View source for Wilhelm Röpke

{{Short description|German economist (1899–1966)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{Infobox economist
| name             = Wilhelm Röpke
| school_tradition = [[Ordoliberalism]]<br />[[Conservatism]]<ref name="Ropke">{{cite book|editor=Kenneth Dyson |title=Conservative Liberalism, Ordo-liberalism, and the State: Disciplining Democracy and the Market |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref>
| image            = [[File:Wilhelm Röpke.jpg|Wilhelm Röpke]]
| caption          = Röpke in 1950
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1899|10|10}}
| birth_place      = [[Schwarmstedt]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1966|2|12|1899|10|10}}
| death_place      = [[Geneva]], [[Switzerland]]
| institution      = [[University of Marburg]], [[Istanbul University]], [[Graduate Institute of International Studies|Geneva Graduate Institute]]
| field            = {{flatlist|
* [[Economics]]
* [[Ethics]]
* [[Social criticism]]
}}
| influences       = [[Adam Smith|Smith]] · [[Böhm-Bawerk]] · [[F.A. Hayek|Hayek]] · [[Ludwig von Mises|Mises]] · [[A. Rüstow|Rüstow]] · [[Richard Ritter von Strigl|Strigl]]
| contributions    = Theoretical foundation of the [[German economic miracle]]
| awards           =
| signature        = <!-- file name only -->
| repec_prefix     = | repec_id =
| education=[[University of Marburg]]
}}
'''Wilhelm Röpke''' ({{IPA|de|ˈvɪlˌhɛlm ˈʁœpkə|lang}}; 10 October 1899&nbsp;– 12 February 1966) was a German [[economist]] and [[social critic]], one of the spiritual fathers of the [[social market economy]]. A professor of economics, first in [[Jena]], then in [[Graz]], [[Marburg]], [[Istanbul]], and finally [[Geneva]], Röpke theorised and collaborated to organise the post-[[World War II]] economic re-awakening of the war-wrecked German economy, deploying a program referred to as [[ordoliberalism]], a more [[Conservatism|conservative]] variant of German [[Liberalism in Germany|liberalism]].<ref name="Sally">Razeen Sally, ''Classical Liberalism and International Economic Order'', Routledge, 2002, {{ISBN|0415164931}}, p. 106</ref>

With [[Alfred Müller-Armack]] and [[Alexander Rüstow]] (sociological neoliberalism) and [[Walter Eucken]] and [[Franz Böhm]] (ordoliberalism) he elucidated the ideas, which then were introduced formally by Germany's post-World War II Minister for Economics [[Ludwig Erhard]], operating under [[Konrad Adenauer]]'s Chancellorship.<ref name="Sally" /> Röpke and his colleagues' economic influence therefore is considered largely responsible for enabling Germany's post-World War II [[Wirtschaftswunder|"economic miracle"]]. Röpke was also a historian and was nominated to the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1965.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/literature/1965.html |title=Candidates for the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature |access-date=14 August 2018 |archive-date=14 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814201240/https://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/literature/1965.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Life==
Röpke was born in to the family of a rural doctor. His parents were devout Protestants and politically liberal.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2009-11-24 |title=Wilhelm Röpke et "l'ordo-libéralisme" allemand, par Jean-Marc Daniel |language=fr |work=Le Monde.fr |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2009/11/24/wilhelm-ropke-et-l-ordo-liberalisme-allemand-par-jean-marc-daniel_1270654_3234.html |access-date=2023-02-13}}</ref> From 1917 he studied law and economics at the universities of Göttingen, Tübingen and Marburg. In 1921 he defended his doctoral thesis, and in 1922 he successfully completed the habilitation procedure for his doctoral degree at the University of Marburg. In 1922 he received a professorship at the [[University of Jena]], becoming the youngest professor in Germany. This was followed by a stay in the US as a visiting professor for the [[Rockefeller Foundation]], in 1928 an appointment at the [[University of Graz]] and in 1929 an appointment at the Philipps University in Marburg, where he worked until 1933 as a professor of political economy.<ref>{{Citation |last=Hennecke |first=Hans Jörg |title=Streiten für diesen Staat Wilhelm Röpke und die Bundesrepublik |date=2008-04-23 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.13109/9783666367588.23 |work=Streit um den Staat |pages=23–45 |place=Göttingen |publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht |doi=10.13109/9783666367588.23 |isbn=978-3525367582 |access-date=2022-04-08|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Röpke's opposition to the German [[National Socialist]] regime led him (with his family) in 1933 to emigrate to [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]], where he taught until 1937, before accepting a position at the [[Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies|Geneva Graduate Institute]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=1950-11-19 |title=One Man's Way Out |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1950/11/19/archives/one-mans-way-out.html |access-date=2023-05-23 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> where he lived until his death, in 1966.<ref>{{cite book |last= Hayek |first= F.A. |author-link= F. A. Hayek |chapter= The Transmission of the Ideals of Economic Freedom |title= Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics |place= London |publisher= Routledge & Kegan Paul |year=1967 |url= https://archive.org/details/studiesinphiloso0000haye_o2x8/page/n5/mode/2up?view=theater |url-access= registration |page= [https://archive.org/details/studiesinphiloso0000haye_o2x8/page/200/mode/2up?view=theater 200] |via= [[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

==Work==
{{Conservatism in Germany|Intellectuals}}
In his youth, Röpke was first inspired by [[socialism]] and afterwards by the [[Austrian School]] economist [[Ludwig von Mises]].<ref name="url">{{Cite web|date=2007-03-23|title=The maturing of a humane economist Modern Age – Find Articles|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0354/is_3_45/ai_n6140123|access-date=2021-07-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070323094516/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0354/is_3_45/ai_n6140123|archive-date=23 March 2007}}</ref> Despite this, the [[Wirtschaftswunder|post-World War II economic liberation]] enabling Germany to once again lead Europe, which Röpke and his allies ([[Walter Eucken]], [[Franz Böhm]], [[Alfred Müller-Armack]] and [[Alexander Rüstow]]) were the intellectual muscle behind, occurred by implementing policy divergent to that advocated by [[Ludwig von Mises]]. Though the two men shared some beliefs in certain areas, Röpke and his colleagues instead formed the school of [[ordoliberalism]] and advocated [[free trade]] but with more [[economic interventionism|central bank and state]] influence than what Austrian School economists suggest is required.<ref name="gregg">Samuel Gregg, ''Wilhelm Röpke's political economy'', Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1848442221}}, p. 29</ref> Unlike many mainstream Austrian School economists, Röpke and the [[ordoliberalism|ordoliberals]] conceded that the [[market economy]] can be more disruptive and inhumane unless intervention is permitted a role to play.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}

Following [[Alexander Rüstow]], Röpke concluded that free markets' vaunted efficiency and affluence can exact social and spiritual forfeits. In consequence, he envisioned a positive and more extensive role for the state, as rulemaker, enforcer of competition, and provider of basic social security.<ref name="url" />

During the Great Depression, Röpke argued in ''Crises and Cycles'' that a secondary deflation had to be combated through a fiscal reflation. It has been argued that the secondary deflation essentially is the same phenomenon that Taiwanese-American economist [[Richard Koo|Richard C. Koo]] in later years has denoted as a [[balance sheet recession]].<ref>Olsen, Andreas Hardhaug. "Wilhelm Röpke and Richard C. Koo on Secondary Deflations and Balance Sheet Recessions." ''Economic Affairs'' 35.2 (2015): 215–24.</ref> In spite of this, however, Röpke remained a political decentralist and rejected [[Keynesian economics]], deriding it as "a typically intellectual construction that forgets the social reality behind the integral calculus".<ref name="url" /><ref>[https://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/RAE10_1_6.PDF "How Different Were Ropke and Mises?"] Ivan Pongracic, ''Review of Ausrrian Economics'' 10, no. 1 (1997): 125–32 {{ISSN|0889-3047}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Critics of Keynesian Economics|url=https://store.mises.org/Critics-of-Keynesian-Economics-P559.aspx|access-date=2021-07-11|website=store.mises.org}}</ref>

For Röpke, [[rights]] and [[ethics|moral]] habits (''Sitte'') were key elements which the [[Economic interventionism|Central Bank and State]] (opposed to the [[Market Economy|Market-Economy]]) needed to subtly help organise. With a "conforming" social, economic, and financial policy, the task of which is to protect the weak "beyond the market," to equalize interests, set rules of the game, and limit market power, Röpke strove for an economic order of "economic [[humanism]]," something which he also referred to as the "[[Third way (centrism)|Third Way]]."

Röpke stood for a society and social policy in which [[human rights]] are given the highest importance. He believed that [[individualism]] must be balanced by a well-thought-out principle of sociality and humanity. Significantly, Röpke's economic thought is highly congruent with [[Catholic social teaching]]. As he grew older, Röpke increasingly appreciated the overall, general benefits of a society that embraces spirituality, particularly in contrast to societies where spirituality is marginalized or demonized.<ref name="url" />

Röpke is also known for his pro-apartheid views on South Africa. In 1964, he published ''South Africa: An Attempt at a Positive Appraisal'', which argued that apartheid was justified because the 'South African Negro' was not only of 'an utterly different race' but 'a completely different type and level of civilisation'.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Zevin|first=Alexander|date=2019-08-15|title=Every Penny a Vote|language=en|volume=41|work=London Review of Books|issue=16|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n16/alexander-zevin/every-penny-a-vote|access-date=2021-07-11|issn=0260-9592}}</ref> Taking a position opposed to many Western governments, Röpke also supported the 1965 unilateral declaration of independence of Rhodesia, the racially-segregated southern African territory, from the British Empire.

== Influence ==
In particular, from 1930 to 1931, Röpke served on a government commission examining unemployment and, from 1947 to 1948, he served on Germany's post-World War II currency reform council.<ref name="gregg" /> Furthermore, Röpke personally advised the Chancellor of (post-World War II) [[West Germany]], [[Konrad Adenauer]], and his Minister of Economics, [[Ludwig Erhard]] up until the late 1950s, and therefore is credited with contributing the intellectual backbone of the now famous [[Wirtschaftswunder|German Economic "Miracle"]].<ref name="url" />

Occupying West Germany following the conclusion of [[World War II]], the Western Allies (the US, Britain, and France) had continued to implement an economic policy of rationing as well as wage and price controls, coupled with the continued excessive printing of paper money. Production consequently collapsed and prominent businessmen once again became unwilling to accept the (relatively) worthless currency, triggering widespread shortages and the mainstreaming of a grey-market barter economy. Röpke's ''The Solution to the German Problem'' (1947) illuminated the negative implications of the Western Allies' continuing of Hitler's economic policies. Instead, Röpke proposed abolishing price controls and replacing the reichsmark with a sound, more trustworthy currency.

Accordingly, price and wage controls were then incrementally abolished and on June 21, 1948, the new [[Deutsche Mark]] was introduced. These long-range policy initiatives, however, spawned some civil unrest immediately following their implementation because of a consequent increase in unemployment. Despite these disturbances and stoically supported by Röpke's learned newspaper writings, the Minister of Economics [[Ludwig Erhard]] persevered with foresight, and this eventually amounted to "a great personal vindication for Röpke": Röpke and his allies had "made West Germany immune to communism".<ref name="gregg" />

He was president of the [[Mont Pelerin Society]] from 1961 to 1962. But as a result of a long quarrel with [[Friedrich August von Hayek]] he stepped down and terminated his membership in it.<ref>Philip Mirowski, Dieter Plehwe: ''The Road From Mont Pelerin''. 2009, {{ISBN|978-0674033184}}, p. 19</ref>

==Works==
* ''German Commercial Policy'' (1934)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bonn |first=M. |date=1935 |title=Review of German Commercial Policy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2548620 |journal=Economica |volume=2 |issue=7 |pages=353–354 |doi=10.2307/2548620 |jstor=2548620 |issn=0013-0427|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [https://mises.org/books/crisis.pdf ''Crises and Cycles''] (1936)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robertson |first=D. H. |date=1936 |title=Review of Crises and Cycles |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2549253 |journal=Economica |volume=3 |issue=12 |pages=476–478 |doi=10.2307/2549253 |jstor=2549253 |issn=0013-0427|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* [https://mises.org/books/disintegration.pdf ''International Economic Disintegration''] (1942)
* ''Civitas Humana'' (1944)
* [https://mises.org/books/germanquestion.pdf ''The German Question''] (1946)
* [https://mises.org/books/socialcrisis_ropke.pdf ''The Social Crisis of Our Time''] (1950)<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1951 |title=Review of The Social Crisis of Our Time |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2550028 |journal=Economica |volume=18 |issue=70 |pages=223–223 |doi=10.2307/2550028 |issn=0013-0427|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* ''Mass und mitte'' (eng: Measure and Center) (1950)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Manheim |first=Ernest |date=1952 |title=Review of Mass und Mitte. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2772663 |journal=American Journal of Sociology |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=404–405 |doi=10.1086/220994 |jstor=2772663 |issn=0002-9602}}</ref>
* [https://mises.org/books/international.pdf ''International Order and Economic Integration''] (1959)
* [https://mises.org/books/Humane_Economy_Ropke.pdf ''A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market''] (1960)
* [https://mises.org/books/roepke-freesociety.pdf ''Economics of the Free Society''] (1963)
* [https://mises.org/books/tide.pdf ''Against the Tide''] (1969); posthumous essay collection
* [https://mises.org/books/2_Essays_Ropke.pdf ''Two Essays by Wilhelm Roepke''] (1987)

==See also==
* [[Contributions to liberal theory]]
* [[Liberalism]]
** [[Liberalism in Germany]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Becher, Phillip / Becker, Katrin / Rösch, Kevin / Seelig, Laura (2021). ''[https://doi.org/10.3167/dt.2021.080204 Ordoliberal White Democracy, Elitism, and the Demos: The Case of Wilhelm Röpke].'' In ''Democratic Theory.'' 8 (2). pp.&nbsp;70–96.
* Slobodian, Quinn (2014). "The World Economy and the Color Line: Wilhelm Röpke, Apartheid, and the White Atlantic". In ''German Historical Bulletin Institute Supplement.'' 10. pp.&nbsp;61–87.
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Steelman |first=Aaron |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |title=  Röpke, Wilhelm (1899–1966) |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |year=2008 |publisher= [[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |doi= 10.4135/9781412965811.n270|isbn= 978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024| lccn = 2008009151 |pages=440–41 |url-access=subscription }}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://archive.today/20110830131419/http://www.e-elgar-economics.com/Bookentry_DESCRIPTION.lasso?id=13360 Wilhelm Röpke's Political Economy] by Samuel Gregg
* [http://countrystudies.us/germany/136.htm The Social Market Economy] – U.S. Library of Congress
* [https://mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/RAE10_1_6.PDF "How Different Were Ropke and Mises?"] by Ivan Pongracic
* [https://www.mises.org/content/roepke.asp A biography of Röpke] – by Shawn Ritenour
* [http://www.iwp.uni-koeln.de/GB/library/elib.htm#archiev Wilhelm Röpke – Library Collections (including his entire correspondence in original)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331045157/http://www.iwp.uni-koeln.de/GB/library/elib.htm#archiev |date=31 March 2012 }} – Library of the Institute for Economic Policy, University of Cologne, Germany
* [http://www.iwp.uni-koeln.de/DE/Bilbiliothek/bib.htm#wilhelm_roepke Wilhelm Röpke – Library Collections (German Page)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130322052526/http://www.iwp.uni-koeln.de/DE/Bilbiliothek/bib.htm#wilhelm_roepke |date=22 March 2013 }} – Library of the Institute for Economic Policy, University of Cologne, Germany
* [http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/wilhelm-ropke-a-centenary-appreciation/ "Wilhelm Röpke: A Centenary Appreciation" by Richard M. Ebeling] ("The Freedom: Ideas on Liberty," October 1999)
* {{PM20|FID=pe/014825}}
* [https://mises.org/wire/wilhelm-roepke-rip Obituary], by [[Ludwig von Mises]]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname= Wilhelm Röpke}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ropke, Wilhelm}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1966 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century German economists]]
[[Category:Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to Switzerland]]
[[Category:German anti-communists]]
[[Category:German expatriates in Turkey]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies]]
[[Category:Expatriate academics in Turkey]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Istanbul University]]
[[Category:Ordoliberalism]]
[[Category:People from Heidekreis]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Marburg University]]
[[Category:Member of the Mont Pelerin Society]]