Page 65 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

38 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

Beyond dispute, what had been started as an underground movement
by resolute opponents of National Socialism went on to shape the
formation and implementation of the emerging Social Market Economy.
Furthermore, by writing reports for Carl Goerdeler, the Allied Military
Governments and finally Ludwig Erhard, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Erwin von
Beckerath introduced and anchored liberal economic thinking in post-war
Germany. Admittedly, by mainly addressing academic and political classes,
the AGEvB hardly affected the general public, and so the economic and
socio-political conceptions of the Freiburg economists were debated
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almost exclusively at elite rather than popular levels.