Summary
Franz Oppenheimer’s utopian vision, also called the ‘third path’ between capitalism and communism, on which German biographies of Oppenheimer usually focus and whose influence on post-war German economics through his student Ludwig Erhard they examine (Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, PDF p.15-16).
Details
- Oppenheimer believed that with the abolishment of land enclosure (Bodensperre) the last hurdle to a truly free market would be lifted, culminating in a social utopia in which it would not be necessary to choose between freedom and equality, or between liberalism and socialism (PDF p.52).
- Erhard publicly recognised Oppenheimer as a visionary of a peaceful, democratic and federalist European Union of the ‘free and equal’ (PDF p.16).
Related pages
Zionism and Cosmopolitanism: Franz Oppenheimer and the Dream of a Jewish Future in Germany and Palestine, Franz Oppenheimer, Ludwig Erhard, Organicism