Adolf Weber's Munich School of Economics and Its Influence on the Early Bundesbank: The Example of Bernhard Benning

Abstract This article analyzes the early years of the history of the Bundesbank from a history of economic thought perspective. The study uses the example of Bernhard Benning, who headed the Economics Department of the Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft, one of the major banks owned by the German Reich during the National Socialist era. After the war Benning was appointed a member of the board of directors of the Deutsche Bundesbank for twenty-two years. As a student of Adolf Weber and his Munich school of economics, Benning's views were shaped by classical liberal rather than ordoliberal ideas. His legitimacy in postwar Germany stemmed from his public opposition to war financing and warnings about inflation during the Donner-Benning Debate of 1942–43. In this tradition, the early Bundesbank was Weberian rather than ordoliberal, so, for instance, fixed exchange rates were favored, and a strong business and investment perspective was adopted.