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The Cultural Background of Ludwig Von Mises

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The Cultural Background of Ludwig Von Mises The Cultural Background of Ludwig von Mises Erik Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn riting for Americans born in 1881 in Lwów, the capital background, and by the time he about the cultural of what was known as Galicia. A was twelve years old, he knew the Wbackground of Ludwig kingdom and crownland of Austria, Germanic, the Latin, the Cyrillic, von Mises, an eminent Galicia was called Lesser Poland. the Greek, and the Hebraic script. former compatriot of mine, poses At the time, the majority of the city As to languages, he spoke German, some difficulties: how to present was Polish; more than a quarter was Polish, and 4rench, and understood you with a world radically different Jewish; a small minority was Ukrainian. The year he was born from yours, a world far away, Ukrainian; and a tiny percentage which in many ways no longer was Austro-German officials. How- exists. 4or example, the birthplace ever, the upper classes were dis- of this eminent economist was for tinctly Polish. nearly fifty years within the con- The eastern part of Galicia had fines of the Soviet Union. Who belonged to Poland since the four- was this great man and scholar? In teenth century, but became what ambiance did he live before Austrian at the first Polish parti- he came to the United States, tion in 1772, and it was returned where he continued to publish his to Poland in 1918. It is important crucially important works and to to realize all this in order to inspire new generations of econo- understand Misess cultural as well mists? We have to go back to the as psychological upbringing, and Karl, Ludwig, and Richard von Mises. old Austro-Hungarian Empire, the roots of his life-philosophy. then the second-largest political His Jewish roots, his Polish cul- his grandfatherhead of the Israeli unit in Europe. Only Russia was ture, his Austrian political frame Cult Communitywas ennobled bigger, although Germanys popu- and allegiance are all intertwined. with the title Edler, which means lation was slightly larger. Mises was Variety was the keynote of his The Noble, a distinction not so rare for Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, a very well-to- do railroad enterpriser, made sure Ludwig got the very best classical education. He did the same for his other son, Richard, who became a professor of mathematics at the University of Berlin and then later at Harvard. The Poles enjoyed complete freedom in Lesser Poland, unlike in Russia or Prussia, and had two universities of their own. The Mises family with Ludwig at the left. In the Austrian Parliament in STUDIES IN CLASSICAL LIBERALISM Vienna, they played a very impor- was not always a solidly Catholic country, at the invitation of King tant role as true pillars of the country. In the sixteenth century it Casimir the Great, and they came multinational Habsburg Empire, was one-third Presbyterian and mostly from Germany. In and many Poles saw in that dynasty one-third Unitarian (Socinian), Germany they had the privilege to the future rulers of a liberated and but the Catholic Church regained settle in ghettoes where they had resuscitated Poland. its vast majority thanks largely to complete self-government. (See the Jesuits and their cultural We must keep in mind that Guido Kischs magistral work, The endeavors: their schools accepted long before the catastrophe of the Jews in Medieval Germany, Chicago, pupils from all denominations, and partitions, the Poles, as an aristo- 1942.) Since by their own ritual supported good architecture, cratic nation, strongly upheld per- they were not permitted to take painting, and, above all, theater. more than 2,000 steps on the sonal freedom. Movements for lib- (The Jesuits were the initiators of erty, as a matter of fact, have typi- Sabbath, they could not dwell too our stage technology.) There was far from the synagogue. Of course, cally been carried on by the nobil- no inquisition, neither stake nor ity, which always opposed central- efforts were made to convert rope. Poland was, unlike England, them, and if they accepted bap- izing pressure and control. We the most tolerant European coun- saw this in England with the tism, they automaticallyas rela- try. Polish liberty was such that tives of our Lordbecame mem- Magna Carta, in Hungary with the when, in 1795, at the last partition, Golden Bull, in Aragon by the bers of the nobility. Antisemitism? stubborn Grandes, and in 4rance by As anywhere else, it came from the !ronde. In this respect, Poland very simple people to whom the went further; it became an elective descendants of Abraham seemed monarchy in 1572 and called itself odd in their rituals, their clothing, a republic. One of the slogans of their language, and their behavior, this very independent nobility was: although orthodox Jews, above all, Menace the foreign kings and were people of great piety and resist your own! Political power honesty. rested with the nobility, which Poles and freedom! Not only in (before the partitions) had no their own country did they practice titles, and its claimants comprised it; Polish freedom fighters were a fifth of the population. (4or a active in many parts of the world. comparison, take Alpine Austria Two noblemen survive in the with a third of one percent or memory of ‘ the United States Prussia with much less!) It was a Tadeusz Kosciuszko and Kazimierz nobility without legal distinctions Pulaski, the only U.S. general who and a proverb said: The noble- Mises in his military uniform, died in the War of Independence man in his farmhouse is equal to August 1901 in Vienna. on American soil. (Nor should‘ one the magnate in his castle. And when the 4ree Royal Polish City of forget Henryk Dembinski and since all noblemen were equals, Danzig was incorporated by Józef Bem, who played a similar they could not be ruled by majori- Prussia, the citizens, mostly role in the Hungarian Rising of ties. In the parliament, the Sejm, German Lutherans, fought valiant- 184849.) In the battle of the opposition of a single man ly for their freedom. Many of the Liebnitz, the Poles and the German the Liberum Vetoannulled any leading families emigrated, so the Knights diverted the Mongols from legal proposition. Schopenhauers went to Hanseatic the plains of Northern Europe; the Hamburg. Poles defeated the Turks in 1683 A SENSE O REEDOM How did the Jews fare? They at the gates of Vienna; and in 1920 This sense of freedom also per- came to Poland in the fourteenth they defeated the Bolsheviks in vaded the religious scene. Poland century, then a wholly agrarian front of Warsaw. Three times they 2 The Ludwig von Mises Institute THE CULTURAL BACKGROUND OF LUDWIG VON MISES saved Western civilization. Does Nietzsche, of Albert Einstein, and practical areas which followed the the world realize it? Of course not! also of 4riedrich August von long introduction, the study of His Polish, more than his Hayek! Young Mises, of course, economics is prominent. Jewish background, was decisive got a classical education: the mod- Mises found the law lectures at for Misess earliest years, but that ern languages he learned privately. the University of Vienna to be very did not conflict with his attach- one-sided and the teaching of eco- ment to Austria and the monarchy. STUDYING THE LAW nomics, with a few exceptions, Indeed, I met Mises for the first After getting his baccalaureate, below par. Already as a young man time in New York, in the company Mises studied law. Here we have he had a most critical sense. He of our former crown prince, to explain the character of Contin- was very much aware of the fact Archduke Otto von Habsburg, ental universities which have no that our universities, all perfectly whom he greatly admired. undergraduates: they are graduate autonomous bodies, state-financed Young Ludwig did not study in schools pure and simple. They tra- but not state-controlled, were one of the two linguistically Polish ditionally have four schools: of inevitably dominated by cliques universities of Lwów or Cracow, but theology, law, medicine, and phi- and factions; in the appointments, in Vienna. In order, however, to losophy, the last covering a multi- even family ties played a consider- understand his intellectual growth, tude of disciplines, almost all able role. belonging to the humanities. The it is important to realize how the The rector was addressed as Continental system of education Your Magnificence, and the uni- works. It differs radically from the versities were so sacrosanct that Anglo-American pattern. After the police were not permitted to four years of elementary training, enter them. Criminals hiding one entersif the parents are there had to be arrested by the ambitiousa school which re- Academic Legion, composed of motely resembles a combination of high school and college lasting students, and then were dragged eight (in Germany, nine) years. outside where they were handed over to the arm of the law. The There are three models of that freedom to teach was limitless. school: a classic one with eight (Academic freedom is a term years of Latin and six of Greek, a translated from German.) Even a semi-classic with Latin and one or professor, who, instead of lectur- two modern languages, and a more ing, read newspapers, could not be scientific one with only modern professors were chosen by the fac- languages. In all three types (the ulties, which constituted a self- dismissed. Every professor had classic one being naturally more perpetuating body. tenure up to the age of sixty-five or prestigious than the others), the On the Continent, the study of sixty-seven, when he had to retire local language, mathematics, lawthen as nowwas radically at eighty-two percent of his final geometry, history, geography, and different from legal studies in salary.
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