Hans F. Sennholz: Champion of Freedom and Austrian Economics
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From the President Hans F.Sennholz: Champion of Freedom and Austrian Economics BY RICHARD M. EBELING or more than half a century Austrian-school attendees and told us about his early life. Hans had been economist Hans F. Sennholz demonstrated that born on February 3, 1922, in the Rhineland area. He Flearning about the free market was not an exer- had been drafted into the German Luftwaffe in World cise in the “dismal science.”An extremely popular pub- War II and was shot down while serving in North lic speaker and immensely prolific writer, Hans Africa. He ended up in a POW camp outside of Austin, educated and persuaded thousands of people about the Texas. I asked him what it was like to be a prisoner of virtues of the free society and the benefits of economic war. He replied that those were among the best years of liberty. His passing on June 23, 2007, at age 85 leaves a his life. The camp cook had been a chef in a Berlin great void in the cause of free- restaurant before the war, and all dom. the meals were “wonderful.” It I vividly remember the first turned out that he had some rel- time I met Hans. It was in 1972 atives who had immigrated to at a FEE regional seminar in America in the 1920s and who Napa Valley, California, when I happened to live in the area. was 22. He already was one of They vouched for him so he the best-known expositors of could enroll at the University of Austrian economics and had Texas at Austin. He was escorted been the chairman of the eco- by a military policeman, who nomics department at Grove would stand behind him at atten- City College in Pennsylvania tion in the classroom. since 1956. I had been reading In 1946 Hans was repatriated his articles in The Freeman since I to Germany. He attended the was a teenager in the mid-1960s University of Marburg and grad- and had learned many of the core uated with an economics degree principles of Austrian and free- in 1948. In 1949 he was awarded market economics from his lucid a doctorate in political science expositions. from the University of Cologne. Rising to speak at that semi- Hans Sennholz lecturing at a FEE seminar. While browsing through the nar, Hans was soon hunched over library at the University of Mar- the podium, a finger pointed at the audience, in what I burg he came across the German-language editions of discovered was his characteristic pose. He proceeded to The Theory of Money and Credit and Socialism by Ludwig explain the “absurdities” of government intervention, von Mises and was deeply impressed by their insight and socialism, and inflation. In a thick but easily understood scholarship. German accent—that always had great effect on the Since both books had been originally published crowd—he preached hell-fire and brimstone about how decades earlier, Hans assumed that Mises must be dead. free markets and limited government were the only After briefly working as a lawyer in Cologne, Hans paths away from economic and political perdition. In the evening he sat around with a group of the Richard Ebeling ([email protected]) is the president of FEE. THE FREEMAN: Ideas on Liberty 2 Hans F. Sennholz: Champion of Freedom and Austrian Economics returned to the United States to pursue a career in busi- Hans also served on the FEE Board of Trustees ness and enrolled at New York University to work on (1969–1991) and, after his retirement from Grove City, another degree. Looking through the university catalog, as the president of FEE (1992–1997). During his tenure he discovered, to his great surprise, that Mises was in FEE expanded its publications and continued its long fact alive and teaching at NYU. Hans signed up for one tradition of summer seminars at the Foundation. He of Mises’s classes and soon decided to earn a degree also continued Leonard Read’s tradition of missives and under him. In 1955 Hans graduated with a Ph.D. in reports to FEE friends through Notes from FEE. A large economics. His dissertation was published the same year selection of these essays was collected in Reflection and under the title, How Can Europe Survive? Remembrance (1997). His last book appeared in 2004 While studying at NYU, Hans found out about the under the title Sowing the Wind: Essays and Articles on Foundation for Economic Education through Mises, Popular Economic Policies that Make Matters Worse. (It was who was regularly lecturing at FEE seminars. Soon sev- reviewed in the September 2005 Freeman.) eral of the Foundation’s staff members were playing match-maker and “fixing him up” with Leonard Read’s Fearless Defender secretary, Mary Homan. They were married the year uring the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, free-market ideas Hans graduated from NYU. Their marriage lasted 52 Dwere constantly under attack from Marxists, mod- years. erate socialists, welfare statists, and Keynesians. Free Hans taught economics at Grove City College for 36 enterprise had far fewer friends than today, and not years, from 1956 to 1992. As chairman of the depart- many academics were willing to make the uncompro- ment he was able to move the economics program in a mising case for economic freedom. Hans Sennholz was solidly free-market and Austrian direction. More than one of them. When Austrian economics seemed faced two generations of young men and women went with extinction, Hans explained and defended the Aus- through his classes and came away with a unique appre- trian theories of value and price; markets and competi- ciation of the workings of the market economy and the tion; and money, inflation, and the business cycle. dangers of all forms of political and economic collec- During those years the professional economics jour- tivism. nals were closed to almost anyone holding those views. He was an exceptionally prolific writer, publishing So, instead, Hans used more popular outlets to help well over 1,000 articles over the years. He early on keep alive the ideas of the Austrian school and the began contributing to The Freeman, with his first arti- classical-liberal ideal. Especially in the pages of The cle appearing in November 1956 on “The Myth of Freeman, Hans Sennholz aroused the enthusiasm of Capitalist Colonialism.” Among his many articles were a new generation of students to develop and spread “Welfare States at War,”“You Cannot Get Even,” and those ideas. “The Great Depression.” Many of his Freeman articles The freedom movement owes Hans Sennholz a later appeared as chapters in his books: Age of Inflation great debt of gratitude. He will be sorely missed by all (1979), Money and Freedom (1985), The Politics of Unem- those who had the privilege to know and learn from ployment (1987), and Debts and Deficits (1987). him. 3 JUNE 2007.