The Muthesius Circle: Financial Journalism in the 1950s

Jan Greitens
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Jan Greitens: Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University

A chapter in Origins and Change of the Social Market Economy, 2023, pp 157-169 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The economic policy of the early Federal Republic of Germany is considered to have been shaped by ordoliberalism. However, other liberal groups also hold influential positions and exercised journalistic power. Among these groups, fraternal quarrels occurred especially during the 1950s. The Muthesius Circle was an influential people around Volkmar Muthesius, a journalist and editor fighting for classical liberal ideas. The circle merged from several origins. One is an adherence to stable money as in the gold standard and a type of financial journalism, which was shaped by Alfred Lansburgh. During the committee of enquire on banking of 1933/1934, representatives of banking and financial journalists moved together to fight against plans to nationalize the banks. The central figure was the leader of the Hauptgruppe Banken, Otto Christian Fischer, who retained a high reputation in this group even after the war. After the war, Muthesius reunited with these like-minded friends in Frankfurt. However, their relationship toward ordoliberalism was characterized by both cooperation and conflict. The “fratricidal infights of liberals” broke out over the anti-trust law, while less heated disputes arose over monetary issues.

Keywords: History of economic thought; Ordoliberalism; Volkmar Muthesius; Kreditwesengesetz; Zeitschrift für das gesamte Kreditwesen; Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft; Alfred Lansburgh; B13; B26; B31; N24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-39210-8_9

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