1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910818329603321

Autore

Van Hook James C. <1968->

Titolo

Rebuilding Germany : the creation of the social market economy, 1945-1957 / / James C. Van Hook [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2004

ISBN

1-107-14925-8

1-280-47790-3

0-511-19532-X

0-511-19598-2

0-511-19392-0

0-511-31433-7

0-511-51193-0

0-511-19466-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 312 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

330.943/0875

Soggetti

Free enterprise

Germany (West) Economic policy

Germany (West) Economic conditions

Germany (West) Social policy

United States Foreign relations Germany (West)

Germany (West) Foreign relations United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-302) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Preface; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; 1 Planning for Reconstruction; 2 The Future of the Ruhr; 3 High Hopes and Disappointment: The SPD and the Planning Regime, 1945-47; 4 Ludwig Erhard, the CDU, and the Free Market; 5 Free Markets, Investment, and the Ruhr; 6 The Social Market Economy and Competition; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

The social market economy has served as a fundamental pillar of post-war Germany. Today, it is associated with the European welfare state. Initially, it meant the opposite. Rebuilding Germany examines the 1948 West German economic reforms that dismantled the Nazi command



economy and ushered in the fabled 'European Miracle' of the 1950s. Van Hook evaluates the US role in German reconstruction, the problematic relationship of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his economics minister, Ludwig Erhard, the West German 'economic miracle', and the extent to which the social market economy represented a departure from the German past. In a nuanced and fresh account, Van Hook evaluates the American role in West German recovery and the debates about economic policy within West Germany, to show that Germans themselves had surprising room to shape their economic and industrial system.