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Ludwig Erhard
Photo:
Horst Ossinger / dpa
Abelshauser, 75, is one of the leading economic historians. The Bielefeld professor researched the causes of the "economic miracle" after 1948 and published studies on the history of German industrial groups such as BASF and Krupp in the "Third Reich". Most recently, he published a four-volume analysis of German economic policy in the 20th century.
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Abelshauser, the then Federal Finance Minister Ludwig Erhard is considered to be the architect of the economic boom after the Second World War.
He quickly made a career after the war: from 1945 he was Minister of Economics in Bavaria, from 1949 in the federal government under Konrad Adenauer.
During the war he worked, among other things, for a Nazi trade association.
Was Erhard a collaborator with the Nazis?
Abelshauser:
No, he wasn't a National Socialist.
At the same time, like most Germans, he made himself available to the system pragmatically.
SPIEGEL:
Back then, Erhard was working in a consumer research institute and writing reports for government agencies;
among other things, on the question of how best to exploit occupied Poland.
Wasn't Erhard complicit in this?
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