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NOTE 7. The Great War

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Part 3 Officer, Gentleman, Scholar

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Chapter 7 The Great War Like many others, Mises anticipated the outbreak

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of the First World War years in advance. Unlike many others, he dreaded it. He was a lieutenant

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of the Austro-Hungarian Army and dearly loved his country, but he was no chauvinist and

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despised a militarism and statism that were about to drag an entire continent into catastrophe.

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A number of eminent men and women in all countries, most notably Bertha von Zutner

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in Austria and Bertrand Russell in England, felt the same way and dedicated themselves to making

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the case for peaceful cooperation among nations and to fighting the frenzy of nationalism.

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Patriotism These private initiatives proved insufficient

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to tame the war party. The ruling philosophy of government glorification under the guise

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of patriotism had made its cause irresistible. After the war, Mises would write on these

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subjects in detail. He explained how the war had resulted from state worship, in this case

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from worship of the nation-state. But for now he thought that he, the agnostic Jew,

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The Austro-Hungarian state was the sole bulwark against the Russian hordes standing ready

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to invade the land and destroy its western liberties. Maybe this attitude toward politics

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was contradictory and anachronistic, but Mises believed he had no choice in the matter and

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and he continued to believe that all his life.

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As a contemporary friend and admirer would observe, a champion of individualism, you

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cherish strikingly collectivistic orientations. In fact, even under severe duress for your

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body and total lack of individual comfort, you never lose sight of the whole picture.

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First Year in Battle Early on a Saturday morning, Mises stood ready

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for Departure at Vienna's crowded Nordbahnhof station. He took the eight o'clock express

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to the city of Przysztof-Michelow, in his native Galicia, where he would join his unit,

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the Field Cannon Regiment No. 30. The train had special compartments for officers, which

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made the long journey more comfortable, and thus he spent the day in the company of Ewald

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Pribram and Karel Dornal, who were both cavalry officers and the physician Erwin Stransky,

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A fellow private lecturer at the University of Vienna. None of the young men would ever

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forget this journey.

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Schransky later recalled that Mises spoke about his native Galicia, its history, its

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peculiarities of its church architecture, etc. The time passed somehow, and in the evening

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around seven o'clock, Mises left the train in Przemyśl, wishing his fellow travellers

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farewell.

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was August 1st, 1914. The fighting did not start immediately. Austria-Hungary did not

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declare war until August 5th, after the war between Russia and Germany had broken out.

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Even then, there was no significant fighting for another two weeks. Both camps needed time

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to mobilise their forces. This should have been easier for Austro-Hungarian and German

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and Troops, because of the shorter distances, but the Russians had apparently begun preparations

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much earlier, shortly after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand on June 28th.

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The fundamental military problem for the Austro-Hungarian and German alliance was a three-front war

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with numerically superior enemies on all sides, in particular the sheer overwhelming numbers

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of the Russian army.

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In 1914, Russia counted a population of roughly 173 million, as opposed to 68 million Germans

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and 50 million inhabitants of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Because of the immensity of the Russian

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Empire, its 250 potential divisions could not be mobilised quickly. Still, the Russian

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generals managed to throw 80 divisions into battle in the first few months. These troops

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troops confronted only 10 German divisions and 38 Austrian divisions, 90 out of 100 German

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divisions being bound up on the Western Front and 11 out of 49 Austro-Hungarian divisions

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stuck on the Southern Front in Serbia. The mission of the Austro-Hungarian troops on

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the Northern Front was to block the Russians in order to avoid Russian invasion of the

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German planes, which lay almost defenceless. They could not retreat into the Carpathian

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in mountains, which were easier to defend because the Russians could trap them there

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with only a small number of their troops and throw their main force into Germany. Hence,

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in spite of their numerical inferiority, the Kauka armies had not merely to resist but

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to attack the Russians in an attempt to keep them in the Galician plains. The Kauka strategy

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was to wear the Russians down in a long series of battles. This strategy counted on the Austro-Hungarian

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Empire's Comparative Advantages of Morale, Training, Education and Fighting Spirit. After

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the war, Mises said of these relentless Austrian offensives that the flower of the Austrian

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army was uselessly sacrificed. He considered them goalless and purposeless. And yet they

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did have a goal, to keep the Russians in Galicia as long as possible. In this they succeeded.

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The human cost included many of Mises's relatives, friends, colleagues and students.

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The battles that followed brought death and destruction on an unheard-of scale. Modern

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science and technology had profoundly changed all aspects of war, from coordination to equipment

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to tactics and strategy, giving a central place to the use of high-powered and highly

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Mobile Artillery. Although the Kauka army was better equipped than its enemy, it was

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numerically inferior and in almost constant retreat. By the end of September more than

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10,000 civilian refugees from Galicia had poured into Vienna and the Kauka army had

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been thrown far back behind Przemyśl and now stood with its back to the Carpathian

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Mountains. In the first few weeks and months of the war,

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Almost no day went by that did not see entire Kauka batteries about 100 men each and even

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regiments about 500 being wiped out. Artillery was not only the main agent of destruction

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but also one of the prime targets. Mises's battery constantly had to change position

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often under fire. Heavy rainfall set in, hampered their movement and proved that Kauka uniforms

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There was no hope of relief any time soon from the military bureaucracy, so Mises resorted

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to private initiative. He had his mother send clothes for his men. Mises later denounced

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the bad treatment of the common soldiers as a serious impediment to the war effort. From

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the political point of view it was a grave mistake to follow completely different principles

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in the compensation of the officer and the enlisted man, and to pay the soldier at the

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front worse than the worker behind the lines. That contributed much to demoralizing the

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army. He was himself the special object of motherly care through the army postal system.

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Adèle von Mises sent her son furred leather gloves, several electric lamps, matches, shoelaces,

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woolen clothes, camel-hair pants and camel-hair under-gloves, aspirin, cigarettes, glasses

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Mises & Journals, Ludwig's favourite brand of suspenders, Audit Valette, Soap, Cognac

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and Tunicans. Like an accountant she kept lists of the things she sent and thus controlled

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both the punctual delivery and the consumption of her son, with a keen eye on his cigarette

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consumption. She also kept him informed about various events in Vienna, although she could

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not be too frank or go into too much detail because of the censor. Mises himself probably

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He had access only to official or semi-official journals and newspapers. At the end of August

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1914, he read that his beloved teacher, Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk, had died and to all on a

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journey to Switzerland. Mail could take weeks to reach the soldiers, especially when troop

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movements were quick and fervent. In September 1914, correspondence was interrupted for three

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When, to the great relief of his family and friends, his name was eventually mentioned

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in the Neue Freie Presse, Martin Ehrenstein wrote him immediately, This time too victory

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will be on the side of liberty. Meanwhile, his brother Richard was stationed in Baden

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near Vienna. He was experimenting with aircraft motors, commanding a research unit comprised

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of several soldiers and a lieutenant. A professor of applied mathematics at the Prussian University

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of Strasbourg since 1909, his interests had centred on aviation. He had become a pilot

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himself and taught a university course on powered flight in 1913. With his army research

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Research Unit, he constructed a 600hp plane, which was put to use in 1915. The military

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research led to the publication of Fluglehre, which established Richard as one of the world's

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foremost aviation pioneers. The book was first published in 1918 in Berlin and then remained

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for decades a standard monograph of aviation theory, being reprinted in a posthumous sixth

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Edition in 1957 in Berlin. Before the war Richard von Mises had already gained an expert

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reputation based on his Elemente der Technischen Hydromechanik, but the young professor was

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impatient to get to the front, where the battles continued to be fierce and numerous.

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In the first half of October, United German and Austro-Hungarian armies had driven the

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Russians back, gaining about 60 miles, only to be driven back again after two weeks of

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of Russian Counterattacks. But time was running out for the Russians. The Austrian economy

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had retained a comparatively large degree of liberty that now increasingly weighed in

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on the side of the Austro-Hungarian army. The huge profits deriving from the production

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of war materials were not initially subject to excessive taxation, and thus could quickly

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be reinvested to convert the structure of production to war needs. Mises emphasised

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that wartime public opinion strongly favoured a confiscatory taxation of the great profits

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made in the armament industries. Initially, the Austrian leadership did not give in to

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these demands because it was aware of the military importance of having an efficient

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private production of war materials. Many businessmen and industrialists had already

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started adjusting their plans and their investments to the new situation, and as usual, these

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These private ventures reacted quickly and efficiently to subsequent developments on the

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front. For example, in October 1914, some Austrian businessmen set up a factory to produce

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ammunition for captured cannons. But long-standing pre-war government control of war-related

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industries did cause problems. Mises later explained,

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"...Austrian industry not only had to deliver what the war required beyond peacetime provisions,

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It also had to catch up on what had been neglected in peacetime. The guns with which the Austro-Hungarian

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field artillery went to war were far inferior. The heavy and light field howitzers and the

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mounted cannons were already out of date at the time of their introduction and scarcely

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satisfied the most modest demands. These guns came from state factories and now private

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industry, which in peacetime had been excluded from supplying field and mountain guns and

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The higher productivity of private enterprise increasingly came into play and helped bring

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Talking about an important Austrian victory that ended a month-long battle near the Polish

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city of Lodz on December 6th, 1914. A few days later, the Austro-Hungarian Army won

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another significant victory at Limonowa-Lapanow, about 15 miles from Carl Menger's birthplace

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in Noizandek. On December 12th, the Russians were driven back more than 30 miles, in the

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course of which 30,000 Russian prisoners were taken. These events marked a decisive turning

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point on the Eastern War Theatre. After almost four months of intense fighting, the German

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and KUK troops had balanced the initial numerical superiority of the Russians, and in the coming

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months would drive them further back east. Richard wrote to Ludwig in characteristic

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Mises family understatement that he was happy that it goes better with the Russians, in

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the German, es mit dem Russen besser geht. Apparently Ludwig even found time now to study

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the Ruthenian Language, possibly to prepare for the establishment of a new local administration.

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At least this was the guess of Mises's uncle Alfred Landau. In a letter to Mises, dated

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December 3, 1914, he surmises that Mises's studies of the Ruthenian language will be

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helpful for the administration of the new gouvernement Tarnopol. Ruthenian was the language

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of the Ukrainians living under Austrian rule in the eastern part of Galicia. He also wrote

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Richard reported frequently to Richard inquiring about the health of their mother, who had

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been suffering for some months from a foot injury. Richard reported that all cures had

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failed so far, and that he had also tried in vain to engage the world-famous physician

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Professor Adler, with whom the Mises family had personal contact. This must have been

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Alfred Adler, 1870 to 1937. Up to the 1930s, Adler was the most famous Vienna psychologist.

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He had first worked with Sigmund Freud, but early on went his own way in placing great

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emphasis on the particular conditions of each individual patient, individual psychologie.

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The better news came from the front. Three days before Christmas, Richard and his old

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friends Martin and Hugo Nierenstein read in the Vienna Press that Ludwig had been promoted

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to the rank of a KUK Oberleutnant, First Lieutenant. Only two months later, Ludwig was again mentioned

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As the beneficiary of an allerhöchster Belobikon, the Emperor had praised his achievements in

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battle. There followed a brief period of stasis on the battlefield, and public attention turned

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to the decay the war was causing in the social fabric of the Empire.

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In Vienna, the food supply shrank noticeably, and the lines in front of the shops grew longer

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every day. Ludwig received desperate letters from his mother, describing her struggles

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He later observed that only the Austrian Germans and the Hungarians fought for the monarchy

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with full conviction, whereas the service of the Slavs and Romanians was half-hearted

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at best. Many of them actually fought on the other side.

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Starting early May 1915, however, the German and Austro-Hungarian troops finally began

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their long march east. Not even Italy's May 23 entry into the war on the side of the

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Triple Entente, Britain, France and Russia, could slow down the Central Powers' irresistible

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Mises kept some news clippings about these successes which were reported on daily. He

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later remarked that the success was due to the by then inferior armament of the Russian

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troops. The causes of this complete reversal of the balance of power in the East were mainly

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The Economic in Nature. Mises later explained, The great technical superiority that the armies

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of the Central Powers had achieved in the spring and summer of 1915 in the eastern theatre

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of the war, and that formed the chief bases of the victorious campaign from Tarnow and

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Gorlice to deep into Vonya, was the work of free industry, as were the astonishing achievements

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of German and also of Austrian labour and the delivery of war material of all kinds.

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The army administrations of Germany and Austria-Hungary knew very well why they did not give in to

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the pressure for state ownership of the war-supplying enterprises. They put aside their outspoken

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preference for state enterprises which would have better suited their world view oriented

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toward power policy and state omnipotence, because they knew quite well that the great

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industrial tasks to be accomplished in this area could be accomplished only by entrepreneurs

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operating on their own responsibility and with their own resources. War socialism knew

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very well why it had not been entrusted with the armaments enterprises right in the first

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years of the war. In early August, Lemberg was retaken, much

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to Mises's relief, and he was finally granted a two-week leave. On August 16th, he went

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from the front to Krakow and took the next train to Vienna. He had spent more than a

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year on the front, survived against the odds, but looked as fresh and vigorous as ever,

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though a hip injury had plagued him for months. He helped himself with considerable quantities

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of salicyl, the fever and pain reliever his mother sent him. The main substance was willow

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bark. Salix is willow. When he started asking for higher doses, she refused to send more,

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Demanding that he return home and stay in bed, the family had already lost his cousin,

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the physician Max Lundau, who died from infection from examining so many typhus cadavers.

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Mises did not yet know that he had finished the hardest and most dangerous phase of his

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military service. After the leave, he would return to the front for about six weeks and

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then again from December 1916 to December 1917. But none of these expeditions brought

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brought him even close to the chaos he had known in the first months on the Northern

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Front. Sometime late in 1915, Mises was relieved

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from active duty and sent to the city of Sopron in Hungary, where he stayed for about two

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months trying unsuccessfully to recover from his hip injury, but happy to be alive. He

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had survived the worst and finally enjoyed the gratitude and admiration of the civilian

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and Population, who celebrated the returning troops as heroes. When he received another

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medal for outstanding performance before the enemy, the Signum Laudis in silver, the imperial

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praise for the unpretentious reserve lieutenant whom everybody knows and loves was enthusiastically

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reported in the press.

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The Well-Known and Beloved Reserve Lieutenant Dr. Ludwig Edler von Mises, in civilian life

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an unsalaried lecturer at the University of Vienna and currently stationed with our 30th,

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was honoured anew with the Signum Laudis in silver for his outstanding efforts before

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The Home Front

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If Mises could have gotten away earlier in any honourable manner, he would have welcomed

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the opportunity. He tried, in the fall of 1914, to use his Comer affiliation to be transferred

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to some other duty. The Comer had had to give up 45 men for military service, but some others

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were allowed to remain in their pre-war functions or were transferred to the War Ministry, which

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cooperated very closely with the Comer. Mises was not among the lucky few who never had

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to expose themselves to harm. He had many talents, but he never mastered the art of

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manoeuvring the hallways and offices of the various war administrations, making oneself

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are self-indispensable to the bureaucrats and thus unavailable for dangerous missions.

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The great transformation of all forms of modern leadership toward bureaucratic management,

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which Max Weber so brilliantly described, was epitomised in many of Mises's former

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colleagues and fellow students, most notably in the cases of Schumpeter, Lederer and Karl

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Prebram. After the northern front had calmed down, Mises was finally considered suitable

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for Bureaucratic Employment and the Karma Connections now prove to be effective. During

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his Christmas holidays in Vienna on December 22, 1915, he received orders from the War

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Ministry to join its department number 13 in Vienna. The most immediate benefit of being

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stationed in Vienna was the availability of superior medical attention, but curing his

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hip pain proved slower and more worrying than anticipated. At the end of December, Mises

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was examined in the K.U.K. Army Hospital of the town of Baden, a base near Vienna.

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Dr. Huck Muller found that Mises had typhus and ordered a sulphur-based treatment. This

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did not bring the hoped-for results. In the following months, Mises was sent to two Vienna

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experts for special hip treatments, which involved massages, hot air applications and

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walking exercises under supervision. During this period he officially resided at a Villa

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Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, Friedrich Hayek, Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk,

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increasing scale. Because the existing government apparatus was unable to handle such a task,

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they turned to the already existing cartel organisations, made them compulsory, and subordinated

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them to the different Car-U-Car ministries. These Kriegszentralen, or war centrals, controlled

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the distribution of industrial products and the allocation of raw materials to the firms.

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Mises later pointed out that wartime central planning started with Devisenzentralen or

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foreign exchange centrals. Their large-scale activities were financed through the KUK banking

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establishment in Vienna and Budapest. Gutt's briefs later described the step-by-step process,

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which led wartime Austria-Hungary on the road to the Big Brother State. Commercial advice

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to the Civil Administration, import business first in competition with private importers,

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and then on a monopolistic basis, economisation and distribution of the stocks, this was the

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increasing extension of their tasks, which made them assume ever more control functions

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within their organisations. These efforts, at top-down management of all society, did

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not reach the proportions or intensity attained in the German Reich. Austrians were famous

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Prejudices for schlamperei, a jovial carelessness, even sloppiness that effectively prevented

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a full-blown German-style command economy, but they were effective enough, at least in

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Mises' eyes, to demonstrate what applied socialism is all about, mass misery, and to

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confirm every single prejudice he might, by then, have acquired about the idiocy of government

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meddling with the free market.

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In Nations, State and Economy, Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft, Vises writes, it will be the

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The task of economic history to describe in detail the stupidities of the economic policy

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of the central powers during the war. At one time, for example, the word was given to reduce

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the livestock by increased slaughtering because of a shortage of fodder. Then prohibitions

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of slaughtering were issued and measures taken to promote the raising of livestock. Similar

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planlessness reigned in all sectors. Measures and countermeasures crossed each other until

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Until the whole structure of economic activity was in ruins. They organised and did not notice

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that what they were doing was organising defeat. With retail markets all but eradicated, huge

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crowds of people lined up in front of a few select food shops that had benefited from

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official allocations. Butterstehen, Eierstehen, Milchstehen, standing in line for butter,

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eggs, milk and virtually everything else, often for hours. This was one of the new sad

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and Realities of Daily Life. Around August 20th, Mises arrived in Vienna. Zerlin, her

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relative, welcomed him after a week of Butterstein, Eierstein, Milchstein. How to cope with all

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this, without losing one's mind? Mises commended the example of his uncle Markus, who somehow

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managed savings under these conditions, truly a model for living at the existential minimum.

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and he also offered more substantial support buying additional food on the black market

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to supply his mother and other needy ladies. His basic salary in 1916 was 183 kronen, that

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would be about 200 gold francs or 1.867 oz of gold, enough to buy some additional potatoes

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or flour. When he had to leave again for the Eastern Front in December 1916, he asked

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Emil Peres, a Krammerkornig and friend from Boehm-Bawerk seminar, to take care of these

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women.

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The Mises and Peres circle included one Valerie Adler, who worked as advisor in the Ernährungsamt,

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Bureau of Nutrition, the brothers Carl and Ewald Pribram, one Olli Schwartz and one Emil

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Scherl.

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Ewald Pribram worked for the Zentralstelle für Wohnungsreform and, as of August 1917,

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was the fiancée of Marianne Fürth.

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They would often attend opera or theatre performances, or just meet at cafés to discuss politics,

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economics and literature. Occasionally these meetings would also take place in a more extended

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and official setting. For example, on November 16, 1916, Mises took part in a function of

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the Österreichische politische Gesellschaft, Austrian Society for Politics, on current

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monetary problems. Schumpeter, who had come from Graz to chair the discussion, had urged

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Most Mises to debate his old opponent Walter Fedan. Schumpeter opened the session, stating

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the currency problem was manifest as a high price level and low Kroner exchange rates.

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He argued that the high prices were the cause of the low Kroner, and that prices were high

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because of a shortage of commodities and because of banknote inflation. Normalcy could only

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be restored through a reduction of the quantity of money. This was the crucial point. The

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Kroner had to be restored to its former purchasing power. Mises had a few things to add and limited

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himself to discussing the inefficiency of foreign exchange control through the Devisenzentrale,

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whereas Federn gave a balance of payments explanation of the present situation blaming

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import surpluses for the weak Kroner. Significantly, most speakers, not only Herr von Landesberger,

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the head of the Devisenzentrale, followed in the same vein. Mises also resumed his activities

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as a private lecturer at the University of Vienna, where he discussed in detail the differences

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between his own theory of money and the various competing views that dominated the scene in

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German language universities, in particular the theories of Knapp, Schumpeter, Wiese and

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Filipowicz. He published these considerations shortly thereafter, in an article for Weber's

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Archive, and later incorporated the piece as a chapter of the second edition of his Theorie

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His experience on the front lines had changed his conduct and appearance, adding a war veteran's

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personal weight to his exposition. Young Heinrich Treicher, who met him in those years at the

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dinner table of his parents, was especially impressed by his dark red moustache. So must

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have been his army comrades. Mises occasionally had the nickname Rotwild. The Rotwild is a

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One of the greatest admirers of the straight and sharp young lecturer was a certain Louise

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Sommer, who read all of his writings and would soon want to know all his views on everything.

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Apparently, they even met for extended evening discussions, in the course of which Fräulein

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Sommer became a friend perhaps more. The otherwise unapproachable Mises shared his thoughts and

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and feelings with her, including depressive moods. When he had returned to the front,

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he mailed her the first flowers of spring. After the war, Louise Zommer became an ardent

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proponent of Mises' views on liberalism and politics.

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On May 5, 1916, Mises received orders to join the Scientific Committee for War Economics,

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a new committee of the War Ministry. It seems as if shortly before, in April 1916, he had

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Like many such wartime institutions, the committee provided privileged employment for the upper

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class of the intelligentsia. It brought together established senior scholars and bright young

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students, including Mises, Broda, Karl Pribram, Brockhausen, Adler, Peros and Barch, and possibly

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and also Schumpeter and Alfred Amon. The whole idea was to establish a forum for in-depth

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analysis of the economic problems of the war and its strategic economic goals. It was clear

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from the outset, at least for anyone even faintly acquainted with Mises's views, that

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he would disagree with some very influential people within the KUK political and military

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leadership, and also with many committee members on the prospective economic benefits of military

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Victory. He definitely did not believe that conquests in the East would convey any economic

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advantages for the future Austro-Hungarian economy. And in distinct contrast to other

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committee members who also knew the rationale for this classic liberal position, Mises was

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ready to speak up even to those who were higher in the wartime pecking order and could make

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his life very unpleasant.

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Montesquieu once said that although one had to die for one's country, one was not obliged

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to lie for it.

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Être vrai partout, même pour sa patrie.

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Tout citoyen est obligé de mourir pour sa patrie.

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Personne n'est obligé de mentir pour elle.

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This seems to have been Mises' maxim too.

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He had already demonstrated his readiness to give his life for his country.

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Now he showed his will to honour the truth, even if it brought him in conflict with power

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Vom Ziel der Handelspolitik, on the goal of trade policy, in Max Weber's archive.

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After Mises' sudden departure from Vienna, Lederer would eventually read the proof pages.

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for Publishers sent a statement of honorarium of 93.75 marks at the end of December, but

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Mises probably answered this letter only in May 1917. In June, Moore wired the money to

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Mises' post-Sparkassan account, 142 kronen and four heller. Mises argued that, from a

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purely economic standpoint, the case for free trade and against protectionism was unassailable.

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It was true that classical free-trade theory, the theory refined and perfected by Ricardo,

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had been developed under the assumption that capital and labour were mobile only within

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national borders, but Mises proceeded to show that the case for free trade stood firm even

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if these conditions were no longer applicable. In a Ricardian world of free trade, there

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would be rich and poor countries, and tariffs and import quotas could not change this. In

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In a Misesian world of free international migration, there would be more densely populated

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countries and less densely populated countries, in all of which the wage rates and interest

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rates would tend to be equal, and again, protectionism could not do anything to improve this state

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of affairs. Mises also pioneered a comparative criterion for relative overpopulation and

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underpopulation. We consider a country to be overpopulated if it is more densely inhabited

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Then it would be if a system of freedom of migration covered the entire surface of the

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earth. His interest in the theoretical and political implications of modern migration

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might have been stirred as early as the Filipovitz seminar. Since the 1890s, Filipovitz had promoted

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migration research among German economists, even though he never succeeded in getting

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the subject discussed at any of the meetings of the Verein für Sozialpolitik. Mises pointed

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out that no economic case could be made against cross-border movements of people and capital,

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and then spent most of his paper discussing the paramount non-economic rationale, which

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was nationalism. He stated that international migrations conflict with the principle of

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nationality, that is, with the policy goal of promoting the numerical number and the

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welfare of co-nationals. Emigration leads to the assimilation of the emigrants to the

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The Foreign Nation. They are then lost to their original nation, and this loss presents

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a prima facie, non-economic case against free trade. But Mises showed that this anti-free

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trade conclusion is unwarranted. It is true that emigration to foreign countries weakens

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the nation, but protectionism cannot correct the problem. At least, Mises contended, it

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cannot reach this goal in a manner beneficial to the nation. He observed that even the champions

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of Protectionism had to notice that their proposed policies could not accomplish those

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goals that they had set themselves.

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By contrast, the anti-German immigration laws of other countries were rational responses

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to the threat of national alienation resulting from mass immigration. He pointed out that

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industrial workers in the typically Anglo-Saxon immigration countries could successfully call

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for anti-immigration laws because the mass immigration from Europe threatened national

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and Unity. There can be no doubt that all countries will effectively close themselves

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off against immigration that threatens their national composition, just as the countries

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settled by white men have long since closed themselves off against yellow immigration.

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In short, Germany could not change its calamities through protectionism, and was helpless in

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the face of other countries' policies that further aggravated its problems. Mises soberly

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They summarized this state of affairs, despairing from the point of view of German nationalism.

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The foundations of a global empire, Weltreich, are a population that multiplies approximately

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at the same rate as the population of the other global empires, and a settlement area

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that offers this population space for its development. Trade policy cannot contribute

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anything to establish a global empire for a nation if these conditions are not given.

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The isolation of Germany in international politics, Mises surmised, was a result of

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the fact that it lacked sufficient territories to host its rapidly increasing population.

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The other nations which controlled territories suitable to satisfy German expansionism were

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united through common interests in defending their possessions and rightly sensed that

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Germany must be their natural enemy. Mises then criticised the plans of the social democratic

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leader Carl Renner to establish an all-encompassing system of protective tariffs as the foundation

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of the future relations between Austro-Germans and the other nations of Austria-Hungary.

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Renner argued that political unity between the various nations was based on common economic

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interests and he thought to create this common basis artificially through protectionism.

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But Mises objected that, in the present age of nationalism, protectionism actually reinforces

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is the antagonisms between the various nations, because it privileges the already industrialised

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nations. He illustrated this point with the pre-war antagonism between Austria's ethnic

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Germans and the Hungarians, which had made Austria-Hungary's political order so tenuous.

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The power of the argument and the place of publication made it impossible for the War

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Party to ignore Mises. Trouble lay ahead.

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Back to the Front

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At the end of August 1916, Romania entered the war on the side of the Entente powers.

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With new vigour, the United Russian and Romanian forces pushed forward into Transylvania and

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started making their way into the Hungarian plains, but their success was short-lived.

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Within two months, the German armies of Falkenhayn and Mackensen halted the enemy, regained the

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The lost territory drove the Entente forces back into the Transylvanian Alps and from

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there into the Romanian heartland around Bucharest. When the Entente abandoned its positions in

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the mountains, it was clear that they would not be able to hold the Romanian plains either.

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Within another month, all of Romania had been conquered, and the Russian and Romanian troops

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were driven back into Ukraine. The entire campaign took place in the midst

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of a deep crisis in Austrian politics. On October 21, 1916, Friedrich Adler, the radical

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son of social democratic leader Viktor Adler, gunned down Prime Minister Karl Sturck in

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a Vienna restaurant, ostensibly in protest against the government's long-standing refusal

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to convene the parliament. Exactly one month later, 86-year-old Emperor Franz Josef died.

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The only man who had successfully held the reluctant nations of the empire together had

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had gone the way of all flesh. His grand-nephew, 29-year-old Carl, ascended the throne and

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appointed a new government, an account club Martinique. In the wake of this regime change

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Mises was ordered to leave department 13. The order came on very short notice. He might

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have expected a transfer from one part of the war ministry to another, but it became

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It was then clear that he had been picked out for another mission on the front lines.

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As details came forward, the picture darkened. Initially he thought he would lead a battery

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of regular field cannon regiment, as he had done before, but the last-minute order made

409
00:40:32.680 --> 00:40:37.640
it clear that he would be sent on a mountain mission, which implied even greater physical

410
00:40:37.640 --> 00:40:43.600
duress. To top it all, his new mountain artillery battery was in terrible shape. It had been

411
00:40:43.600 --> 00:40:49.180
were created during the February 1916 Italian campaign and had been involved in the bloodiest

412
00:40:49.180 --> 00:40:55.960
encounters ever since. They had suffered many losses of men, horses and material. Just before

413
00:40:55.960 --> 00:41:01.780
Mises took over, Romanian forces had destroyed their supply line for ammunition. It looked

414
00:41:01.780 --> 00:41:08.560
as if someone in Vienna was bent on getting rid of Mises forever. And as things stood,

415
00:41:08.560 --> 00:41:13.000
The chances looked good that this someone would succeed.

416
00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:18.240
On December 5th he joined his new unit, the Cannon Battery No. 1 of the Mountain Artillery

417
00:41:18.240 --> 00:41:26.560
Regiment No. 22 in the Romanian town of Ramcul Valsiri, today Ramnicul Valcea. There he obtained

418
00:41:26.560 --> 00:41:32.400
a motor vehicle from the German Army and moved on to Bucharest. He arrived in the Romanian

419
00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:38.040
capital on December 11th, received his orders at the headquarters of the Prussian Army and

420
00:41:38.040 --> 00:41:42.440
and continued with his regiment to a summit position in the Carpathian mountains between

421
00:41:42.440 --> 00:41:48.060
Transylvania and the Bukovina. They did not reach their position before December 19, probably

422
00:41:48.060 --> 00:41:54.500
because of bad roads and enemy action hampering their moves. It took three weeks to receive

423
00:41:54.500 --> 00:41:59.100
the first mail from Vienna. He wrote back to his friends in Vienna for the first time

424
00:41:59.100 --> 00:42:06.500
on January 11, 1917, sending New Year's greetings. His mother's parcels did not reach him at

425
00:42:06.500 --> 00:42:12.820
at all, and she eventually had Franz Weiss, who held a position with the war administration,

426
00:42:12.820 --> 00:42:18.300
send them for her. Meanwhile, Mises discovered that the human body can endure amazingly low

427
00:42:18.300 --> 00:42:24.000
temperatures without fainting, and he renewed the painful acquaintance with his hip.

428
00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:30.160
The news from Vienna did not help his morale. In mid-February, his uncle Markus had had

429
00:42:30.160 --> 00:42:35.420
a complete mental and physical breakdown, proving that Ludwig had grossly underestimated

430
00:42:35.420 --> 00:42:40.980
Minimum Living Standards. He also received a letter from Carl Pribram, who had taken

431
00:42:40.980 --> 00:42:46.820
Mises' place at the scientific committee. Worried what Mises would think, Pribram wrote

432
00:42:46.820 --> 00:42:52.980
to give assurances that he had not pushed for his own nomination. Pribram later on proved

433
00:42:52.980 --> 00:42:59.820
that he had great talents for self-promotion. Mises did not suffer from envy, and was ready

434
00:42:59.820 --> 00:43:04.500
for continued sacrifice, even in the face of such injustice.

435
00:43:04.500 --> 00:43:09.160
He was a good sport throughout his life, yet one wonders what he must have felt in March

436
00:43:09.160 --> 00:43:15.060
of 1917 when, freezing behind a cannon in the Carpathian Mountains, he received news

437
00:43:15.060 --> 00:43:21.140
from Pirols that Karl Pribram had received the Ritterkreuz, Knight's Cross, and had

438
00:43:21.140 --> 00:43:26.440
moved on to a position as Ministerial Secretary in the Trade Ministry's Department for Social

439
00:43:26.440 --> 00:43:31.960
policies. While the climatic conditions in the Carpathian mountains were severe, the

440
00:43:31.960 --> 00:43:35.980
new mission was actually less dangerous and certainly less exciting than the first months

441
00:43:35.980 --> 00:43:42.260
of war on the northern front. The enemy troops were tired and hardly posed a threat while

442
00:43:42.260 --> 00:43:47.360
there was increasing political resistance within Russia against the Tsar and against

443
00:43:47.360 --> 00:43:53.340
continuing the war in particular. The eastern front was relatively quiet and Mises had time

444
00:43:53.340 --> 00:44:05.580
On March 14, 1917, the Russian monarchy was overthrown, soon followed by a provisional

445
00:44:05.580 --> 00:44:11.740
government under Alexander Kerensky. Three weeks later Woodrow Wilson, who had been reluctant

446
00:44:11.740 --> 00:44:17.140
to ally the United States to the ostensibly autocratic Russian Tsar, led his country into

447
00:44:17.140 --> 00:44:31.300
In early April, Mises' battery moved to a new strategic position further north. It was

448
00:44:31.300 --> 00:44:38.060
also higher in altitude. They set up cannons at 6,000 feet, the front remained quiet, however,

449
00:44:38.060 --> 00:44:43.380
and the men on both sides were increasingly difficult to motivate. Peace resolutions of

450
00:44:43.380 --> 00:44:48.220
The powerful social-democratic parties in Russia, Germany and Austria had reinforced

451
00:44:48.220 --> 00:44:53.540
the general mood of increasing scepticism about the continuation of hostilities. There

452
00:44:53.540 --> 00:44:58.780
were also other distractions, such as handling their new German neighbours. The problem was

453
00:44:58.780 --> 00:45:04.580
that the German army was at least as arrogant as it was efficient. Even its regular soldiers

454
00:45:04.580 --> 00:45:11.060
had the tendency to treat foreign allies as incompetent junior partners. On at least one

455
00:45:11.060 --> 00:45:15.540
On occasion, Mises himself had to confront pretentious German officers claiming jurisdiction

456
00:45:15.540 --> 00:45:21.780
over KUKA troops, and after the war, when in a high-profile paper he analysed the problems

457
00:45:21.780 --> 00:45:28.060
of the proposed Austro-German monetary unification, he mentioned the tendency of the North Germans

458
00:45:28.060 --> 00:45:34.100
to consider anything South German, and in particular anything Austrian, to be inferior

459
00:45:34.100 --> 00:45:36.360
and alien.

460
00:45:36.360 --> 00:45:42.080
At the end of May and in early June 1917, Mises was in Vienna, probably on a two-week

461
00:45:42.080 --> 00:45:47.960
leave. Here he could see first-hand the changes introduced under the new emperor. Carl was

462
00:45:47.960 --> 00:45:52.960
about to place his cronies in positions of military and political leadership. Displacing

463
00:45:52.960 --> 00:45:57.480
the old elite would have a political cost, but he tried to compensate by attempting to

464
00:45:57.480 --> 00:46:02.960
win greater popularity among the general public. Under Franz Josef, nobody could get in touch

465
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:07.640
He reached with the emperor to discuss political matters except through his majesty's ministers,

466
00:46:07.640 --> 00:46:12.960
but Carl opened his antechamber to anyone who wished to offer advice. It turned out

467
00:46:12.960 --> 00:46:18.200
that many of his subjects felt such a calling. Just among Mises' friends, Hans Kelsen and

468
00:46:18.200 --> 00:46:24.320
Joseph Schumpeter each wrote several memoranda in which they made detailed policy recommendations.

469
00:46:24.320 --> 00:46:27.120
Another witness of the event, Rudolf Sieghart, recalls,

470
00:46:27.120 --> 00:46:40.120
There was a plethora of memoranda and audiences. Everybody gave counsel. Arch-Duchesses and priests, lower skirts and suit-hands, profiteers and chaps.

471
00:46:40.120 --> 00:46:47.120
The new government also convened the upper and lower chamber of the Austrian parliament for the first time in more than three years, on May 30th.

472
00:46:47.120 --> 00:46:52.680
This, too, was part of the Emperor's strategy to strengthen his bonds with the population,

473
00:46:52.680 --> 00:46:58.960
a necessity given the dramatic deterioration of living conditions in the past few months.

474
00:46:58.960 --> 00:47:04.360
Mises was shocked to see how the food supply had collapsed during his six months absence.

475
00:47:04.360 --> 00:47:09.660
He predicted that very soon no more food would be found at the markets even after hours of

476
00:47:09.660 --> 00:47:16.600
standing in line. At one point his grandfather's cook stood three hours in line for meat. His

477
00:47:16.600 --> 00:47:22.960
His mother had to dismiss her cook, Thérèse, because she could barely afford to feed her.

478
00:47:22.960 --> 00:47:28.040
Sadder news was the loss of his old teacher Eugen von Filipowicz, who died on June 4th

479
00:47:28.040 --> 00:47:33.600
from a long illness. With these impressions he left Vienna on June 9th to return to his

480
00:47:33.600 --> 00:47:39.360
battery. He was back in time to prepare the last great action on the Eastern Front. Starting

481
00:47:39.360 --> 00:47:46.440
July 1st, 1917, the united German and Kauka troops completed the reconquest of the Bukovina

482
00:47:46.440 --> 00:47:51.840
In the wake of the so-called Kerensky Offensive, at the end of July Mises and his regiment

483
00:47:51.840 --> 00:47:57.440
reached their new permanent field of operations, about 60 miles east of their initial position

484
00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:02.960
in the area of Brusturi and Czarnoki. The documents also refer to the following places

485
00:48:02.960 --> 00:48:10.680
– Kozmacz and Prokhorov, Prvorszkij Roč, Kutyn Tomnatek and others. Mises's code

486
00:48:10.680 --> 00:48:15.200
name is Rohtwild. One of their last engagements in battle seems

487
00:48:15.200 --> 00:48:20.640
was to have taken place on August 8th, confronting Romanian troops. One month later the war on

488
00:48:20.640 --> 00:48:25.200
the Eastern Front was virtually over and his regiment would receive recognition for its

489
00:48:25.200 --> 00:48:32.280
performance at the attack on Czardachy. The recognition was pronounced on September 3rd.

490
00:48:32.280 --> 00:48:36.800
Meanwhile his colleagues from the scientific committee experienced the war under safer

491
00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:42.560
conditions. Mises knew it was the fate of political opponents to become marginalised

492
00:48:42.560 --> 00:48:48.180
within the state apparatus, and the ruling war party had an especially successful means

493
00:48:48.180 --> 00:48:54.620
of marginalization. It could send its opponents to the front. Still, it was exasperating to

494
00:48:54.620 --> 00:49:00.620
see how much the threat of combat intimidated the would-be intellectual leaders of the country.

495
00:49:00.620 --> 00:49:06.380
With the opposition to its expansionary plan silenced and a technocratic elite composed

496
00:49:06.380 --> 00:49:13.480
of Corrupt Cowards, the Austrian Wall Party, and carte blanche within the government.

497
00:49:13.480 --> 00:49:19.060
Mises did not capitulate. In the midst of the July battles, with biting pains in his

498
00:49:19.060 --> 00:49:24.240
hip, apparently the hip problem deteriorated considerably during the battle, he somehow

499
00:49:24.240 --> 00:49:30.040
found the time to write for the Neue Freie Presse on public policy. The pieces were published

500
00:49:30.040 --> 00:49:35.620
around August 20th and before. His friends back in Vienna were grateful and amazed. Louise

501
00:49:35.620 --> 00:49:37.100
Mises Omer wrote him,

502
00:49:37.100 --> 00:49:42.540
How I envy your proficiency in using the method of isolation to suppress disturbing personal

503
00:49:42.540 --> 00:49:49.180
problems. I almost envy you your life of narrowly circumscribed activities. Surely you have time

504
00:49:49.180 --> 00:49:54.420
to work, you find time even in a shower of bullets.

505
00:49:54.420 --> 00:49:58.340
The envious feelings might have originated from the fact that she had taken care of a

506
00:49:58.340 --> 00:50:03.580
foster child, but was not up to the task. She seems to have been convinced, however,

507
00:50:03.580 --> 00:50:09.760
But Mises himself was inexhaustible. She urged him to publish, at last, the typology of

508
00:50:09.760 --> 00:50:13.920
monetary theories that he had presented in his course on Monetary Economics of the year

509
00:50:13.920 --> 00:50:20.300
before. Fortunately, Mises was not showered by bullets in the next two months. The regiment's

510
00:50:20.300 --> 00:50:26.300
July and early August battles were the last in Dubukovina, but this did not mean that

511
00:50:26.300 --> 00:50:31.420
Mises's frontline mission was over. His battery had ordered to join the 1st Corps of the

512
00:50:31.420 --> 00:50:49.540
The 12th Isonso Battle in October and November 1917 would be Mises's last engagement in

513
00:50:49.540 --> 00:50:55.420
this war, and the last battle he would ever fight with guns. He spent six exhausting weeks

514
00:50:55.420 --> 00:51:00.300
on the southern front, under fire, enduring cold weather in the Alps, and still suffering

515
00:51:00.300 --> 00:51:09.100
On one of those days, his regiment was stationed on Hohr-Romborn, a major peak in the area.

516
00:51:09.100 --> 00:51:12.900
Mises reported in a report dated October 21st, 1917,

517
00:51:12.900 --> 00:51:19.980
Thick fog and snowstorm. Fifty centimetres new snow. Always are stuck. Many electric

518
00:51:19.980 --> 00:51:25.100
cables are damaged and can be repaired only under life danger. He also mentioned that

519
00:51:25.100 --> 00:51:29.220
his men had no more wood to burn and suffered from colds and rheumatisms.

520
00:51:29.220 --> 00:51:45.220
Fortunately for him and his troops, this was just three days before the decisive breakthrough of the united German and Austro-Hungarian forces in a frontal attack against the better-equipped Italians, pushing them far back into the plains of Friul and the Veneto.

521
00:51:45.220 --> 00:51:50.220
In Mises's judgement, the success was due to the inferiority of the Italian soldiers.

522
00:51:50.220 --> 00:51:57.220
Mises points out that the Austrian army had never been defeated in battle by Italian forces.

523
00:51:57.220 --> 00:52:09.220
One historian speculates that the attackers would have moved even faster had they not paused to gorge their rumbling stomachs with the undreamt of quantities of good Italian food and wine.

524
00:52:09.220 --> 00:52:13.220
What a way to escape once more the jaws of death!

525
00:52:13.220 --> 00:52:15.220
New Life

526
00:52:15.220 --> 00:52:21.520
By mid-November, Mises had left both the front and the scientific committee. The details

527
00:52:21.520 --> 00:52:26.200
of his departure from the latter are unknown, but it appears to have been part of a general

528
00:52:26.200 --> 00:52:32.340
improvement in his situation. From this point on, in fact, his life would continue to improve

529
00:52:32.340 --> 00:52:37.140
for quite a while. A few days after quitting the committee, he was promoted to the rank

530
00:52:37.140 --> 00:52:43.780
of captain, and on December 3rd, 1917, he had just started an 18-day leave in Vienna,

531
00:52:43.780 --> 00:52:55.360
CETN-KW Abteilung des KUK Kriegsministerium CETN-KW Abteilung des KUK Kriegsministerium

532
00:52:55.360 --> 00:53:00.880
The department was located in the Hotel National in the 2nd Viennese district, the so-called

533
00:53:00.880 --> 00:53:07.400
Leopoldstadt at Taborstrasse 18. The head of the department was one Colonel Linoch,

534
00:53:07.400 --> 00:53:11.960
with whom Mises enjoyed very good relations. Linoch left him at liberty to engage in academic

535
00:53:11.960 --> 00:53:17.520
and Economic Pursuits. He also seems to have been involved in Kammer activities. Mises devoted

536
00:53:17.520 --> 00:53:23.160
as much time as possible to a new book with the working title of Imperialismus. This book

537
00:53:23.160 --> 00:53:28.040
would later be published as Nation, Staat und Wirtschaft, Nation, State and Economy,

538
00:53:28.040 --> 00:53:33.480
which would summarise his reflections on the war. He also resumed his teaching activities.

539
00:53:33.480 --> 00:53:37.960
The winter semester had already started, so it was too late to set up a seminar, but Mises

540
00:53:37.960 --> 00:53:42.640
was probably held Sunday lectures at the Volksbildungsverein.

541
00:53:42.640 --> 00:53:48.100
If so, the experience dealt a heavy blow to his views about educating the masses.

542
00:53:48.100 --> 00:53:54.000
He said in his notes and recollections, 1940, he now realized that the classical liberals

543
00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:59.840
had overestimated the ability of the common people to form independent judgments.

544
00:53:59.840 --> 00:54:05.580
In the spring and summer of 1918, he directed a university course on banking theory and

545
00:54:05.580 --> 00:54:11.720
and advised several students on what to read and which subjects to study.

546
00:54:11.720 --> 00:54:16.220
Women would not be admitted to the Department of Law and Government Science for another

547
00:54:16.220 --> 00:54:21.260
year, but most participants on Mises' course were young ladies. Because of the war there

548
00:54:21.260 --> 00:54:26.640
were few male students left in Vienna. His female students were probably from the Department

549
00:54:26.640 --> 00:54:31.660
of Philosophy, which had admitted women since 1897.

550
00:54:31.660 --> 00:54:36.900
Among the few male students was Dr. Richard von Striegel, who had been a fellow student

551
00:54:36.900 --> 00:54:42.420
in Boehm-Bawerk's seminar. Striegel would become one of the most important and influential

552
00:54:42.420 --> 00:54:48.860
Austrian economists in the interwar period. The presence of Striegel and of Helene Dube,

553
00:54:48.860 --> 00:54:53.820
wife of the economics editor of the Neue Freie Presse, highlighted a particular feature of

554
00:54:53.820 --> 00:54:59.380
university seminars in those days. The seminars were not mere schooling functions, but also

555
00:54:59.380 --> 00:55:03.760
Mises also provided a forum for discussions among senior members who were often on par

556
00:55:03.760 --> 00:55:09.060
with the lecturer. Each session began with a presentation on the subject of the day,

557
00:55:09.060 --> 00:55:13.980
usually delivered by one of the students. Then Mises commented on both the presentation

558
00:55:13.980 --> 00:55:19.240
and the subject itself and answered questions from other participants.

559
00:55:19.240 --> 00:55:24.620
On May 18th, Mises was promoted from an unpaid private lecturer's position to the rank

560
00:55:24.620 --> 00:55:30.040
of Professor Extraordinarius, also identliche Universitätsprofessor.

561
00:55:30.040 --> 00:55:34.360
The promotion followed an imperial decision of May 7th. This position does not have an

562
00:55:34.360 --> 00:55:40.320
equivalent in the American university system. An extraordinaryist position is not entitled

563
00:55:40.320 --> 00:55:46.560
full professorship and is unpaid, but it does include tenure and enjoys greater social prestige

564
00:55:46.560 --> 00:55:49.040
than does an associate professorship.

565
00:55:49.040 --> 00:55:54.120
Another welcome event for Mises was his new personal acquaintance with Max Weber on November

566
00:55:54.120 --> 00:55:59.560
1919. Weber lived at Jaffe's place since his own apartment had to be repaired. Some

567
00:55:59.560 --> 00:56:04.960
years after Weber's death, Mises contributed to Richard's sculpture of Weber, which can

568
00:56:04.960 --> 00:56:11.320
still be admired in Heidelberg University. The German scholar was already a living legend,

569
00:56:11.320 --> 00:56:16.000
but he had not lectured for more than 10 years pursuing his studies in private at the University

570
00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:22.860
of Heidelberg. Weber now celebrated an unexpected and spectacular comeback in Vienna and attracted

571
00:56:22.860 --> 00:56:27.900
and huge crowds of students and professors. His encounters with Mises produced mutual

572
00:56:27.900 --> 00:56:34.260
admiration. Much of what Mises wrote in the late 1920s on the logical and epistemological

573
00:56:34.260 --> 00:56:39.840
problems of economic science was in reaction to Weber's position. And in his university

574
00:56:39.840 --> 00:56:46.200
courses and private seminar, Mises relentlessly encouraged the study of Weber's work. Weber

575
00:56:46.200 --> 00:56:51.820
in turn praised Mises' Theory of Money as the most acceptable in print, and he seemed

576
00:56:51.820 --> 00:57:00.820
During Weber's 1918 stay in Vienna, Mises convinced him that there was in the social

577
00:57:00.820 --> 00:57:06.740
sciences a discipline separate and distinct from history. Economic theory was a truly

578
00:57:06.740 --> 00:57:12.220
scientific discipline. Its subject matter was the analysis of the relationships between

579
00:57:12.220 --> 00:57:18.340
means and ends, an analysis that could be performed without making value judgements.

580
00:57:18.340 --> 00:57:24.360
Moreover, Mises persuaded Weber that economic rationality, that is, economic calculation,

581
00:57:24.360 --> 00:57:29.840
would be absent in a socialist commonwealth. We will deal with this influence in more detail

582
00:57:29.840 --> 00:57:32.400
in a subsequent chapter.

583
00:57:32.400 --> 00:57:37.840
As the wartime welfare state continued to grow, Mises continued to prefer private alternatives,

584
00:57:37.840 --> 00:57:43.100
not just in theory, but in the actions he took in his own life, from the improvement

585
00:57:43.100 --> 00:57:48.020
of his family's food supply, even the black market was deteriorating, to the professional

586
00:57:48.020 --> 00:57:52.020
Placement of Friends and Colleagues Eager to Get Away from the Front

587
00:57:52.020 --> 00:57:58.340
An August 29th, 1918 letter by a certain Irene Schmerling is revealing. She wrote,

588
00:57:58.340 --> 00:58:02.500
Frau Singer recently told me that you had asked for me. I suppose you were interested

589
00:58:02.500 --> 00:58:08.260
in food? I have only ersatzhoney. Frau Singer erzählte mir kürzlich, daß sie nach mir

590
00:58:08.260 --> 00:58:13.260
gefragt hätten. Wohl um Lebensmittel? Es ist nur Kunsthonig da.

591
00:58:13.260 --> 00:58:21.420
Mises' annual salary in November-December 1918 was 1,120.51 Kronen. This corresponded

592
00:58:21.420 --> 00:58:28.080
to 71 US dollars and 5 cents according to the data given in Mises, Austrian Empire,

593
00:58:28.080 --> 00:58:34.340
Finance and Banking in the Encyclopædia Britannica. Mises was known to be responsive to calls

594
00:58:34.340 --> 00:58:39.020
for getting people out of the death zone and into an administrative position in Vienna

595
00:58:39.020 --> 00:58:46.220
Mises helped, among others, the following persons. The brother of his fellow 122 officer

596
00:58:46.220 --> 00:58:54.780
Greifs, one paycheck, one Steiner, one Scheme, one Sattler, one Sussmann, and possibly also

597
00:58:54.780 --> 00:59:00.180
Richard von Striegel. Other friends of Mises had a very different reputation. Greifs, who

598
00:59:00.180 --> 00:59:06.300
had also approached Kelsen to help place his brother Carl, wrote to Mises, If you see Kelsen,

599
00:59:06.300 --> 00:59:11.940
Please tell him that I am not astonished about his silence, but embarrassed I am, but even

600
00:59:11.940 --> 00:59:17.860
complete strangers approached him. Leo Fischmann many years later recalled his visit with Mises.

601
00:59:17.860 --> 00:59:22.780
He was often helped in these missions of mercy by his friends Victor Gretz and Ludwig Wettelheim

602
00:59:22.780 --> 00:59:28.540
Cabillon. Mises' success in placing others was at least in part due to his increased

603
00:59:28.540 --> 00:59:35.040
notoriety. His courageous public opposition to the War Party and its claims for the economic

604
00:59:35.040 --> 00:59:39.880
The benefit of military expansion had not changed policy, but it had attracted interest

605
00:59:39.880 --> 00:59:45.800
to him and his work. He had become a public figure when he was invited to lecture on Austrian

606
00:59:45.800 --> 00:59:52.080
public finance to the plenary meeting of the Advokatenwählerverein, an electoral association

607
00:59:52.080 --> 00:59:58.080
of lawyers. The invitation came from Wilhelm Weiseltier and Julius Loewe. It is likely

608
00:59:58.080 --> 01:00:03.160
that Mises addressed the same themes he had two months earlier in an article for the Neues

609
01:00:03.160 --> 01:00:10.980
in this piece, he characterised Austrian tax law as the patchwork product of 100 years

610
01:00:10.980 --> 01:00:17.520
of tax reforms, errors and competing special interests, and he vigorously criticised the

611
01:00:17.520 --> 01:00:23.960
government's plan to introduce a one-time emergency tax, Sonderabgabe, warning that

612
01:00:23.960 --> 01:00:29.440
the new tax would become permanent, and arguing that sound financial policies must consider

613
01:00:29.440 --> 01:00:36.260
for both government revenue and government expenditures. His lecture was a great success.

614
01:00:36.260 --> 01:00:45.380
On Monday, March 11th, 1918, Mises started a 15-year career as the economist of Austria.

615
01:00:45.380 --> 01:00:50.600
In May 1918, the Office for the Defence Against Enemy Propaganda invited him to lecture on

616
01:00:50.600 --> 01:00:56.320
the significance of the war bond. The lecture took place in the context of an information

617
01:00:56.320 --> 01:01:01.680
course for officers who were to offer patriotic instructions to the troops. The main purpose

618
01:01:01.680 --> 01:01:07.180
of the office was to promote car or car war bonds. But Mises was unwilling to be an instrument

619
01:01:07.180 --> 01:01:12.760
of propaganda and made instead a compelling case for free market war finance. He especially

620
01:01:12.760 --> 01:01:17.600
emphasised the perils of financing the war through inflation. The speech was published

621
01:01:17.600 --> 01:01:24.160
from stenographic lecture notes without giving Mises the opportunity to review the transcript.

622
01:01:24.160 --> 01:01:41.200
A Last Mission

623
01:01:41.200 --> 01:01:46.520
After their overthrow of the Kerensky government in November 1917, the Bolsheviks called for

624
01:01:46.520 --> 01:01:51.440
an immediate end of the war on the Eastern Front on a status quo anti-basis and without

625
01:01:51.440 --> 01:01:57.260
reparations for either side. Moreover, they began to make public highly secret pre-war

626
01:01:57.260 --> 01:02:03.880
entente plans for punishing Germany in case of victory. These revelations increased the

627
01:02:03.880 --> 01:02:08.320
political pressure on the Allies to seek an early peace as their reasons for going to

628
01:02:08.320 --> 01:02:14.700
war now appeared in a decisively less saintly light. The stark contrast between the evil

629
01:02:14.700 --> 01:02:21.160
Germanic autocrats and the humane democracies of the West faded away and was slowly replaced

630
01:02:21.160 --> 01:02:26.660
by a more realistic picture of the situation. But most of all, the Bolshevik push for peace

631
01:02:26.660 --> 01:02:32.320
changed the military situation since it brought the prospect of relieving Austria and Germany

632
01:02:32.320 --> 01:02:38.820
from their awkward two-front struggle. These prospects materialised very slowly, though,

633
01:02:38.820 --> 01:02:44.040
because the German side insisted on war reparations that the Bolsheviks would not accept. The

634
01:02:44.040 --> 01:02:49.920
peace negotiations started in Brest-Litovsk shortly before Christmas 1917 and were brought

635
01:02:49.920 --> 01:02:56.080
to an end only after an Austro-German ultimatum forced the Russian side to sign a treaty by

636
01:02:56.080 --> 01:03:02.720
which it ceded military control of the entire Ukraine to its enemies. Thus, what initially

637
01:03:02.720 --> 01:03:08.080
promised to be a great military and political success for the Austro-German side had turned

638
01:03:08.080 --> 01:03:15.160
into a disaster. Precious time had been lost to move troops to the Western front, and the

639
01:03:15.160 --> 01:03:21.240
The newly imposed agreement failed to pacify the Russians, so precious Mittelmeister forces

640
01:03:21.240 --> 01:03:26.880
were diverted to defend against a possible Russian backlash, in short, all political

641
01:03:26.880 --> 01:03:34.040
advantages had vanished. Lloyd George, Wilson and the Western press immediately presented

642
01:03:34.040 --> 01:03:39.880
the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as evidence of the imperial expansionism of their enemies.

643
01:03:39.880 --> 01:03:44.960
The official rationale for a military occupation of the Ukraine was the exploitation of its

644
01:03:44.960 --> 01:03:51.080
and its rich natural resources. Few people in Germany and Austria knew that this idea

645
01:03:51.080 --> 01:03:56.480
was flawed. Mises knew it in his archive article On the Goal of Trade Policy he had

646
01:03:56.480 --> 01:04:02.560
pointed out that economic control over resources can be enjoyed even in the absence of political

647
01:04:02.560 --> 01:04:08.160
control. Access to Ukrainian resources would have been possible through regular trade channels

648
01:04:08.160 --> 01:04:14.640
and did not require military occupation of the entire country. Mises relentlessly insisted

649
01:04:14.640 --> 01:04:20.200
on this point with an intransigence that had almost cost him his life.

650
01:04:20.200 --> 01:04:25.400
The real economic rationale for the occupation of the Ukraine was the usual one, it brought

651
01:04:25.400 --> 01:04:32.480
unearned riches to a select few. In the present case, the economic exploitation of the occupied

652
01:04:32.480 --> 01:04:39.160
zone was to be confided to an Ost-Zinnikart, a cartel of big industrialists and big bankers

653
01:04:39.160 --> 01:04:43.440
with good government connections, each of them would have monopoly rights to certain

654
01:04:43.440 --> 01:04:45.080
and Ukrainian products.

655
01:04:45.080 --> 01:04:51.120
A May 1918 meeting in Berlin brought all interested men together and determined the broad division

656
01:04:51.120 --> 01:04:57.480
of the loot, in particular each party's trade contingent, its exclusive trade domain.

657
01:04:57.480 --> 01:05:03.280
The economic exploitation of occupied territories to finance the war effort has a long tradition.

658
01:05:03.280 --> 01:05:08.720
However, the First World War added the instrument of all-around planning.

659
01:05:08.720 --> 01:05:13.740
One of the unsettled questions after the Berlin meeting was the future monetary constitution

660
01:05:13.740 --> 01:05:19.040
of the Ukraine. The Austrian side had a special interest in the question because Austrian war

661
01:05:19.040 --> 01:05:25.780
inflation had swept large quantities of Kronen into the occupied zone. Decisions about Ukrainian

662
01:05:25.780 --> 01:05:31.040
money and currency would most certainly affect the demand for Kronen notes and thus could

663
01:05:31.040 --> 01:05:35.360
possibly break up the Kroner's fiat exchange rate.

664
01:05:35.360 --> 01:05:40.340
The fundamental problem was that Austria-Hungary, like all other warring states, had vastly

665
01:05:40.340 --> 01:05:46.720
inflated its currency, which consistently lowered its exchange rate with other, less

666
01:05:46.720 --> 01:05:52.720
inflated currencies. The only thorough way to stop both the inflation and its symptoms

667
01:05:52.720 --> 01:05:57.760
– higher prices and depreciating exchange rates – was, of course, to stop producing

668
01:05:57.760 --> 01:06:03.440
additional coroner notes. But many statists and money-cranks sought schemes to get around

669
01:06:03.440 --> 01:06:09.040
this appalling measure. One of these tricks was to make payments in money titles issued

670
01:06:09.040 --> 01:06:15.080
on behalf of banks other than the Austro-Hungarian Central Bank in Vienna. The Austrians applied

671
01:06:15.080 --> 01:06:19.960
this measure in their occupied territories in Italy. They made payments to their Italian

672
01:06:19.960 --> 01:06:27.020
suppliers in Dali and Kastenschreinen. Loan Bureau notes denoted in lira to bolster the

673
01:06:27.020 --> 01:06:30.800
and the Corona exchange rate against the lira.

674
01:06:30.800 --> 01:06:36.080
Similar measures were taken on the Eastern Front. In August 1918, when the Germans had

675
01:06:36.080 --> 01:06:40.780
for some time already made ruble payments in the territories they controlled, the Banksteller

676
01:06:40.780 --> 01:06:47.500
Bank Office of the East Army Command submitted a member random dated August 25, 1918, proposing

677
01:06:47.500 --> 01:06:52.820
similar measures for the territories occupied by Austrian forces. According to the economists

678
01:06:52.820 --> 01:06:58.140
of the Banksteller, the Corona Surplus on the market resulted from large military payments

679
01:06:58.140 --> 01:07:04.920
that were not sufficiently compensated by Cronen flowing out as payments for import from Germany.

680
01:07:04.920 --> 01:07:09.560
The German authorities, selfishly concerned with the strength of the Mark, were unwilling

681
01:07:09.560 --> 01:07:15.080
to cooperate to achieve stable exchange rates. Therefore, the Austrian army should also change

682
01:07:15.080 --> 01:07:20.640
its policies by a. Suppressing contraband imports from Austria and exports to Russia

683
01:07:20.640 --> 01:07:26.780
and making payments in rubles. These policies would give the Banksteller time to absorb

684
01:07:26.780 --> 01:07:32.680
Kroner surpluses in the Ukraine by offering interest-paying 2% demand deposits with the

685
01:07:32.680 --> 01:07:37.840
local exchequer of the East Army, which would assume the function of a branch office of

686
01:07:37.840 --> 01:07:43.280
the Austro-Hungarian Central Bank. This would supposedly bring the millions of Kroner now

687
01:07:43.280 --> 01:07:48.560
being hoarded in private wallets and strong boxes back into circulation where they could

688
01:07:48.560 --> 01:07:53.720
could be used in the interest of the national economy and of the currency itself. The Banksteller

689
01:07:53.720 --> 01:08:00.520
clearly had no idea that these measures were entirely unfit to attain the end that it sought.

690
01:08:00.520 --> 01:08:06.120
Few in Austria-Hungary could even comprehend, let alone solve, such problems.

691
01:08:06.120 --> 01:08:11.560
In June 1918 Otto Katz, director of the Union Bank in Vienna, approached Mises on behalf

692
01:08:11.560 --> 01:08:16.720
of a financial policy mission to solve the currency problems in the Ukraine. Mises would

693
01:08:16.720 --> 01:08:21.060
should be charged with monetary policy in this important occupied territory. The head

694
01:08:21.060 --> 01:08:25.540
of the group would be Excellents Coles, under whose leadership Mises had already fought

695
01:08:25.540 --> 01:08:31.060
the last battles of the Buccovina and the 12th Isonzo battle. Interestingly, it was

696
01:08:31.060 --> 01:08:36.540
the bank director Cutts who approached Mises on behalf of a political mission. Apparently

697
01:08:36.540 --> 01:08:41.900
Cutts was known to have closed ties to top political circles in Vienna, for Mises took

698
01:08:41.900 --> 01:09:03.160
The mission represented a great opportunity for Mises. A 36-year-old captain, he still

699
01:09:03.160 --> 01:09:08.660
had one of the lower ranks, and his position in civilian life was not especially elevated

700
01:09:08.660 --> 01:09:15.540
either. His main capital was the solid reputation he had gained as an expert on money and banking.

701
01:09:15.540 --> 01:09:20.540
Cutts's offer was therefore a unique career opportunity. At the very least, it promised

702
01:09:20.540 --> 01:09:26.900
exceptional exposure to high-profile policy-making. There was nothing to do but to thank God,

703
01:09:26.900 --> 01:09:34.500
fate and Cutts for the offer, and to accept it immediately and wholeheartedly. Characteristically,

704
01:09:34.500 --> 01:09:40.060
Physically, however, Mises spelled out his conditions. He would offer his services for

705
01:09:40.060 --> 01:09:46.920
this venture only if he had full decision-making power, being the officer with exclusive responsibility

706
01:09:46.920 --> 01:09:52.180
for the financial and monetary policy of the Ukraine. This required, in turn, that he be

707
01:09:52.180 --> 01:09:57.020
transferred into the civil service and obtain a position corresponding to that of Bosnian

708
01:09:57.020 --> 01:10:03.300
secretary of state. But such a position cannot be accepted by a captain of the artillery,

709
01:10:03.300 --> 01:10:09.040
A charge I hold neither outwardly nor within the context of the inner workings of the administration.

710
01:10:09.040 --> 01:10:13.720
In my view, the position in question ought to be comparable to that of the Bosnian Secretary

711
01:10:13.720 --> 01:10:20.100
of State. Most importantly, he demanded that his bureaucratic authority be completely clarified

712
01:10:20.100 --> 01:10:24.840
to avoid later frictions that could turn out to be harmful to the cause. He combined this

713
01:10:24.840 --> 01:10:30.680
demand with a heart-hitting attack on the bad habits of Austrian bureaucracy. Unlike

714
01:10:30.680 --> 01:10:35.720
Their German cousins, he argued, the Austrians lacked the ability for detached commitment

715
01:10:35.720 --> 01:10:37.200
to a cause.

716
01:10:37.200 --> 01:10:42.800
The usual words of appeasement, offered in response to claims made about us, they will

717
01:10:42.800 --> 01:10:48.640
get ahead based on character alone, or things will sort themselves out in time, are completely

718
01:10:48.640 --> 01:10:49.640
false.

719
01:10:49.640 --> 01:10:54.760
I am convinced that I could assert myself and secure a comfortable position.

720
01:10:54.760 --> 01:10:59.760
But what matters is objectivity, for such personal advantages are gained through a yielding

721
01:10:59.760 --> 01:11:04.840
Being of resolve when it comes to things in which one should have remained firm and through

722
01:11:04.840 --> 01:11:12.260
needless cabaling, which leaves no time for solid work, one must be capable of pure objectivity

723
01:11:12.260 --> 01:11:17.280
that the Germans are objective is the basis of their success.

724
01:11:17.280 --> 01:11:22.720
Mises had no illusions about the acceptability of his proposals, setting clear terms of cooperation

725
01:11:22.720 --> 01:11:27.800
in the interest of the cause was simply not the style of the Austrian administration,

726
01:11:27.800 --> 01:11:32.040
And he therefore thought the negotiations at an end.

727
01:11:32.040 --> 01:11:37.440
But some days later, Lieutenant Colonel Maximilian Edler von Bescher, a high officer from the

728
01:11:37.440 --> 01:11:42.400
Imperial General Staff in Vienna, asked him to name the concrete conditions under which

729
01:11:42.400 --> 01:11:49.080
he would be willing to join the Second Army Command as a financial and monetary consultant.

730
01:11:49.080 --> 01:11:54.040
He answered in a letter dated June 26, 1918.

731
01:11:54.040 --> 01:11:58.940
Mises suggested dividing the civil service of the Second Army Command into three departments,

732
01:11:58.940 --> 01:12:04.260
one for political affairs, one for financial and monetary affairs, and one for public finance.

733
01:12:04.260 --> 01:12:08.560
He would become director of the Department for Financial and Monetary Affairs.

734
01:12:08.560 --> 01:12:12.880
He had to be made a civil servant to have authority in dealing with the other representatives

735
01:12:12.880 --> 01:12:18.840
of the state, and he had to be an imperial Kauka employee to reduce conflicts with Austrian,

736
01:12:18.840 --> 01:12:21.380
Hungarian and local state agents.

737
01:12:21.380 --> 01:12:26.060
For the same reason, it would not be advisable for him to remain an officer of the Cummer,

738
01:12:26.060 --> 01:12:30.740
for in his capacity as monetary officer, he would have to revise agreements between the

739
01:12:30.740 --> 01:12:35.620
Ukraine and the Austrian Trade Bureau, an appendix organisation of the Cummer, which

740
01:12:35.620 --> 01:12:41.300
had monopoly privilege in Ukrainian imports and exports. His negotiations with the Bureau

741
01:12:41.300 --> 01:12:46.240
would lack credibility because of the Bureau's executives within the Cummer, and they risked

742
01:12:46.240 --> 01:12:51.360
inciting nationalist resentments since they could be depicted as an inner Austrian deal

743
01:12:51.360 --> 01:12:54.160
to the detriment of the other nations.

744
01:12:54.160 --> 01:12:56.720
Becher seemed to endorse Mises' arguments

745
01:12:56.720 --> 01:12:59.200
and restated them almost word-for-word

746
01:12:59.200 --> 01:13:01.760
in an official recommendation to his superiors.

747
01:13:02.640 --> 01:13:05.440
In this public paper of which Mises received a copy,

748
01:13:05.440 --> 01:13:09.360
Becher suggested that Mises be invited to go to Odessa

749
01:13:09.360 --> 01:13:12.560
for an oral presentation and also to study conditions

750
01:13:12.560 --> 01:13:15.120
in Kiev and other large Ukrainian towns.

751
01:13:16.080 --> 01:13:18.480
Behind the curtains of the general staff, however,

752
01:13:18.480 --> 01:13:21.200
plans were made to induce the cooperation

753
01:13:21.200 --> 01:13:24.320
of the Recalcitrant Captain without giving in to his demands.

754
01:13:25.360 --> 01:13:30.720
In mid-July, the head of Department 10, Colonel Linoch, received an order to further reduce his

755
01:13:30.720 --> 01:13:36.160
staff. The order came from very high up, and it was specific about the staff members to be

756
01:13:36.160 --> 01:13:43.120
dismissed. Mises was among them. When he received the news from Linoch, he knew the only choice left

757
01:13:43.120 --> 01:13:49.120
to him was between the front and a Ukrainian mission without conditions. Linoch managed

758
01:13:49.120 --> 01:13:56.120
to extend Mises' leave in Bad Gastein. His leave was extended through August 25th. Mises

759
01:13:56.120 --> 01:14:01.840
stayed in the Hotel Badeschloss. Then the commander of the East Army, General Alfred

760
01:14:01.840 --> 01:14:06.960
Krauss, sent Mises on a two-week mission to Odessa and Kiev and ordered him to report

761
01:14:06.960 --> 01:14:13.820
about Ukrainian currency and finance. Mises arrived in Odessa on September 7th and quickly

762
01:14:13.820 --> 01:14:19.080
learned that the Germans were pushing to establish a Ukrainian fractional reserve central bank

763
01:14:19.080 --> 01:14:24.260
Bank, whereas the Austrians, in particular Herpolak from the Kaulka Ministry of Finance

764
01:14:24.260 --> 01:14:30.300
and the Vienna Association of Bankers resisted this plan. As things stood, it was politically

765
01:14:30.300 --> 01:14:35.360
inevitable that any monetary constitution for the Ukraine would have to involve a central

766
01:14:35.360 --> 01:14:41.480
bank with a monopoly on the issuance of banknotes. The question was whether a new establishment

767
01:14:41.480 --> 01:14:46.220
could be limited to providing currency, or if it would also be drawn into attempts to

768
01:14:46.220 --> 01:14:49.500
to solve the pressing financial problems of the country.

769
01:14:49.500 --> 01:14:54.380
Such attempts would jeopardise the stability of the new currency, but how else could the

770
01:14:54.380 --> 01:14:56.760
financial burdens be shouldered?

771
01:14:56.760 --> 01:15:01.740
At a meeting with the local Austrian commander, Mises convinced the Austrian bankers to promote

772
01:15:01.740 --> 01:15:06.180
sales of Vienna stocks and bonds to the Ukrainian public.

773
01:15:06.180 --> 01:15:11.820
To avoid the monetary inflation the Germans advocated, the Misesian strategy was to seek

774
01:15:11.820 --> 01:15:16.200
make a private business solution through an increase of foreign holdings of Austrian stock

775
01:15:16.200 --> 01:15:21.820
and debt. In a later report to General Krauss, he made comments and suggestions to improve

776
01:15:21.820 --> 01:15:26.860
the proposed institution as much as possible. In particular, he recommended that the future

777
01:15:26.860 --> 01:15:31.580
Central Bank be built on the model of the Bank of the Russian Empire. The report was

778
01:15:31.580 --> 01:15:36.100
printed without indication of authorship. However, style and content reveal it to be

779
01:15:36.100 --> 01:15:39.820
a pure product of Mises' pen.

780
01:15:39.820 --> 01:15:44.780
The Ukrainian Central Bank should be a pure government institution, as distinct, for example,

781
01:15:44.780 --> 01:15:49.260
from the formal set-up of the Bank of England or the German Reichsbank, and half of its

782
01:15:49.260 --> 01:15:54.900
endowment should be held as cash reserves. In its investment policies, the new bank should

783
01:15:54.900 --> 01:16:00.580
follow private banking principles, no risky investments and no long-term engagements.

784
01:16:00.580 --> 01:16:05.940
Mises also stressed that reserve ratios were of crucial importance to create trust and

785
01:16:05.940 --> 01:16:09.940
for the banknotes. The reserves had to be in cash.

786
01:16:09.940 --> 01:16:21.940
Anything else would not offer any tangible security for the note owner, or in any way prevent an unlimited note issue that eventually results in the note's complete devaluation.

787
01:16:21.940 --> 01:16:30.940
The history of the French Asignat, which had been covered through liabilities on all of the state's territories, serves here as a warning example.

788
01:16:30.940 --> 01:16:36.740
Mises thus proposed a form of fractional reserve central banking system, better known as the

789
01:16:36.740 --> 01:16:38.840
gold exchange standard.

790
01:16:38.840 --> 01:16:44.340
He recommended keeping reserves for one third of all circulating banknotes, and these reserves

791
01:16:44.340 --> 01:16:49.600
should be either in cash, gold and silver, in foreign currency, or in bills of exchange

792
01:16:49.600 --> 01:16:51.140
on foreign currency.

793
01:16:51.140 --> 01:16:55.980
Moreover, the management of the bank should, of course, be subordinate to the government,

794
01:16:55.980 --> 01:17:00.380
preferably to the trade minister, since the finance minister would be tempted to abuse

795
01:17:00.380 --> 01:17:06.640
use it for fiscal purposes. Mises' proposals were never put into practice. A week after

796
01:17:06.640 --> 01:17:13.420
his return to Vienna, the Bulgarian front crumbled, and after another month, both Austria-Hungary

797
01:17:13.420 --> 01:17:20.020
and Germany were in a state of political and military disillusion. The war ended in sudden

798
01:17:20.020 --> 01:17:26.740
Chaos, and the Empire, centuries-old order, vanished almost overnight.