36 Facts About Ludwig Erhard

Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard was a German politician and economist affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union, and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966.

Ludwig Erhard is known for leading the West German postwar economic reforms and economic recovery in his role as Minister of Economic Affairs under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer from 1949 to 1963.

Ludwig Erhard's popularity waned, and he resigned his chancellorship on 30 November 1966.

Ludwig Erhard had two brothers and a sister, Rose, all of whom were raised as Protestants.

Ludwig Erhard suffered from infantile paralysis in his third year, resulting in a deformed right foot and forcing him to wear orthopedic shoes for the remainder of his life.

Ludwig Erhard entered primary school in Furth at the age of six in 1903 and performed poorly.

Ludwig Erhard first served in the quiet Vosges sector on the Western Front.

Ludwig Erhard was badly wounded on his left shoulder, side and leg by an Allied artillery shell on 28 September 1918 during the Fifth Battle of Ypres.

Ludwig Erhard was committed to a military hospital in Recklinghausen, where he underwent seven operations until June 1919.

Ludwig Erhard's left arm became permanently shorter than his right one.

Ludwig Erhard passed the school's exit examination on 22 March 1922 and received a degree in business administration.

Thanks to Rieger's intervention, Ludwig Erhard was able to enroll at the University of Frankfurt in the autumn of 1922.

Ludwig Erhard spent the next three years as a mostly unemployed academic.

Ludwig Erhard wrote War Finances and Debt Consolidation in 1944; in this study he assumed that Germany had already lost the war.

Ludwig Erhard sent his thoughts to Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, a central figure in the German resistance to Nazism, who recommended Erhard to his comrades.

Ludwig Erhard discussed his concept with Otto Ohlendorf, deputy secretary of state in the Reichsministerium fur Wirtschaft.

Ludwig Erhard was an outsider who completely rejected Nazism, supported resistance, and endorsed efforts to produce an economic revival during the postwar period.

Ludwig Erhard abolished the price-fixing and production controls that had been enacted by the military administration.

Ludwig Erhard was appointed Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, a position he would hold for the next 14 years; from 1957 to 1963 he was the vice-chancellor of Germany.

Some society's members were members of the Allied High Commission and Ludwig Erhard was able to make his case directly to them.

Alfred Muller-Armack, the secretary of state of Ludwig Erhard's ministry, helped him guide German economy with theories until the beginning of 1960s.

Late in the 1950s, Ludwig Erhard's ministry became involved in the struggle within the society between the European and the Anglo-American factions, and sided with the former.

Ludwig Erhard viewed the market itself as social and supported only a minimum of welfare legislation.

However, Ludwig Erhard suffered a series of decisive defeats in his effort to create a free, competitive economy in 1957; he had to compromise on such key issues as the anti-cartel legislation.

Ludwig Erhard was deeply critical of a bureaucratic-institutional integration of Europe on the model of the European Coal and Steel Community.

The reasons for Ludwig Erhard's reluctance are unknown, but it is probable that they stemmed from Ludwig Erhard's general scepticism about party politics.

However, Ludwig Erhard was regarded and treated as a long-time CDU member and as the party chairman by almost everyone in Germany at the time, including the vast majority of the CDU itself.

Ludwig Erhard considered using money to bring about the reunification of Germany, which would have broken a diplomatic stalemate that had existed since the end of the Second World War regarding the status of West and East Germany.

Ludwig Erhard believed that if West Germany were to offer a "loan" worth $25 billion US to the Soviet Union, then the Soviet Union would permit German reunification.

Ludwig Erhard did not have a specific, concrete plan in mind believing that reality, and especially negotiations over such a major proposition, were too complex to be forecasted in advance with any accuracy, and as a result, he prepared to negotiate without any predetermined agenda.

However, Khrushchev fell from power in October 1964, and nothing developed out of Ludwig Erhard's envisioned idea for the reunification of Germany.

Ludwig Erhard's fall suggested that progress on German unification required a broader approach and a more active foreign policy.

Ludwig Erhard's successor was Kurt Georg Kiesinger, who formed a grand coalition with the SPD.

Ludwig Erhard continued his political work by remaining a member of the West German parliament until his death in Bonn from heart failure on 5 May 1977.

Ludwig Erhard was buried in his living place Gmund at the Tegernsee in Upper Bavaria.

The Ludwig Erhard-Berufsschule in Paderborn, Furth and Munster are named in his honour.