42 Facts About Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a German-American economist of the Austrian School, philosopher and political theorist.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and the founder and president of the Property and Freedom Society.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe completed his undergraduate studies at Saarland University and received his MA and PhD degrees from Goethe University Frankfurt.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, from 1976 to 1978 and earned his habilitation in Foundations of Sociology and Economics from the University of Frankfurt in 1981.

From 1986 until his retirement in 2008, Hans-Hermann Hoppe was a professor in the School of Business at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a Distinguished Fellow of the Mises Institute, the publisher of much of his work, and was editor of various Mises Institute periodicals.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe has stated that Murray Rothbard was his "principal teacher, mentor and master".

In 2006, Hans-Hermann Hoppe founded The Property and Freedom Society as a reaction against the Milton Friedman-influenced Mont Pelerin Society, which he has derided as "socialist".

Hans-Hermann Hoppe asserted that any argument which in any respect purports to contradict libertarian principles is logically incoherent.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe argued that, in the course of having an argument about politics, people assume certain norms of argumentation, including a prohibition on initiating violence.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe then extrapolated this argument to political life in general, arguing that the norms governing argumentation should apply in all political contexts.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe claimed that, of all political philosophies, only anarcho-capitalist libertarianism prohibits the initiation of aggressive violence ; therefore, any argument for any political philosophy other than anarcho-capitalist libertarianism is logically incoherent.

However, the majority of Hans-Hermann Hoppe's colleagues surveyed by Liberty rejected his theory.

In 2001, Hans-Hermann Hoppe published Democracy: The God That Failed which examines various social and economic phenomena which, Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues, are problems caused by democratic forms of government.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe proposes alternatives and remedies, including secession, decentralization of government, and "complete freedom of contract, occupation, trade and migration".

Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that monarchy would preserve individual liberty more effectively than democracy.

Block notes that while Hans-Hermann Hoppe concedes that 21st-century democracies are more prosperous than the monarchies of old, Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that if nobles and kings replaced today's political leaders, their ability to take a long-term view of a country's well-being would "improve matters".

Block shared what he called minor criticisms of Hans-Hermann Hoppe's theses regarding time preferences, immigration and the gap between libertarianism and conservatism.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that this lack of proper elimination of variables led to distortions in B-L's study when comparing democracies in Europe and monarchies in Africa.

In Democracy Hans-Hermann Hoppe describes a fully libertarian society of "covenant communities" made up of residents who have signed an agreement defining the nature of that community.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that towns and villages could have warning signs saying "no beggars, bums, or homeless, but no homosexuals, drug users, Jews, Muslims, Germans, or Zulus".

Hans-Hermann Hoppe makes plain that he believes that practicing certain forms of discrimination, including the physical removal of people whose lifestyle is deemed incompatible with the purpose of establishing certain communities, is completely compatible with his system.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe provoked controversy by calling homosexuality a "perversity or abnormality" analogous to pedophilia, drug use, pornography, polygamy and obscenity.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that as long as states exist, they should impose some restrictions on immigration.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe has equated free immigration to "forced integration" which violates the rights of native peoples, since if land were privately owned, immigration would not be unhindered but would only occur with the consent of private property owners.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that Hoppe's logic implies that flagrantly unlibertarian laws such as regulations on prostitution and drug use "could be defended on the basis that many tax-paying property owners would not want such behavior on their own private property".

In terms of specific immigration restrictions, Hans-Hermann Hoppe argued that an appropriate policy will require immigrants to the United States to display proficiency in English in addition to "superior intellectual performance and character structure as well as a compatible system of values".

Hans-Hermann Hoppe suggested that these criteria would lead to a "systematic pro-European immigration bias".

Jacob Hornberger of the Future of Freedom Foundation argued that the immigration test Hans-Hermann Hoppe advocated would probably be prejudiced against Latin American immigrants to the United States.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe stated that very young and very old people, and couples without children, were less likely to plan for the future.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe told a reporter that the comments lasted only 90 seconds of a 75-minute class, no students questioned the comments in that class, and that in 18 years of giving the same lecture all over the world, he had never previously received a complaint about it.

At the request of university officials, Hans-Hermann Hoppe apologized to the class.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe said, "Italians tend to eat more spaghetti than Germans, and Germans tend to eat more sauerkraut than Italians" and explained that he was speaking in generalities.

Thereafter, Hans-Hermann Hoppe told the reporter, the student alleged that Hans-Hermann Hoppe did not take the complaint seriously and filed a formal complaint.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe told the reporter that he felt as if it were he who was the victim in the incident and that the student should have been told to "grow up".

Hans-Hermann Hoppe appealed the decision, saying the university had "blatantly violated its contractual obligations" toward him and described the action as "frivolous interference with my right to academic freedom".

Hans-Hermann Hoppe was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein said "The charge against professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe is totally specious and without merit".

Hans-Hermann Hoppe rejected Hoppe's request for a one-year paid sabbatical, and UNLV President Carol Harter acted upon Hoppe's appeal on 18 February 2005.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe decided that Hoppe's views, even if non-mainstream or controversial, should not be cause for reprimanding him.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe dismissed the discrimination complaint against Hoppe, and the non-disciplinary letter was withdrawn from Hoppe's personnel file.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe later wrote about the incident and the UNLV investigation in an article entitled "My Battle With the Thought Police".