Page 60 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

THE FREIBURG CIRCLES 33

Principally, a total of 41 reports of the AG EvB and the four preparatory
works of the AG VWL, edited in 1986 by the daughter of Adolf Lampe,
Christine Blumenberg-Lampe, defined their economic and socio-political
position. Furthermore, the economic exposé Wirtschaftsfibel presumably
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written by Adolf Lampe, Constantin von Dietze and Walter Eucken,
which amounted to both a socio-political criticism of National Socialism
and a clear commitment to market liberalism, was intended to address
academics, politicians and the wider public. However, this informative
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document disappeared soon after its completion until it was retrieved
recently. In addition, no coherent final report was published by the AGEvB
due to the arrest of Adolf Lampe and Constantin von Dietze in
connection with the assassination attempt of 20 July 1944. Moreover,
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discrepancies and even frictions within the group concerning the method
and degree of governmental intervention constituted another potential
reason for the failure. Whereas Lampe and Wessels favoured ‘productive’
governmental intervention, i.e. an economy regulated by a relatively strong
state, Eucken and von Dietze believed in self-regulating market forces.
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Although the majority of the AG EvB sided with Adolf Lampe, ambiguity
remained with regard to the mode of interference, i.e. direct or indirect
control of the economy. Whereas in the former the state or another
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central authority instructs the market participant to act in a particular way,
in the latter the terms and conditions for the market are defined in order
to influence the individual entrepreneur, e.g. via franchising and licensing.
Due to such diverging views, Walter Eucken was sceptical about the
proceedings of the AGEvB and the consistency of its ideas. Nonetheless,
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there was agreement among the academics with regard to the eventual
return to an economy regulated by the market. According to the
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economists around Erwin von Beckerath, the economic and socio-
political reconstruction of Germany could be achieved only by the
reinstatement of a market economy fostering individual freedom and
entrepreneurship. However, the predominant thinking was that a certain
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form of planning was necessary for a transitional period following the war;
and so the Befehlswirtschaft (Command Economy) of the Third Reich and a
free market economy were both excluded from consideration.
Consequently, the working group debated a so-called
‘Zentralverwaltungswirtschaft’ (Centrally Administered Economy). In contrast
to the Command Economy, this model was regarded as neither opposed
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to personal freedom nor to market principles. Thus the notions of
Command Economy and Centrally Administered Economy are not
interchangeable – strictly speaking, academia distinguishes two
fundamentally different types of economy, i.e. the decentrally organised
Market or Competitive Economy and the Centrally Administered