The ideas of German Ordoliberalism 1938–45: pointing the way to a new economic order

West Germanyapos;s economic order and economic policy have been decisively influenced by the ordoliberal thinking of the Freiburg School. What is less well known is that the roots of this thinking reach well back to the time before 1945. The failure to perceive this stems largely from the fact that it is only in the last decade that there has been any systematic and intensive reappraisal of the history of German science during the period of National Socialism (SectionI). Section II presents a rough schematic outline of the main strands of economic though in Germany between 1933 and 1945 and shows the place of Ordoliberalism in this scheme of ideas. Section III describes the various-and to some extent divergent-ideas of the members of the Freiburg Circle as to how to move from a wartime to a peacetime economy. They all agreed, however, that the (permanent) order-the market economy-had to be introduced gradually (a transitional order) rather than abruptly. Section IV demonstrates the key elements-now largely forgotten-that went to make up the Freiburg Imperative - the achievement of a lasting free and humane social and economic order-in the 1940s.