsdienst 54 (5), 1974, pp. 239–244.
• Werner Ehrlicher: The new borrowing of the local authorities in 1975 . In: Kredit und Kapital 8 (2), 1975, pp. 161–190.
• Werner Ehrlicher: The structural deficit . In: Wirtschaftsdienst 55 (9), 1975, pp. 449–453.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Structural undesirable developments in the economy of the Federal Republic of Germany . In: Kredit und Kapital 9 (1), 1976, pp. 1–23.
• Werner Ehrlicher et al .: Limits of the tax resilience of productive assets . In: KAWS 1 (1977).
• Werner Ehrlicher: On the monetarism discussion in “Credit and Capital” . In: Kredit und Kapital 10 (4), 1977, pp. 429-460.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Public material expenses . In: Fritz Neumark (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Finanzwissenschaft . 3. Edition. tape 1 . Mohr, Tübingen 1977, ISBN 3-16-337562-6 , p. 753-795 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: Money as freedom. About the regulatory function of money . In: Bayreuth Colloquium on Problems of Religious Socialization 2, 1979, pp. 71–88.
• Werner Ehrlicher, B. Rohwer: The public finances of the Federal Republic in 1976 . In: Financial Archives . New episode, volume 37 , 1979, ISSN  0015-2218 , pp. 307-337 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: Limits of the national debt . In: Peter Bohley, G. Tolkemitt (Hrsg.): Economics as the basis of state action . Heinz Haller on his 65th birthday. Mohr, Tübingen 1979, ISBN 3-16-341642-X , p. 27-47 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: Financial equalization ”3:“ The financial equalization in the Federal Republic of Germany . In: HdWW 2, 1980, pp. 662-689.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Finance, public ”2:“ The finance of the Federal Republic of Germany . In: HdWW 3, 1981, pp. 164-195.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy ”1:“ Introduction: The theoretical-political double aspect of monetary problems . In: HdWW 3, 1981, pp. 355-360.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy ”3:“ Monetary Theory . In: HdWW 3, 1981, pp. 374-391.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Monetary Theory and Monetary Policy ”6:“ Monetary Policy . In: HdWW 3, 1981, pp. 423-451.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Future problems of our economy . In: Kredit und Kapital 14 (1), 1981, pp. 3–25.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Monetarism and Keynesianism in the “New Monetary Policy” . In: Kredit und Kapital 17 (1), 1984, pp. 1–17.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Aspects of the national debt . In: The State . tape 24 , 1985, ISSN  0038-884X , pp. 31-49 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: Stormy growth despite rudimentary financial markets? In: Helmut Kramer, F. Butschek: From stragglers to role models (?) Austrian economy 1945 to 1985. Fischer, Stuttgart 1985, pp. 111–128, ISBN 3-437-50303-0 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: Changes in the capital market. On the way to the interbank market . In: Location determination . Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-09-311000-9 , pp. 236-257 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: A new method dispute? In: Yearbook for Social Science . Volume 36, 1985, pp. 109-127, ISSN  0075-2770 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: On the taxation of investment income . In: Sparkasse . tape 103 , no. 10 , 1986, ISSN  0038-6561 , pp. 442-449 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: The deposit business in war, inflation and crisis (1908-1948) . In: Sparkassen in der Geschichte 1: 3, 1987, pp. 32–44.
• Werner Ehrlicher: The monetary, financial and income policy in the economic system context . In: Kredit und Kapital 21 (2), 1988, pp. 163–181.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Changes in the concepts of monetary, financial and wage policy 1948–1986 . In: Wolfgang Filc et al. (Ed.): Challenges of economic policy . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, ISBN 3-428-06377-5 , pp. 315-336 .
• Werner Ehrlicher, C. Albrecht: Monetary capital formation and real capital formation from 1950 to 1987 . In: Geldwertsicherung und Wirtschaftsstabil , 1989, pp. 27–55.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Financial Markets and Financing of Real Investments in Germany from 1950–1987 . In: Volkswirtschaftliche Schriften . tape 396 , 1990, ISSN  0505-9372 , pp. 109-122 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: On the reliberalization of a socialist economic system . In: Franz Xaver Bea, W. Kitterer (Hrsg.): Finance in the service of economic policy . Mohr, Tübingen 1990, ISBN 3-16-145648-3 , p. 457-475 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: One year after the German-German economic, monetary and financial union. Review and outlook . In: Werner Ehrlicher et al. (Ed.): Contributions to the discussion. Discussion papers . tape 13 , 1991, ISSN  0943-8408 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: On the taxation of investment income . In: Economic correspondence of the Adolf Weber Foundation . tape 31 , no. 7 , 1992.
• Werner Ehrlicher (ed.), R. Braun: The influence of the change in financial wealth formation on real wealth formation . In: Studies on the savings, giro and credit system A: 149 (1993).
• Werner Ehrlicher: German financial policy since 1945 . In: VSWG 81, 1994, pp. 1-32.
• Werner Ehrlicher: The EMS Crisis - An Argument against Monetary Union? In: Dresden contributions to economics . tape 2 , 1994, ISSN  0945-4829 .
• Werner Ehrlicher, Alois Oberhauser et al .: A plea for the euro . In: Contributions to the discussion. Discussion papers . tape 61 , 1997.
• Werner Ehrlicher: From the “economic turnaround” to reunification . In: Hans Pohl (Ed.): History of the German banking industry since 1945 . Knapp, Frankfurt 1998, ISBN 3-7819-0619-1 , p. 299-354 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: Economic Problems of Globalization . In: Hans-Jochen Kleineidam (Ed.): Corporate Policy and International Taxation . Schmidt, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-503-04852-9 , pp. 45-62 .
• Werner Ehrlicher: The way to the euro . In: SöR 800, 1999, pp. 159-183.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Being in a rapidly changing world. Determination - chance - decision . In: Freiburger Universitätsblätter 40 (151), 2001, pp. 33-48.

Editions

• Werner Ehrlicher et al. (eds.): Compendium of Economics. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967–75.
• Werner Ehrlicher (ed.): Problems of index binding . In: Supplements to credit and capital 2 (1974).
• Werner Ehrlicher, W.-D. Becker (eds.): The monetarism controversy . In: Supplements to credit and capital 4 (1978).
• Werner Ehrlicher, A. Oberhauser (eds.): Problems of the money supply control . In: SVS new ser.:99 (1978).
• Werner Ehrlicher (ed.): Monetary Policy, Interest and National Debt . In: SVS new ser.:111 (1981).
• Werner Ehrlicher, R. Richter (eds.): Problems of monetary policy . In: SVS new ser.:120 (1981).
• Werner Ehrlicher, DB Simmert (eds.): Monetary and currency policy in the Federal Republic of Germany . In: Supplements to credit and capital 7 (1982).
• Werner Ehrlicher, R. Richter (eds.): Monetary and currency order . In: SVS new ser.:138 (1983).
• Werner Ehrlicher, D. Duwendag (eds.): Monetary and currency policy in transition . In: Writings on monetary economy 18 (1983).
• Werner Ehrlicher, R. Richter (eds.): Foreign exchange market interventions of the central banks . In: SVS new ser.:139 (1984).
• Werner Ehrlicher, DB Simmert (eds.): The economic saving process . In: Supplements to credit and capital 9 (1985).
• Werner Ehrlicher, DB Simmert (eds.): Changes in the monetary policy instruments of the Deutsche Bundesbank . In: Supplements to credit and capital 10 (1988).

literature

• Bettina Bartz et al. (Ed.): Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2005 . AH. tape 20 , no. 1 . Saur, 2005, ISBN 3-598-23612-3 , ISSN  1616-8399 .
• Dieter Cansier, D. Kath: Werner Ehrlicher on completion of the 65th year of life . In: Public Finance, Credit and Capital , 1985, pp. Ix-xvi.
• Werner Ehrlicher: The problem of the moment in the theory of saving and investing 2. 1950.
• Werner Ehrlicher: Being in a rapidly changing world. Determination - chance - decision . In: Freiburger Universitätsblätter 40 (151), 2001, pp. 33-48 (autobiography)
• Karin Di Felice (ed.): Who is who? ed. 48. Beleke, Essen 2009, ISBN 978-3-7950-2048-4
• Manfred Wockel, H.-JWE Schellmann (eds.): Who's who in the Catholic World. ed. 3. Intercontinental Book and Publishing, Vienna / Montreal / Berlin 1983, ISBN 3-85413-003-1 , ISBN 3-923590-01-6
• European Biographical Directory. ed. 8: 1989-1990. Waterloo, 1989, ISBN 2-87231-002-9

Web links

• Literature by and about Werner Ehrlicher in the catalog of the German National Library
• CV ( Memento from December 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• More honest in the organizational chart of Freiburg's economics

Individual evidence

1. ↑ obituary May Badische Zeitung, May 25, 2012 retrieved 5, 2012
2. ^ Annual report of the old grammar school in Bamberg . Jge. 1929-38.
3. ↑ Joseph Beuys et al .: What is money? eds. Rainer E. Rappmann, M. Meyer. Wangen, 1991. p. 52, ISBN 392878000X
4. ↑ Werner Ehrlicher: Economic problems of globalization . In: Hans-Jochen Kleineidam (Ed.): Corporate Policy and International Taxation . Festschrift for Lutz Fischer on his 60th birthday. Schmidt, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-503-04852-9 , pp. 55 .