Page 80 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

THE COLOGNE SCHOOL 53

Administration for Economics was aware of the fact that the public
communication and political implementation of the Social Market
Economy required influential proponents. A small group of market-
oriented journalists, politicians and civil servants formed. Among the
members of this so-called ‘Brigade Erhard’ or ‘Neuhauser Kreis’ were the
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journalists Hans-Henning Zencke, Gerd Hassenkamp, Hans Herbert
Götz, Ferdinand Himpele, Kurt Steves, Antonius John, Klaus Emmerich,
Fritz Ullrich Fack, the politician August Dresbach, Erhard’s members of
staff Dankmar Seibt, Kuno Ockhardt and Karl Hohmann, as well as the
economists Karl-Otto Pöhl and Franz Böhm.
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In addition, Ludwig Erhard carefully maintained close contacts with
both the top leadership of the labour union and the (re)established trade
associations, such as the Wirtschaftsverband Eisen-, Blech- und
Metallwarenindustrie (Trade Federation of Iron, Steel and Metalware
Industry), the Wirtschaftsvereinigung Eisen- und Stahlindustrie (Trade
Association of Iron and Steel Industry), the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Eisen und
Metall (Consortium of Iron and Metal), or the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der
Bauindustrie in den Vereinigten Westzonen (Syndicate of the Construction
Industry in the Bizone). Consultations with labour were quasi-
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institutionalised through a labour union liaison office in his administration
headed by Eberhard Bömke who as an old confidant of the labour union’s
leading economic expert and later president, Ludwig Rosenberg, had also
been instrumental in drawing up the June 1947 labour union draft bill for
economic chambers. Equally, Erhard aimed to influence the employers
and industrial associations, such as the Industrie- und Handelskammern (IHK)
(Chambers of Industry and Commerce). The particular nature of the post-
war German situation gave both the representative institutions of self-
government with extensive public functions and the long national
tradition of corporatism a new importance. After the collapse of the
German state administration, the IHK were, in fact, the only surviving
agencies of economic administration. For in contrast to government
offices, which had been directly integrated into the Nazi state, the
chambers had maintained a degree of autonomy even under Hitler and
were therefore able to reconstitute themselves in their pre-Nazi form
immediately upon the arrival of the occupying forces. Since their
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technical personnel had an intimate knowledge of the regional economies
and had, in fact, in their Nazi incarnation of Gauwirtschaftskammern (District
Chambers of Commerce), handled much of the wartime raw materials
distribution, they were indispensable to both the early occupation
governments, who were unfamiliar with the details of the German
economy, and the post-war Administration for Economics. Thus the
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chambers were a naturally early focus of Ludwig Erhard’s reform efforts.