The Last Knight of Liberalism

Chapter 3: Alma Mater Rudolphina

1 The very expression “academic freedom” is in fact a term translated from the German. See Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises (Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1999), p. 3.

2 Appointments of professors had to be approved by the emperor, as with other high civil servants. See William M. Johnston, Vienna, Vienna—The Golden Age, 1815–1914 (Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1981), p. 97.

3 On the University of Vienna see Rudolf Kink, Geschichte der kaiserlichen Universität zu Wien, 2 vols. (Vienna: Gerold, 1854); Franz Gall, Alma Mater Rudolphina 1365–1965—die Wiener Universität und ihre Studenten (Vienna: Austria Press, 1965).

4 The exact name of his chair was Lehrstuhl für Polizei und Kameralwissenschaften. On Sonnenfels see Robert A. Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History: From Later Baroque to Romanticism (New York: Praeger, 1960), pp. 153ff.; see also Hans Tietze, Die Juden Wiens (Vienna & Leipzig: Tal, 1933), pp. 107ff.

5 The two phases had nothing to do with our present-day distinction between undergraduate studies and graduate studies. As Kuehnelt-Leddihn points out, in Mises’s day, Continental universities had no undergraduates— “they were graduate schools pure and simple.” Kuehnelt-Leddihn, The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises, p. 3.

6 Rudolf Sieghart, Die letzten Jahrzehnte einer Grossmacht (Berlin: Ullstein, 1932), pp. 115ff.

7 Kuehnelt-Leddihn, The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises, p. 3.

8 At the turn of the century, several hundred thousand Czechs lived in Vienna. See Johnston, Vienna, Vienna, p. 200.

9 Luwig von Mises, Erinnerungen (Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer, 1978), p. 13.

10 It is likely that in this first phase of his studies he attended a class of Karl Theodor von Inama-Sternegg on medieval economic history. Inama-Sternegg was an old rival of Carl Menger’s. Already in 1879, then still under the leadership of Lorenz, the department of law and government science had supported his attempt to gain the chair of political economy that eventually went to Menger. Inama-Sternegg was an economic historian through and through. His main field of research was German economic history from the late ninth to the sixteenth century. See K.T. von Inama-Sternegg, Deutsche Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 4 vols. (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1879–1901).

11 Mises, Entwicklung des gutsherrlich-bäuerlichen Verhältnisses in Galizien (1772—1848), Eduard Bernatzik and Eugen von Philippovich, eds., Wiener staatswissenschaftliche Studie 4, no. 2 (Vienna & Leipzig: Deuticke, 1902): vi + 144. After him, some of his fellow students and friends published research in the same series. See for example, Karl Pribram, Der Lohnschutz des gewerblichen Arbeiters nach österreichischem Recht (1904); Hans Kelsen, Die Staatslehre des Dante Alighieri (Vienna: Deuticke, 1906); Alfred Amonn, Objekt und Grundbegriffe der theoretischen Nationalökonomie (Vienna: Deuticke, 1911).

12 See in particular Georg Knapp, Die Bauernbefreiung und der Ursprung der Landarbeiter in den älteren Teilen Preussens, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1887); see also Knapp, Die Landarbeiter in Knechtschaft und Freiheit (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1891). This is the same Knapp who today is better known among economists for his Staatliche Theorie des Geldes (Government approach to the theory of money) (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1905). We will discuss Knapp’s work in our presentation of Mises’s theory of money.

13 See C. Grünberg, Die Bauernbefreiung und die Auflösung des gutsherrlich-bäuerlichen Verhältnisses in Böhmen, Mähren und Schlesien, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1893–1894).

14 Some years later, a young man by the name of Leo Fishman (Fischmann) wrote on peasant liberation in central Austria (Inneroesterreich). See Fishman to Mises, letter dated November 11, 1950; Grove City Archive: “F” file.

15 Mises, Notes and Recollections (Spring Mills, Penn.: Libertarian Press, 1978), p. 6.

16 In Eastern Galicia (the area around Lemberg), the Ruthenians represented two thirds of the population, whereas the nobility was almost exclusively Polish. See Isabel Röskau-Rydel, “Galizien, Bukowina, Moldau,” in idem, Deutsche Geschichte im Osten Europas: Galizien, Bukowina, Moldau (Berlin: Siedler, 1999), p. 49.

17 Mises, Entwicklung des gutsherrlich-biiuerlichen Verhältnisses in Galizien (1772–1848), p. 79.

18 Ibid., p. 114.

19 Ibid., pp. 104f.

20 August Rodakiewicz, Die galizischen Bauern unter der polnischen Republik: eine agrarpolitische Untersuchung (Brünn: Rohrer, 1902). In the same year, he published some results of this work in an article for Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk’s Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung 11 (1902): 153ff.

21 Mises Archive 107: 26f.

22Schmoller’s Jahrbuch 28 (1): 374–79; see Mises Archive 107: 28ff.

23 Mises Archive 50.

24 k.u.k. Divisions Artillerie Regiment Nr. 6; k.u.k. Feld Kanonen Regiment Nr. 30; Einjährig-Freiwilliger.

25 Röskau-Rydel, “Galizien, Bukowina, Moldau,” p. 70.

26 Things began to change slowly after the Austrian republic was created in 1918. Quick and thorough changes occurred only under the (national) socialist regime: under Hitler, the Wehrmacht employed tens of thousands of “partial Jews” (Mischlinge) as regular soldiers, and some of them even as generals, admirals, and field marshals—unthinkable in the old regime. See Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Von Sarajevo nach Sarajevo (Vienna: Karolinger, 1996); Bryan Mark Rigg, Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers (Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 2004).

27 Mises, Erinnerungen, p. 3; Notes and Recollections, p. 2.

28 This may sound similar to the English-language epithet, “armchair socialists,” but chair in this case refers to a full professorship in the European university system. Perhaps “ivory-tower socialists” would be more on the mark.

29 Ralph Raico, Die Partei der Freiheit (Stuttgart: Lucius & Lucius, 1999), p. 185.

30 Mises, The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics (Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, [1969] 1984), p. 14.

31 Mises, Erinnerungen, pp. 10f.; Notes and Recollections, pp. 13, 16. Mises adds that only in one respect were his views not quite as wrong as those of his fellow students: he was “consciously anti-Marxian.”

32 See Menger’s letter to the (Austrian) Ministry of Culture, dated March 19, 1902, quoted in Yukihiro Ikeda, Die Entstehungsgeschichte der “Grundsätze” Carl Mengers (St. Katharinen: Scripta Mercaturae Verlag, 1997), pp. 1f.

33 Eugen von Philippovich, Grundriss der politischen Oekonomie, 9th ed., 3 vols. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1911). On Philippovich see Mises, “Eugen von Philippovich,” Neue Österreichische Biographie, 1st section, vol. 3 (1926), pp. 53–62; Ludwig Elster, “Philippovich von Philippsberg, Eugen,” Handwörterbmh der Staatswissenschaften 6 (1925). See also the obituaries by Amonn in Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, 3rd series, vol. 58, pp. 158–63, and by Hainisch in Schriften des Vereins für Sozialpolitik 159: 25–29.

34 Friedrich von Wieser, “Der Geldwert und seine geschichtlichen Veränderungen,” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung 13 (1904); reprinted in Wieser, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, F.A. Hayek, ed. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1929), pp. 164–92.

35 Felix Somary, The Raven of Zurich: The Memoirs of Felix Somary (London: Hurst & Co., 1960), pp. 12f. Somary had first been hired by Carl Menger to assist him in extended sociological studies. But Menger did not anticipate publication any time soon and felt he might be wasting his brilliant young assistant’s time. He put Somary in touch with Philippovich, who was looking for help with a new edition of his textbook.

36 Mises, “Eugen von Philippovich,” p. 60.

37 Wiener Fabier-Gesellschaft, established 1891. The main protagonists were Hainisch, Pernerstorfer, and Philippovich.

38 This seems to have been rather exceptional among economics professors. Mises, who knew well the economics profession of the turn of the century, later said:

In the decades between the Prussian constitutional conflict (1862) and the Weimar constitution (1919), only three men sensed the problems of social reform: Philippovich, Stolzmann, and Max Weber. Among these three, only Philippovich had any knowledge of the nature and content of theoretical economics. (Mises, A Critique of Interventionism [New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1977], p. 38)

39 Mises, “Eugen von Philippovich,” p. 61.

40 Ibid., p. 62.

41 Eugen von Philippovich, Die Entwicklung der wirtschaftspolitischen Ideen im 19. Jahrhundert (Tübingen: Mohr, 1910), p. 131.

42 Ibid., pp. 132–38.

43 Mises, Erinnerungen, p. 19; Notes and Recollections, p. 33.

44 See F.A. Hayek, “Einleitung,” introduction to Mises, Erinnerungen (Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer Verlag, 1978), p. xiv.

45 Mises, Erinnerungen, p. 7; Notes and Recollections, p. 7.

It was my intense interest in historical knowledge that enabled me to perceive readily the inadequacy of German historicism. It did not deal with scientific problems, but with the glorification and justification of Prussian policies and Prussian authoritarian government.

46 Mises, Theory and History (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1957), p. 288; emphasis added.

47 Mises, Erinnerungen, pp. 13f.; Notes and Recollections, pp. 19f.

48 Mises, Erinnerungen, p. 58.

49 Ludwg von Mises, “Zur Geschichte der österreichischen Fabriksgesetzgebung,” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Socialpolitik und Verwaltung 14 (1905): 209–71.

50 Ibid., p. 234.

51 Ibid., pp. 258ff.

52 Ibid., p. 270.

53 See for example Dr. Mises, Beweis, dass der Mond aus Jodine bestehe, 2nd ed. (Leipzig: Voss, 1832); idem, Vergleichende Anatomie der Engel—Eine Skizze (Leipzig: Industrie-Comptoir, 1825).

54 Mises, Erinnerungen, p. 23; Notes and Recollections, p. 39.

55 Otto Bauer, Die Nationalitätenfrage und die Sozialdemokratie (Vienna, 1907). On Bauer see Norbert Leser, “Otto Bauer—Friedrich Adler—Max Adler,” Tausend Jahre Österreich, Walter Pollack, ed. (Vienna: Verlag Jugend und Volk, 1974), vol. 3, pp. 258ff.

56 Mises, “Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and the Discriminating Reader,” The Freeman (August 1959).

57 His Habilitation director was Philippovich. See Franz Baltzarek, “Ludwig von Mises und die österreichische Wirtschaftspolitik der Zwischenkriegszeit,” Wirtschaftspolitische Blätter 28, no. 4 (1981): 127. Philippovich’s Habilitation thesis (which he wrote under Menger) dealt with the achievements of the Bank of England. See Eugen von Philippovich, Die Bank von England im Dienste der Finanzverwaltung des Staates (Vienna: Deuticke, 1885); translated as History of the Bank of England and Its Financial Services to the State (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911). Still Wieser’s inaugural lecture might have had a more direct impact on Mises’s interest in problems of money and banking.

58 Mises, “Die wirtschaftspolitischen Motive der österreichischen Valutaregulierung,” Zeitschrift für Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung 16 (1907): 571.

59 Sieghart, Die letzten Jahrzehnte einer Grossmacht, p. 74.