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Message from Prison. Erhard promptly formed his own research group, soon had dozens of sponsors for new projects. But he was constantly under the shadow of Hitler's men. Streicher kept muttering, "That's a nest that we'll have to clean out one of these days."
Streicher would have taken more drastic measures had he known what Ludwig Erhard was up to at the time: he turned out a lengthy analysis of steps to rebuild the German economy, based on the frank premise of Germany's total defeat. Although Erhard sent copies to friends, the Nazis never got wise. One copy went to Dr. Karl Goerdeler, once mayor of Leipzig and then deeply involved in the plot on Hitler's life and in planning a postwar German government. After Goerdeler was arrested, he smuggled word about Erhard from his prison cell to friends outside: Der Mann muss Minister werden—this man must become a minister. Goerdeler was ex ecuted shortly thereafter. Ludwig Erhard, relieved that the Nazis had not caught him too, spent the rest of the war in virtual isolation with his family.
A Dramatic Announcement. "I am an American invention," says Erhard today, and in a sense he is. By 1948, partly because of his anti-Nazi record, he was chosen by the American Occupation authorities to be economic administrator of the combined U.S. and British zones. The professor sounded visionary, if not slightly mad, to visitors who heard him advocate the end of ra tioning and other controls at a time when Germany was in rubble and people lived on fewer than 2,000 calories a day.
"The star hour of my life," as Erhard puts it, came when the allies were about to revalue the German mark and bring about the drastic shake-out that was to set the stage for West Germany's later economic success. To Occupation officers, currency reform was enough for one step, but Erhard had a further move in mind. On a quiet Sunday afternoon when, as he says, "I knew no bureaucrats would be around to stop me," he went to the local radio station and took the air with a dramatic announcement: the end of rationing. "From now on," he declared, "the only ration stamp will be the Deutsche mark."
Allied officers and control-minded economists were furious, wanted him dismissed at once. Erhard held firm, for he was convinced that after an initial price skyrocket, things would level off. Without freeing the economy, he argued, currency reform would have no real effect. "If I were to distribute poverty justly, we would all surely remain poor," he insisted. "It seemed to be more important to overcome poverty than to distribute it." U.S. General Lucius Clay backed him, and throughout a grim winter of rising prices and shortages, Erhard kept up Seelenmas-sagen (soul massages), in the form of radio speeches and newspaper articles. Over and over he predicted: "Prices will start to drop in the spring." Panic buying trailed off, production rose and prices did fall.
He Knows What He Wants. In the 15 years since, Erhard has watched West Germany's economy become Europe's strongest. The gross national product has moved from $20 billion in 1949