Ludwig Erhard (4 February 1897-5 May 1977) was Chancellor of Germany (West Germany) from 17 October 1963 to 30 November 1966, succeeding Konrad Adenauer and preceding Kurt Georg Kiesinger, serving as a CDU member. As Federal Minister of Economics from 20 September 1949 to 15 October 1963 (preceding Kurt Schmuecker), Erhard promoted the concept of the social market economy, on which Germany's economy continues to be based.
Biography[]
Ludwig Erhard was born in Fürth, Bavaria in 1897, and he served in the Imperial German Army during World War I. Erhard worked as a professor of economics and an economic adviser to the US administration in Germany from 1945, and he realized a social market economy (a capitalist economy in which the state had a strong role in the provision of social welfare and market regulation) against considerable opposition, first as economics director of the British and American-controlled zones of Germany from March 1948, and then as Economics Minister of West Germany. Through his successful economic policies, which provided an average economic growth rate of 8% per annum and ensured rapidly rising living conditions, he made a major contribution to the success of the fragile West German politician system. In 1963, he succeeded Konrad Adenauer as Chancellor, but ironically it was the economic crisis of the mid-1960s, as well as growing disagreements with his junior coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party of Germany, which led to his resignation in 1966.