Barry Eichengreen’s Perspective
The German Economic Miracle, Then and Now
By Barry Eichengreen
Why did Germany, defeated in both World War I and WWII, recover so strongly after the latter, but not after the former? Two recent books suggest that conventional accounts of the Wirtschaftswunder – West Germany’s miraculous economic ascent after WWII – get it wrong.
Edward A. Tenenbaum and the Deutschmark:
How an American Jew Became the Father of Germany’s Postwar Economic Revival
By Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich
Eichengreen says: According to Holtfrerich, the subject of this biography, Edward Tenenbaum, was the “real author” of the West German currency reform of 1948, with which Ludwig Erhard is often credited.s freedom.”
Out of Hitler’s Shadow: Debt, Guilt, and the German Economic Miracle
By Tobias Straumann
Eichengreen says: In this political narrative, Straumann argues that Germany’s postwar economic recovery was “far from secure following the reforms of 1948.”
