Notes Preface

¹ See Mises, Erinnerungen von Ludwig v. Mises (Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer, 1978); idem Notes and Recollections (South Holland, Ill.: Libertarian Press, 1978). Meanwhile, translations into the Italian, Spanish, and French languages have been published: Autobiografia di un liberale (Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino, 1996); Autobiografía de un Liberal (Madrid: Unión Editorial, 2001); Souvenirs d’Europe (http://herve.dequengo.free.fr/Mises/SE/SE.htm).

² Mises is today mainly known for his contributions to economic theory. But he is also an important historian of contemporary totalitarian movements. See in particular Mises, Nation, State, and Economy (1919); idem, Omnipotent Government (1944); idem, Planned Chaos (1947). His very first publications as a young scholar (1902–1906) also dealt with historical problems, though in those days he was under the influence of historicist and interventionist ideas which he later rejected, as explained in the present work.

³ Apart from the memoirs (which he did not publish), the only piece of writing in which Mises discussed his own ideas is an address delivered to the economics department of New York University, in November 1940, in the context of a job search in his new home country. See Mises, “My Contributions to Economic Theory,” Planning for Freedom, 4th ed. (South Holland, Ill.: Libertarian Press, 1980), pp. 224–33. In his theoretical writings he made numerous comments on the history of ideas, but next to never on his own ideas. In the 1960s he published a small booklet on the history of the Austrian School of economics, in which he also did not get to the point of talking about himself. See Mises, The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics (1962, 1969; reprinted Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1984 and 2007).

⁴ “Occasionally he showed terrible outbursts of tantrum.” Margit von Mises, My Years with Ludwig von Mises (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1976), p. 36.

Introduction

** This “Introduction” by F.A. Hayek was written for the German-language edition of Mises’s Notes and Recollections (Erinnerungen von Ludwig von Mises [Stuttgart: Gustav Fischer, 1978]). It was translated into English by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and published in the Austrian Economics Newsletter (Fall 1988): 1–3. It also appears in the Fortunes of Liberalism: The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 153–59.

1 Historicism

¹ The Kleindeutsche Lösung (literally “Small German Solution”) was a nineteenth-century political idea espousing a unified Germany led by Hohenzollern Prussia, excluding the Austrian Empire.

² The idea of a Groβdeutschland (a “Greater Germany”) stood in contrast to that of the Kleindeutsche Lösung. The German parliament elected after the early successes of the revolution of 1848 was split between the two options, with the democratic left favoring a republican Groβdeutschland, where as the liberal center favored a Kleindeutschland with a constitutional monarchy. In the end, the Kleindeutsche Lösung prevailed, but the Prussian king rejected the crown offered to him.

³ Sitting in front of the Pyramids,
In the people’s highest court,
Floods and war and peace,
Without change in facial expression.

⁴ “A Contribution to Austrian Factory Legislation.”

2 Etatism

¹ A Gymnasium in the German-speaking world is roughly equivalent to a high school in the United States in terms of the age range of its students. With its rigorous admissions policies, however, it is more academic in orientation.

²Bodenkreditanstalt translates literally into “land bank.” The Bodenkreditanstalt began as a privileged bank in the Austrian mortgage market, but also turned to industrial investments and eventually functioned as a vehicle for a semi-public industrial policy. It was the most powerful bank in Austria with very large holdings in almost all sectors of industry. It went bankrupt in September of 1929.

³ Association for Education in the Social Sciences.

⁴ Central Association for Housing Reform.

⁵ Kaiser Franz Joseph Anniversary Foundation for Public Housing.

3 The Austrian Problem

¹ The nationality principle, and moreover, the word “national,” within this chapter, make reference to linguistic or subpolitical groups, and stand in contrast to Austria-Hungary as a unified state.

² Association for Education in the Social Sciences.

³ “Danube Monarchy.” Mises is referring to Austria-Hungary.

⁴ Central Committee on Trade Policy.

⁵ Chamber of Commerce.

4 The Austrian School of Economics

¹Principles of Economics (1871).

² “Money.”

³Encyclopedia of State Sciences.

⁴Untersuchungen über die Methode der Sozialwissenschaften und der politischen Okonomie insbesondere (Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics).

⁵ The ancient city of Troy.

⁶The State Theory of Money. Knapp claimed that money was in its origin and its essence a pure creature of the state.

⁷Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.

⁸ Brno University of Technology.

⁹ Unsalaried lecturer.

5 First Writings on the Theory of Money

¹Journal for Economics, Social, and Policy Administration, “The Economic Motives of Austrian Foreign Exchange Controls.” No English translation of this was ever published.

² Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (Ysidro Francis Edgeworth) February 8, 1845–February 13, 1926.

³ Eugen Philippovich von Philippsberg (1858–1917); economics and seminar leader.

⁴ Austro-Hungarian Central Bank.

⁵ “The Problem of the Legal Resumption of Gold Payments in Austria-Hungary.”

⁶ German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) used money confiscated from the exiled king of Hanover to create a secret fund for bribing reporters and bankrolling political movements in Germany and abroad. He called it the “Reptile Fund” because of his contempt for those who took such money.

⁷ Austrian Economist.

⁸ Sacrifice of the intellect.

6 The Theory of Money and Credit

¹Zur Lehre von den Bedürfnisse (On the Theory of Needs).

² Böhm-Bawerk, Kapital und Kapitalismus (Capital and Interest).

³ “Grundprobleme der Nationalökonomie.”

⁴Sachkredit.

⁵ Zirkulationskredit.

⁶Economic Journal XXIV(1914): 417–19.

⁷ Keynes, A Treatise on Money, London 1930, Bd. I, S.199, Anmerkung 2.

7 The First World War

¹ “Merchants and Heroes”; sometimes translated as “Hucksters and Heroes.”

² “Vom Ziel der Handelspolitik.”

³Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft.

8 With the Handelskammer

¹ Chamber of Commerce.

² Lower Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

³ Vienna Chamber of Commerce, Handicrafts, and Industry.

⁴ The Center for Trade Policy.

⁵ Engelbert Dolfuss, rising leader of the Christian Socialist Party and later Austrian Chancellor.

⁶ Gustav Weiss-Wellenstein, Austrian industrialist.

⁷ The Organizers.

⁸ Seipel served as Chancellor during the 1920s and was an ordained Catholic priest. He held a Ph.D. in political science.

⁹ The Kreditanstalt was Austria’s largest banking institution, closely tied to the Austrian branch of the house of Rothschild. It collapsed on May 14, 1931, after which it was taken over by the Austrian government.

¹⁰ The Bodenkreditanstalt was a real estate lender that had itself swallowed several other unhealthy banks. After its collapse in 1929, Vienna authorities asked the Kreditanstalt to absorb the failed lender.

¹¹ Literally, “inviability” or lack of capacity for survival.

¹² The central reserve bank of the German savings banks.

¹³ “Slovenliness.”

¹⁴ “There is nothing that can be done about the situation.”

¹⁵ The main avenue encircling the old city of Vienna.

¹⁶ Roughly translated, “Even the best laid plans can go awry.”

9 My Teaching Activities in Vienna

¹ Unsalaried lecturer.

² A (full) professor who, in contrast to the “ordinary” or regular (full) professors, is not paid and has no chair (with a secretary, scientific assistants, and other employees) at the university.

³ Postdoctoral lecture qualification.

⁴ First among peers.

⁵ Central Association for Housing Reform.

⁶ Economic Society.

10 Scientific Work in Germany

¹ Association for Social Policy.

² German Sociological Society.

³ Global economy.

⁴ The Friedrich List Society, 1925–1934.

⁵ The Berlin School of Commerce.

11 Further Studies in Indirect Exchange

¹Sane sicut lux se ipsam et tenebras manifestat, sic veritas norma sui et falsi est (Latin). Translation: “Indeed, just as light defines itself and darkness, so truth sets the standard for itself and falsity.”

² “Balance of Payments and Foreign Exchange Rates.”

³ The official journal of the Association of Austrian Bankers.

⁴ Translation: “The Stabilization of the Monetary Unit from the viewpoint of theory.”

⁵ Translated: “Monetary Stabilization and Cyclical Policy.”

⁶ “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth.”

⁷ “Archives for Social Sciences and Politics.”

12 Systems of Social Cooperation

¹Socialism.

²Liberalism.

³Critique of Interventionism.

⁴ It appeared nine years later as Human Action.

⁵ “The Nationalization of Credit.”

13 Epistemological Studies

¹ Or “Grießknoedel,” a farina dumpling commonly eaten in Germany and Austria with fruit or in broth. Hofbauer is known for his early work in a bakery monastery, where he labored day and night to feed the poor.

² Controversy over method and epistemology in economics in the 1880s and 1990s. The two leading figures were Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller.

³Epistemological Problems of Economics.

⁴ The understanding and interpretation of the meaning of human action.

14 My Teaching Activities in Geneva

¹ Corporate state.

² Home guard.

15 The Struggle for Austria’s Survival

¹Heurigen translates as both new wine (heuer meaning “this year”), and the establishment in which it is served.

² A right-wing French publication.

³ “Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad.”