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The Monita Secreta Or, As It Was Also Known As, The
James Bernauer, S.J. Boston College From European Anti-Jesuitism to German Anti-Jewishness: A Tale of Two Texts “Jews and Jesuits will move heaven and hell against you.” --Kurt Lüdecke, in conversation with Adolf Hitleri A Presentation at the Conference “Honoring Stanislaw Musial” Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (March 5, 2009) The current intense debate about the significance of “political religion” as a mode of analyzing fascism leads us to the core of the crisis in understanding the Holocaust.ii Saul Friedländer has written of an “historian‟s paralysis” that “arises from the simultaneity and the interaction of entirely heterogeneous phenomena: messianic fanaticism and bureaucratic structures, pathological impulses and administrative decrees, archaic attitudes within an advanced industrial society.”iii Despite the conflicting voices in the discussion of political religion, the debate does acknowledge two relevant facts: the obvious intermingling in Nazism of religious and secular phenomena; secondly, the underestimated role exercised by Munich Catholicism in the early life of the Nazi party.iv My essay is an effort to illumine one thread in this complex territory of political religion and Nazism and my title conveys its hypotheses. First, that the centuries long polemic against the Roman Catholic religious order the Jesuits, namely, its fabrication of the Jesuit image as cynical corrupter of Christianity and European culture, provided an important template for the Nazi imagining of Jewry after its emancipation.v This claim will be exhibited in a consideration of two historically influential texts: the Monita 1 secreta which demonized the Jesuits and the Protocols of the Sages of Zion which diabolized the Jews.vi In the light of this examination, I shall claim that an intermingled rhetoric of Jesuit and Jewish wills to power operated in the imagination of some within the Nazi leadership, the most important of whom was Adolf Hitler himself. -
DEFENDING the WOLF the Useful Contradiction of the Bundesbank Carlo Bastasin
DEFENDING THE WOLF The Useful Contradiction of the Bundesbank Carlo Bastasin SEP Policy Brief No. 1 - 2014 The Deutsche Bundesbank, the German central bank, is commonly regarded as the Euroarea's boogeyman. The pressure imparted by the German monetary authority, for instance, rendered the European Central Bank reluctant to follow the footprints of the Federal Reserve and of other central banks, and engage in non- standard monetary policy measures that might rapidly put an end to the crisis that has been plaguing the euro zone. At several stages, during the current crisis, the ECB has been forced to take actions and prevent severe economic and financial dislocations. Given the institutional vacuum at the area-wide level and the lack of political capacity of the other institutions, the European Central Bank had often to move across the borders of its traditional domain. This has given reason to a slew of criticisms repeatedly and loudly voiced by the Bundesbank. Being also the most vocal policy actor evoking the fiscal risks associated with effecting implicit cross-border transfers via the ECB's balance sheet, the Bundesbank has appeared to have a “non- monetary” hidden agenda or even a “national political” mission. In fact, the Bundesbank has regularly appealed to two fundamental principles of sound economic and monetary policy management that cannot be easily overlooked by anybody concerned that monetary policy may lose its ability to preserve price stability. Should monetary independence be eroded by the increasing tasks devolved to the central banks, wider economic and political consequences might then arise. The first principle is the need to avoid fiscal dominance, not allowing inflation to be determined by the level of fiscal debts; the second is the “principle of responsibility” that sees a contradiction if individual responsibility is blurred by the intervention of joint liability as in the case of a State running unsound fiscal policies and being automatically bailed out by the mutualization of its liabilities. -
Mr. Tietmeyer Reviews the Central Bank Council of the Deutsche Bundesbank on Its 50Th Anniversary Address Delivered by the President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Prof
Mr. Tietmeyer reviews the Central Bank Council of the Deutsche Bundesbank on its 50th anniversary Address delivered by the President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Prof. Hans Tietmeyer, during the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the first meeting of the Central Bank Council at the Land Central Bank of Hesse in Frankfurt/Main on 5/3/98. On March 8, 1948, eleven men gathered next door in the building of the then Land Central Bank of Hesse. The Central Bank Council - which at that time was still “provisional” - of the Bank deutscher Länder, which had been established on March 1, was meeting for the first time. An American officer of the Allied Banking Commission (appropriately named Mr. Freeman) convened the first meeting at 10.30 a.m. There will be quite a few fiftieth anniversaries in the coming weeks and months occasioned by the flood of major events relating to Germany which took place in 1948 and 1949. Many of these events were certainly more dramatic and spectacular than the first meeting of the Central Bank Council. Yet, if we remember this meeting now, it is because a crucial decision for the future began to take shape at that time. If that which was begun on March 8, 1948 had not met with success, the history of the D-Mark (and perhaps also the history of our country) would have taken a different course. It is true that the preparations for the introduction of the D-Mark were carried out elsewhere and by others, particularly by the Allies themselves. Yet, with monetary reform on June 20, when the first D-Mark banknotes came into circulation, the fate of the new currency began to be linked to the viability and the stability orientation of the German Central Bank Council. -
Central Banking Institutions and Traditions in West Germany After the War by Jörg Bibow the Levy Economics Institute May 2004
Working Paper No. 406 Investigating the Intellectual Origins of Euroland’s Macroeconomic Policy Regime: Central Banking Institutions and Traditions in West Germany After the War by Jörg Bibow The Levy Economics Institute May 2004 “The reasons for the success of German monetary policy in defending price stability are in part historical. The experience gained twice with hyperinflation in the first half of this century has helped to develop a special sensitivity to inflation and has caused the wider public to believe in the critical importance of monetary stability in Germany. For this reason, the strong position of the Bundesbank is widely accepted by the general public - questioning its independence even seems to be a national taboo. This social consensus has yielded strong support for the policy of the Bundesbank. … No government has ever seriously considered modifying the Bundesbank Act as a means to deal with cases of conflict, although it could have done so with a simple majority of the Parliament. Historical experience in Germany testifies to the success of the concept of an independent central bank. Inflation rates have remained far below the average rates of most other industrial countries. Stable prices have contributed to a fairly stable social climate, which is felt to have favored growth of the German economy; this has strengthened its role in the world economy. The German currency, the Deutsche Mark, has become a major reserve currency in the world and the “anchor currency” in the European Monetary System, and it enjoys a high standing. ... In the light of the success of the Bundesbank, it is only natural that the German public will expect that any successor, which could take its place at the European level, should be at least as well equipped as the Bundesbank to defend price stability” (Hans Tietmeyer 1991: 182-3; Bundesbank president 1993-9). -
The Bundesbank Ellen Kennedy
Key Institutions of German Democracy Number 4 THE BUNDESBANK ELLEN KENNEDY GERMAN ISSUES 19 American Institute for Contemporary German Studies The Johns Hopkins University THE BUNDESBANK ELLEN KENNEDY GERMAN ISSUES 19 The American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS) is a center for advanced research, study, and discussion on the politics, culture, and society of the Federal Republic of Germany. Established in 1983 and affiliated with The Johns Hopkins University but governed by its own Board of Trustees, AICGS is a privately incorporated institute dedicated to independent, critical, and comprehensive analysis and assessment of current German issues. Its goals are to help develop a new generation of American scholars with a thorough understanding of contemporary Germany, deepen American knowledge and understanding of current German developments, contribute to American policy analysis of problems relating to Germany, and promote interdisciplinary and comparative research on Germany. Executive Director: Jackson Janes Research Director: Carl Lankowski Director of Development: William S. Stokes IV Board of Trustees, Cochair: Steven Muller Board of Trustees, Cochair: Harry J. Gray The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) alone. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies. ©1998 by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies ISBN 0-941441-17-2 ISSN 1041-9810 Additional copies of this AICGS German Issue are available from the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, Suite 420, 1400 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-2217. Telephone 202/332-9312, Fax 202/265-9531, E-mail: [email protected], Web: http://www.aicgs.org ii FOREWORD Professor Ellen Kennedy’s short study is the fourth in the Institute’s series on key institutions of German democracy. -
Mommsen, Hans, Germans Against Hitler
GERMANS AGAINST HITLER HANS MOMMSEN GERMANSGERMANSGERMANS AGAINSTAGAINST HITLERHITLER THE STAUFFENBERG PLOT AND RESISTANCE UNDER THE THIRD REICH Translated and annotated by Angus McGeoch Introduction by Jeremy Noakes New paperback edition published in 2009 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com First published in hardback in 2003 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd as Alternatives to Hitler. Originally published in 2000 as Alternative zu Hitler – Studien zur Geschichte des deutschen Widerstandes. Copyright © Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, Munchen, 2000 Translation copyright © I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd, 2003, 2009 The translation of this work has been supported by Inter Nationes, Bonn. The right of Hans Mommsen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN 978 1 84511 852 5 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library Project management by Steve Tribe, Andover Printed and bound in India by Thomson Press India Ltd ContentsContentsContents Preface by Hans Mommsen vii Introduction by Jeremy Noakes 1 1. Carl von Ossietzky and the concept of a right to resist in Germany 9 2. German society and resistance to Hitler 23 3. -
Jens Weidmann: 55 Years for Stability
Jens Weidmann: 55 years for stability Interview with Dr Jens Weidmann, President of the Deutsche Bundesbank, and Helmut Schlesinger, former Bundesbank President, published in the staff magazine of the Bundesbank on 27 July 2012. * * * Mr Schlesinger, our interview is also an attempt to explain how the Bundesbank’s stability culture has evolved. Independence and the objective of price stability were already enshrined in the Bundesbank Act of 1957. Schlesinger: Actually, it was the establishment of the Bank deutscher Länder earlier which had helped the stability culture to develop. The money issued in 1948 was quickly put to the test: in 1950, during the Korean War. The prices of commodities and other imports shot up, and the public was in a state of major panic and unrest. Many began hoarding again; we had been going hungry just one and a half years earlier. At the time, I was involved in a study for the ifo Institute and was in contact with the Ministry of Economics. I know that experts there were already looking into the reintroduction of price freezes and ration cards for food, which we had already seen during and after the war. What did the Bank deutscher Länder do? Schlesinger: It did something that seems absolutely inconceivable nowadays: it set a limit for credit expansion in order to attempt to scale back the volume of money. This enabled the Bank deutscher Länder to stabilise the D-Mark over the course of 1951 and restore confidence in the value of the currency. This lay the proper groundwork – for the success of the currency reform, the abolition of rationing and price controls, and the stability of the currency. -
German Monetary Policy in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century
German Monetary History in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century: From the Deutsche Mark to the Euro Robert L. Hetzel tarting in January 2002, citizens of the European Monetary Union (EMU) replaced their national currencies with the Euro, issued by the S European Central Bank (ECB). Europeans created a new pan-European central bank as a symbol of a future united Europe. However, what historical process explains the broad monetary policy of the ECB, that is, its objective of price stability and its strategy for achieving that objective? The short answer is that its founders designed the ECB to look like the Bundesbank. How then did the Bundesbank evolve? To answer that question, I survey German monetary policy in the second half of the twentieth century. I divide this history into three main sections.1 The first treats the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. The second treats the floating exchange rate period that began in 1973. It chronicles the Bundesbank’s ultimate deci- sion to accord primacy to reducing inflation rather than unemployment. The last explains how the Bundesbank dealt with the pressures created by move- ment toward a single European currency. The evolution of the Bundesbank into an institution now identified as a modern central bank is fundamental to the article. A modern central bank This article follows Hetzel (2002), which summarizes German monetary policy in the first half of the twentieth century. The author gratefully acknowledges helpful comments from Michael Dotsey, Martin M. Fase, Andreas Hornstein, Thomas Humphrey, Joachim Scheide, and Alex Wolman. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond or the Federal Reserve System. -
Implementing Monetary Institutions in Postwar Germany
A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Hefeker, Carsten Working Paper Stable money and central bank independence: Implementing monetary institutions in postwar Germany MAGKS Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics, No. 24-2019 Provided in Cooperation with: Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, University of Marburg Suggested Citation: Hefeker, Carsten (2019) : Stable money and central bank independence: Implementing monetary institutions in postwar Germany, MAGKS Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics, No. 24-2019, Philipps-University Marburg, School of Business and Economics, Marburg This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/204819 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics by the Universities of Aachen ∙ Gießen ∙ Göttingen Kassel ∙ Marburg ∙ Siegen ISSN 1867-3678 No. -
17303323.Pdf
VYSOKÁ ŠKOLA BÁŇSKÁ – TECHNICKÁ UNIVERZITA OSTRAVA EKONOMICKÁ FAKULTA KATEDRA NÁRODOHOSPODÁŘSKÁ Nezávislost centrální banky Central Bank Independence Student: Renáta Mlýnková Vedoucí diplomové práce: Ing. Lenka Janíčková Ostrava 2013 Poděkování Na tomto místě bych ráda poděkovala Ing. Lence Janíčkové za její odborné vedení a rady, kterými přispěla k vypracování této diplomové práce. Obsah: 1 Úvod ......................................................................................................................... 1 2 Teoretická východiska monetární politiky .......................................................... 3 2.1 Cíle a funkce centrálních bank .................................................................................... 3 2.2 Ekonomické teorie nezávislosti centrálních bank ..................................................... 10 2.2.1 Teorie hospodářského a politického cyklu .................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Teorie časové nekonzistence ......................................................................................... 14 2.2.3 Nová politická ekonomie ............................................................................................... 19 2.3 Nezávislost centrálních bank ..................................................................................... 19 2.3.1 Základní charakteristiky nezávislosti ............................................................................ 22 2.3.2 Měření nezávislosti centrálních bank ........................................................................... -
Presseinformationen 60 Jahre Deutsche Bundesbank
Presseinformationen 60 Jahre Deutsche Bundesbank © Deutsche Bundesbank © Image Source/Corbis © Wolfilser – Fotolia © Deutsche Bundesbank Presseinformationen 60 Jahre Deutsche Bundesbank Seite 2 Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. Die Aufgaben der Deutschen Bundesbank 2. Daten zum rechtlichen Rahmen der Deutschen Bundesbank von 1948 bis 2016 3. Die Präsidenten der Deutschen Bundesbank 4. Stimmen aus Wissenschaft und Politik 5. Die Deutsche Bundesbank in Zahlen 6. Wussten Sie,… 7. Terminplan der Veranstaltungen im Jubiläumsjahr Presseinformationen 60 Jahre Deutsche Bundesbank Seite 3 Die Aufgaben der Deutschen Bundesbank Presseinformationen 60 Jahre Deutsche Bundesbank Seite 4 Die Deutsche Bundesbank nimmt als unabhängige geld- und währungspolitische Institution sowie als nationale und europäische Aufsichtsinstanz viele Aufgaben rund um das Thema Geld wahr. Gemeinsam mit der Europäischen Zentralbank und den anderen Zentralbanken des Eurosystems trägt sie Verantwortung für die Geldpolitik im Euro-Raum. Der Präsident der Bundesbank wirkt als Mitglied des EZB-Rats an den geldpolitischen Entscheidungen mit. Als Grundlage für die Entschei- dungsfindung erstellt die Bundesbank umfassende Analysen. Die Umsetzung der Geldpolitik ist in Deutschland Aufgabe der Bundesbank. Außerdem erläutert sie der deutschen Öffentlichkeit die Geldpolitik des Eurosystems und bezieht Position dazu. Neben der Beteiligung an der Geldpolitik erfüllt die Bundesbank weitere wichtige Aufgaben auf nationaler und internationaler Ebene. Eine dieser Kernaufgaben ist die Bankenaufsicht. Um -
The Sadness of Karl Otto Pöhl's Legacy
The Sadness of Karl Otto Pöhl’s Legacy “We now have the ECB française.” ith the largest ever bond-buying pro- gram by the European Central Bank looming, Bundesbankers were in an By Klaus C. Engelen apprehensive mood when they gath- ered on January 13 for a commemora- tive ceremony to mark the passing of the Bundesbank’s former President Karl Otto Pöhl. Pöhl, who for decades served as a member of TIE’s editorial advi- Wsory board, passed away December 9, 2014, at the age of eighty-five. For those present who are or were important to the institution, the huge quantitative easing program, pushed by the ECB’s President Mario Draghi on shaky legal and economic grounds, is feared to be the Bundesbank’s most damaging setback since the start of monetary union. In the long battle to block massive bond purchases from debt- laden eurozone member states, the Bundesbank under its President Jens Weidmann is being forced to take part in the largest money print- ing experiment post-war Europe has experienced. No wonder one of Weidmann’s predecessors, Helmut Schlesinger, confessed in a recent interview that quantitative easing reminds him of “war financing.” Jens Weidmann has often drawn attention to the fact that the ECB’s THE MAGAZINE OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC POLICY unconventional monetary measures have huge effects in shifting risks 220 I Street, N.E., Suite 200 and burdens towards member countries and their taxpayers, including Washington, D.C. 20002 Germany. For the Bundesbankers, European monetary union means that Phone: 202-861-0791 Fax: 202-861-0790 the fortunes of German savers and taxpayers have been taken hostage www.international-economy.com [email protected] Klaus C.