WEBVTT NOTE The House of Habsburg, Mises, and the Austrian School 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.160 Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to say thank you very much for the invitation 2 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:07.680 that I was able to come here. 3 00:00:07.680 --> 00:00:09.840 I know of course I shouldn't be here. 4 00:00:09.840 --> 00:00:12.080 My father should be in my position. 5 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:15.440 He was the person who knew Ludwig von Mises. 6 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:19.660 They were friends and so he should be here, but he couldn't come. 7 00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:21.800 He's in Hungary this weekend. 8 00:00:21.800 --> 00:00:25.200 He's doing what is probably the closest to his heart. 9 00:00:25.200 --> 00:00:28.400 You know, we are just working on the enlargement of the European Union. 10 00:00:28.400 --> 00:00:34.200 He is the Rapporteur on Hungary joining the European Union and so he has to spend a lot 11 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:38.840 of time in Hungary and of course also in some of the other countries that want to join this 12 00:00:38.840 --> 00:00:43.160 Union so I hope you excuse him for that. 13 00:00:43.160 --> 00:00:49.240 But by inviting me and by him sending me on his behalf of course you gave me a very great 14 00:00:49.240 --> 00:00:57.200 opportunity to talk to my father on the relationship he had with Ludwig von Mises and to talk with 15 00:00:57.200 --> 00:01:27.200 I told him also about the time before the Second World War, which is not so easy, you know, my father is very busy and when I was younger I didn't see him that often, I don't mean this negative in any way, I'm now in the very great position that I'm sitting next to him in Parliament, you know, we are sitting in the Christian Democratic Group according to the alphabet, so I have the time to see him now more than ever when I was young. You can imagine what shock it was for the whole Parliament when suddenly there were two Habsburgs for two different countries, 16 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:28.200 and so on. 17 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:41.160 He was able to tell me quite a bit about this relationship and what he thought about that. 18 00:01:41.160 --> 00:01:45.080 On the other hand, I want also to thank you very much for this invitation because I have 19 00:01:45.080 --> 00:01:50.800 to say that these last two days were extremely inspiring to me. 20 00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:58.800 I had a great luck in my life that I got the chance to spend nine months together with Russell Kirk in Michigan. 21 00:01:58.800 --> 00:02:04.800 And I had the possibility to learn a lot about the values that you are also representing here. 22 00:02:04.800 --> 00:02:10.800 And I want to be very honest to you. I really miss gatherings like this. 23 00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:16.800 I know they are also not happening too often here. If the Mises Institute is not organizing them also in the States, they don't happen too often. 24 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:26.800 But a meeting like this one is probably for the time being quite unthinkable to happen in Europe if the Mises Institute is not organizing it in Vienna. That's another question. 25 00:02:26.800 --> 00:02:37.800 So I'm very happy that I could be part of this really very inspiring and highly interesting meeting. It was a real intellectual stimulation if I might say that. 26 00:02:37.800 --> 00:02:46.800 say that. Because you see in Europe, of course, there are some individual fighters like Eric von König-Le-Din, who couldn't be here for this weekend, 27 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:54.800 like Thomas Heimowitz, like Karl-Albrecht Waldstein, people that are also organized partly in the Mont Pelerin Society, in the CD. 28 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:59.800 But still, these type of meetings, alas, don't happen too often. 29 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:06.800 You know, you mentioned before that probably there is much too little known about the Austrian School of Economics here. 30 00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:11.920 I have to tell you, if you would go to Austria and ask somebody, even of the higher intellectual 31 00:03:11.920 --> 00:03:16.320 area, what he knows about the Austrian School of Economics, he would probably think that 32 00:03:16.320 --> 00:03:22.700 it is the achievement which was done in Austria under Bruno Kreisky to try and institute Swedish 33 00:03:22.700 --> 00:03:26.040 socialist idea in Austria and nothing else like that. 34 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:27.720 I also have to thank you for one other reason. 35 00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:32.720 I was very, very glad and happy to meet Congressman Ron Paul here. 36 00:03:32.720 --> 00:03:40.080 I can imagine that he is also a fighter, an individual fighter in Congress and I was very 37 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:43.760 happy to meet him because very often I feel also like an individual fighter in the European 38 00:03:43.760 --> 00:03:49.960 Parliament where we are kind of working for our cause and I was very jealous when he mentioned 39 00:03:49.960 --> 00:03:53.060 something today for lunch. 40 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:57.400 He said and then we were voting on this vote where we could transfer one million dollars 41 00:03:57.400 --> 00:03:58.960 for a special study here and there. 42 00:03:58.960 --> 00:04:02.960 I thought, oh my god, I'd love to do that once in European Parliament. 43 00:04:02.960 --> 00:04:09.960 If I'm coming up to our civil servants and tell them I want to vote and transferring one million dollars from one place to the other, 44 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:18.960 they would just tell me, excuse me sir, we have the budget meetings in October next year, so why don't you come up to me next October and we'll talk about that then. 45 00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:23.960 The struggle that we have in the European Parliament, which is a very young Parliament, 46 00:04:23.960 --> 00:04:30.960 which of course only right now has to start and get its own power together, is a very tough one. 47 00:04:30.960 --> 00:04:37.960 And particularly when you try to bring also certain values in a very, very bureaucratic surrounding, 48 00:04:37.960 --> 00:04:44.960 like Brussels for example, which is kind of for me the capital of bureaucracy of the world probably, 49 00:04:44.960 --> 00:04:46.960 it's a very tough thing to do. 50 00:04:46.960 --> 00:04:51.960 It's a very good thing definitely to have people like Ron Paul around. 51 00:04:51.960 --> 00:04:56.960 When I was talking with my father about Ludwig von Mises, 52 00:04:56.960 --> 00:05:03.960 he was of course talking very much about the political effects and the political aspects of what he was teaching. 53 00:05:03.960 --> 00:05:08.960 And there were two words, two expressions which fell quite a couple of times 54 00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:14.960 and I was very happy to hear the same expressions quite an amount of time in the last two days here. 55 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:18.960 One of them was the right of self-determination. 56 00:05:18.960 --> 00:05:22.960 It is something we need so much for the security. 57 00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:30.960 We always forget that security is one of the utmost importances of any parliament, of any political institutions, 58 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:34.960 and that it really constitutes the rights of people, 59 00:05:34.960 --> 00:05:39.960 and that it is one of the last defense lines against certain overwhelming nations. 60 00:05:39.960 --> 00:05:48.960 And the other, of course, is the principle of subsidiarity, which is now one of the basic principles of the European Union. 61 00:05:48.960 --> 00:05:54.960 Since the famous Maastricht Treaty, we have this principle of subsidiarity as a ground principle. 62 00:05:54.960 --> 00:05:58.960 And still, of the politicians, nobody believes that it exists. 63 00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:06.960 I mean, it's so simple to say that a higher level should never do what the lower level can achieve sufficiently. 64 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:12.560 It's very easy to say, but when you look at the interpretations that you find in politics, 65 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.660 when the French are coming up and saying, 66 00:06:14.660 --> 00:06:21.060 principle of subsidiarity is when I'm helping the next level under me to help themselves, 67 00:06:21.060 --> 00:06:25.860 and nobody believes also in the Christian roots of these principles, 68 00:06:25.860 --> 00:06:30.760 which has to be instituted and which is so close, actually so close to all of us. 69 00:06:30.760 --> 00:06:34.960 I hope you will pardon me if I bring in this little speech, 70 00:06:34.960 --> 00:06:39.960 On one time, a sad thought, and also an expression of gratitude. 71 00:06:39.960 --> 00:06:46.960 A sad thought because we are celebrating the memory of one of the greatest Austrians of our century, 72 00:06:46.960 --> 00:06:53.960 not in his hometown Vienna, as I mentioned it before, but here, far away from his own country. 73 00:06:53.960 --> 00:06:56.960 The Holy Scripture has a word which says, 74 00:06:58.960 --> 00:07:00.960 No one is a prophet in his own country. 75 00:07:00.960 --> 00:07:22.960 And somehow this applies also to those great persons of our days who try to show us the way into the future and who all too often are silent by the howl and the demagoguery of the small-time politicians of whom we have too many but who have the tendency to thrive upon themselves title which they do not deserve. 76 00:07:22.960 --> 00:07:29.220 Today a politician who has not been removed within six months for corruption has already 77 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:36.020 the title of a statesman, while even in the last century the title of a statesman was 78 00:07:36.020 --> 00:07:41.900 only given to persons after their death and who had really changed the course of history 79 00:07:41.900 --> 00:07:45.540 and I think it would be important to say some of the modern statements that they should 80 00:07:45.540 --> 00:07:49.420 get their title only after their death so then they would probably not try to achieve 81 00:07:49.420 --> 00:08:00.100 So, in this sense, Ludwig von Mises was a real statesman, and that is why his name is 82 00:08:00.100 --> 00:08:04.420 very often forgotten by those who should remember him. 83 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:11.880 But we do not want to stay with this sad idea, but offer, coming from Austria, our deep gratitude 84 00:08:11.880 --> 00:08:18.220 to this meeting here in Atlanta, and of course to the organizers who have done so much to 85 00:08:18.220 --> 00:08:25.240 To arrange this, in this decisive moment, just to see what Ludwig von Mises has done actually 86 00:08:25.240 --> 00:08:30.820 for his country, for the cause of freedom and for the real humanity at large. 87 00:08:30.820 --> 00:08:35.560 Mises, as we all know, was one of the greatest members of the Austrian School of Economics 88 00:08:35.560 --> 00:08:41.080 and this school can probably now be judged better than it was possible only a few decades 89 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:42.080 ago. 90 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:44.280 And I'm talking now mainly about Europe. 91 00:08:44.280 --> 00:08:49.600 When today somebody has the opportunity of going to central Europe through countries 92 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:56.760 like Hungary, Croatia and probably even the Bukovina, he will see what this 19th century 93 00:08:56.760 --> 00:09:03.040 under the impulse of the Vienna economists has done for the country and for its population. 94 00:09:03.040 --> 00:09:08.940 It was a really constructive time which has left memories even for those generation who 95 00:09:08.940 --> 00:09:20.940 who more than half a century or almost a century later still can see, and this not only in the capitals, but also in the small towns and medium-sized towns, 96 00:09:20.940 --> 00:09:29.940 the vestiges of an outstanding epoch of expansion due to the fact that there were people who were standing for freedom and decency 97 00:09:29.940 --> 00:09:34.940 and who at least for some time had the support of the state. 98 00:09:34.940 --> 00:09:40.620 is indeed a great sign of what they really did, that even the decades of barbarianism 99 00:09:40.620 --> 00:09:46.500 which followed their expansion have not been able to destroy what they have built. Of course 100 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:52.980 it created ruins. But still despite this, there are still memories which you can find. 101 00:09:52.980 --> 00:09:57.940 And traveling today through Europe, one will really see that all the way from the western 102 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:04.580 borders of what is today Austria, to areas which are now deep in the Ukraine, one will 103 00:10:04.580 --> 00:10:12.580 You will find what this Austrian School has actually built and what an academic background it has given. 104 00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:18.580 When you come to a city like Czernowitz in the Bukowina, you will find that even today, 105 00:10:18.580 --> 00:10:25.580 after the degeneration that built up that beautiful university there that has passed away, 106 00:10:25.580 --> 00:10:30.580 there will still remain the memory, nostalgia, probably some people would say, 107 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:34.580 and the vestiges on which one can rebuild very many things. 108 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:41.580 Ludwig von Mises was one of those who brought the background to the achievements of the political leadership. 109 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:49.580 But he was also one of those who suffered from the catastrophe which was brought upon humanity by the First and Second World War. 110 00:10:49.580 --> 00:10:55.580 He also could remember the times when the question of race had not been raised, 111 00:10:55.580 --> 00:11:01.580 when persons were judged according to their personal value and not by the accident of their birth. 112 00:11:01.580 --> 00:11:14.580 But he had also to suffer to this revolution of darkness, whose greatest expression was on one side the National Socialism of Adolf Hitler and on the other side the International Socialism of Jose Stalin. 113 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:26.580 It was this revolution of darkness which pushed him out of his country and forced him into emigration, into which he carried all the values he had served in his own homeland. 114 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:31.580 Ludwig von Mises was, like many economists of the Vienna School of Economics, a Jew. 115 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:38.820 He was, when we look at his work, one of the most representatives, one of the best representatives 116 00:11:38.820 --> 00:11:44.580 of this type of Judaism, which had been created in the tolerant and liberal atmosphere of 117 00:11:44.580 --> 00:11:45.580 the Danube Basin. 118 00:11:45.580 --> 00:11:49.780 And when I say liberal, I always mean it, of course, in the European sense. 119 00:11:49.780 --> 00:11:53.940 These Jews had done a lot for the cause which they served. 120 00:11:53.940 --> 00:12:01.020 They were standing by necessity over the nationalities in an area where 12 nationalities had been 121 00:12:01.020 --> 00:12:13.020 were being brought to live together under a common dynasty and where the Jews were carrying out the task of helping the dynasty by being a binding element between the different nationalities. 122 00:12:13.020 --> 00:12:20.020 One sees this today, what was done at that time when visiting places like Bosnia-Herzegovina. 123 00:12:20.020 --> 00:12:27.020 So an outstanding German socialist, the former mayor of Bremen, Hans Koschnik, you know he's one of these personalities, 124 00:12:57.020 --> 00:13:05.020 What happened before 1918, when three nationalities in this country were living peacefully together? 125 00:13:05.020 --> 00:13:11.340 To make peace, one needs somebody who is above the parties and who is ready and determined 126 00:13:11.340 --> 00:13:13.260 to bring them together. 127 00:13:13.260 --> 00:13:18.820 And that was a case, as Mr. Koschnick said, in the old Austria-Hungary, where the nationalities 128 00:13:18.820 --> 00:13:25.300 were brought to one table, but always presided by the representative of the emperor in Vienna, 129 00:13:25.300 --> 00:13:31.300 who might have come from Bohemia or Galicia or from the Italian speaking part of the country. 130 00:13:31.300 --> 00:13:40.300 He therefore was above the plenty of nationality quarrels and was able to represent the spirit of harmony among the differences. 131 00:13:40.300 --> 00:13:52.300 It was the failure of this which led to those conflicts, so there was no more peace because the judge between the different warring factions was no longer around. 132 00:13:52.300 --> 00:13:58.300 In a larger sense, the Jewish population of Central Europe was playing a similar role. 133 00:13:58.300 --> 00:14:02.300 It was close to each nation and still not a member of it. 134 00:14:02.300 --> 00:14:09.300 It was an independent element and it was consequently one of the greatest supporters of the old dynasty, 135 00:14:09.300 --> 00:14:13.300 which equally was interested in maintaining peace and understanding. 136 00:14:13.300 --> 00:14:21.300 When today this only remains as a nostalgic memory after the horrors which Hitlerism has brought upon the area, 137 00:14:21.300 --> 00:14:47.300 In the beginning of the 20th century, the first signs were shown on the horizon that the evil forces of nationalism, which the French president François Mitterrand called Nationalism is War, could be seen. 138 00:14:47.300 --> 00:15:06.300 Amongst the Jews in Central Europe, two schools emerged, if I can call these schools, at that time, namely those that were real optimists and who still believed that their common ideal could be saved and those who were pessimists and didn't believe in it anymore. 139 00:15:06.300 --> 00:15:25.300 Mises definitely belonged to the optimists, to those believers against common belief whose best expression was an unknown soldier, a non-commissioned officer by the name of Jakob Ducatenzähler, who was the first dead of the First World War and who died for his country. 140 00:15:25.300 --> 00:15:34.300 He is today quite forgotten, except in my family, because Jakob Ducatenzähler was, as a non-commissioned officer, in the army of my grandfather. 141 00:15:34.300 --> 00:15:48.300 But from Mises to Dugartenzähler, there was just this optimistic attitude which had been expressed in the different successes which took place and which today are still left as values for the future. 142 00:15:48.300 --> 00:15:55.300 The best arrangement between the nationalities was the so-called Merische Ausgleich from 1904. 143 00:15:55.300 --> 00:16:06.300 And it was brought upon the different nationalities next day after a serious clash had occurred between Germans and Czechs in Moravia. 144 00:16:06.300 --> 00:16:24.300 It was at that time when a Jewish member of the Austrian Parliament called together both sides and created this fabulous arrangement, the Moravian Agreement, which did put an end in this region to the national hatred which had existed before. 145 00:16:24.300 --> 00:16:32.300 And this agreement was then to be used in lots of other places within the old monarchy before the year 1918. 146 00:16:32.300 --> 00:16:56.300 This was one of these great successes. Of course, there were some pessimists who foresaw what would be coming for the area, which had been for them a homeland, and of which, again, Salzer Landmann had stated that it was not so much the soil which was the homeland, but the spirit of the community which was at that time called Austria-Hungary. 147 00:16:56.300 --> 00:17:06.300 These pessimists were thinking of an alternative and it is no accident that also the father of Zionism, Herzl, was born in Austria and lived in Austria. 148 00:17:06.300 --> 00:17:10.300 It is from this atmosphere that Ludwig von Mises stands. 149 00:17:10.300 --> 00:17:18.300 He belongs to the optimists because he wanted to defend the values and the soil which was his. 150 00:17:18.300 --> 00:17:21.300 This described his character and his personality. 151 00:17:21.300 --> 00:17:28.340 Ludwig von Mises was first a real bourgeois, that valuable, hardworking middle class, which 152 00:17:28.340 --> 00:17:34.480 was a foundation for the whole structure. He was a patriot, he believed in his country 153 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:40.640 and in its value, and he dedicated his work to the ideal of Austria-Hungary. This class 154 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:46.660 of the bourgeois has largely disappeared in the area from which he stands. But here too 155 00:17:46.660 --> 00:17:52.980 can one see the cultural memories which it has left and that it has not fully disappeared. 156 00:17:52.980 --> 00:17:57.220 In this sense, Ludwig von Mises means today a hope for the future. 157 00:17:57.220 --> 00:18:01.220 He was also a man of full loyalty and integrity. 158 00:18:01.220 --> 00:18:05.060 He never thought seriously about his own reputation and his name. 159 00:18:05.060 --> 00:18:06.860 He wanted to serve. 160 00:18:06.860 --> 00:18:11.660 He believed passionately in freedom and was certain if freedom could be preserved, this 161 00:18:11.660 --> 00:18:12.660 would be worthwhile. 162 00:18:12.660 --> 00:18:24.660 It is also significant that he never was discouraged. Even when he left his country, he was not a sad man. He was convinced that in the end the good cause would win. 163 00:18:24.660 --> 00:18:37.660 And a third characteristic, which indeed was also the characteristic of him and his colleagues, was their utter honesty. He was not a person to orient himself according to the opportunities of the moment. 164 00:18:37.660 --> 00:18:44.740 His life, when one looks back on it, was a straight line from the beginning to the end, 165 00:18:44.740 --> 00:18:50.180 and an open book for everyone since he very frankly spoke about his opinions. 166 00:18:50.180 --> 00:18:55.660 In this sense, he was a real liberal in the European sense, that is to say, a servant 167 00:18:55.660 --> 00:18:58.700 of freedom and of human dignity. 168 00:18:58.700 --> 00:19:04.420 He is remaining to us, at the end of this century, as the embodiment of great values 169 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:08.640 which have made the continent of Europe and its old civilization. 170 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:13.740 He could be relied on because what he said was what he thought. 171 00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:18.620 In this sense, I find it most encouraging that here in the United States, which is today 172 00:19:18.620 --> 00:19:23.660 the biggest power in the world, the memory of Ludwig von Mises lives on. 173 00:19:23.660 --> 00:19:28.700 Here he found a home and freedom to work when his country was overrun by the barbarians 174 00:19:28.700 --> 00:19:30.540 of our century. 175 00:19:30.540 --> 00:19:35.420 He found also many of his old colleagues from the Austrian School of Economics who had also 176 00:19:35.420 --> 00:19:41.240 been forced to leave Europe in the hope that the day would come as it did, when they could 177 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:47.180 return with the effort to bring back the values which they had taken along with them. 178 00:19:47.180 --> 00:19:50.500 In that sense, they were not emigrants. 179 00:19:50.500 --> 00:19:54.700 An emigrant is somebody who leaves his country and gives it up. 180 00:19:54.700 --> 00:20:04.700 A real refugee of freedom is a person who leaves his country but carries on its values in the hope that the time will come when he can bring it back. 181 00:20:04.700 --> 00:20:19.700 This Ludwig von Mises remains to us as a messenger of freedom, a messenger of belief in man, a messenger of a deeper belief in the cultural values which we have and which are also the foundations of the future. 182 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:28.200 We can therefore honor him only if we dedicate ourselves once more to the values which Ludwig von Mises represented. 183 00:20:28.200 --> 00:20:31.700 He did not die in vain, he did not suffer in vain. 184 00:20:31.700 --> 00:20:46.700 He carried out his values to others and we are today called upon to do this at a time when our task is to build a 21st century which should be worthy of the great values which our past has given to us. 185 00:20:46.700 --> 00:20:55.700 I want to say that I think the institute, the Mises Institute in this aspect has an enormous task to come. 186 00:20:55.700 --> 00:20:59.700 And allow me that I'm telling you a little story which I usually promise not to tell, 187 00:20:59.700 --> 00:21:02.700 but I will tell it in this small circle of people. 188 00:21:02.700 --> 00:21:07.700 A little experience that I had when I once met the Dalai Lama. 189 00:21:07.700 --> 00:21:11.700 Do you understand? I usually don't tell that because when you talk today about the Dalai Lama, 190 00:21:11.700 --> 00:21:14.700 everybody says he's either a Hollywood star who tries to become a Buddhist, 191 00:21:14.700 --> 00:21:19.700 I'm a Buddhist, I come from a family which strongly always is fighting for the Catholic Church 192 00:21:19.700 --> 00:21:22.700 and they will do this in the future too, so there is no danger of that. 193 00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:29.700 But it was shortly after the time when the war broke out in former Yugoslavia, 194 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:34.700 my wife and I, we were in Lugano, and he was there to open an exhibition. 195 00:21:34.700 --> 00:21:40.700 And we had the possibility for a long chat with him, and I was asking him, I said, 196 00:21:40.700 --> 00:21:48.700 We are seeing something happening here right in the middle of Europe where you see the destruction of the cultural heritage, 197 00:21:48.700 --> 00:21:56.700 where you see a war which is waged against the churches, against the achievements of the last centuries. 198 00:21:56.700 --> 00:22:02.700 And it is something that happened exactly the same thing happened to your country and is still happening to your country. 199 00:22:02.700 --> 00:22:09.700 And it started 50 years ago in your country and don't you have the feeling that this is something which is repeating itself non-stop 200 00:22:09.700 --> 00:22:12.420 Where can we stop it? What can we do? 201 00:22:12.420 --> 00:22:13.660 And he looked at us and said, 202 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:15.900 well, we can't do anything about that. 203 00:22:15.900 --> 00:22:17.060 And I was really disappointed 204 00:22:17.060 --> 00:22:21.060 because I always met him as an extremely optimistic person. 205 00:22:21.060 --> 00:22:21.940 And then he looked at us 206 00:22:21.940 --> 00:22:24.420 and with this special look that he has, 207 00:22:24.420 --> 00:22:26.260 and lifted his arm and he said, 208 00:22:26.260 --> 00:22:29.420 but there is one thing we have to do. 209 00:22:29.420 --> 00:22:31.700 We have to teach the next generation 210 00:22:31.700 --> 00:22:34.100 and we have to take the young people of today, 211 00:22:34.100 --> 00:22:36.740 make them the teachers of the next generation. 212 00:22:36.740 --> 00:22:42.540 So I have the feeling this is also exactly what the Ludwig von Mises Institute has to do. 213 00:22:42.540 --> 00:22:44.940 What is their task for the future? 214 00:22:44.940 --> 00:22:50.340 They have to be the lighthouse which sends out the beam in what has to be our future, 215 00:22:50.340 --> 00:22:53.940 because otherwise we will not have the future we want to have for our kids. 216 00:22:53.940 --> 00:22:58.240 So this is an enormous task which we all have upon us, 217 00:22:58.240 --> 00:23:02.440 which we all have to fight for on the different individual places. 218 00:23:02.440 --> 00:23:12.440 And in this sense, I would very much like to thank the von Mises Institute, its organizers, its promoters, its supporters, very much for the work they are doing. 219 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:14.440 I think it's absolutely worthwhile. Thank you very much.