Page 73 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

46 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

Geneva or at the annual conferences of the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS)
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near Montreux in Switzerland. However, it was Walter Eucken who put
Erhard in touch with this leading think tank of neo-liberalism, founded by
Friedrich August von Hayek in 1947. In annual international meetings,
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the society’s members, mostly economists, historians and philosophers,
aimed at reviving and redefining classical economic liberalism and at
anchoring neo-liberal thinking in post-war Europe. The scholars, among
them Wilhelm Röpke, Alexander Rüstow, Ludwig von Mises, Karl Popper
and Milton Friedman, however, did not act as a coherent group; instead
individual efforts characterised the MPS’s advocacy of economic
liberalism.
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Since the members of the Mont Pèlerin Society, in line with liberal
tradition, deliberately wished to avoid collective resolutions, let alone a
programme, both ordo-liberalism as a school of economic thought and
the Freiburg School appeared unintentionally divided. In contrast to the
AGEvB, the devotees of ordo-liberal economic and socio-political ideas did
not act as a unified group although Röpke frequently referred to common
action and consensus. Due to diverging views neither a tangible concept
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nor a coordinated effort in communicating the economic framework
developed. Nonetheless, whereas the Freiburg Circles mainly influenced
the academic discussion, the Freiburg School stimulated the national
debate beyond that, and finally anchored socio-economic conceptions in
the general public.