German ordoliberalism fused three distinct strands sharing a political will

Evidence

Rather than subsuming the different groups of German neoliberals under one Freiburg School, we can follow Ptak who speaks of a confluence of three different strands of thought with a shared political will: first, the Freiburg School with Eucken, Böhm, and Miksch; second, the “sociological wing” of ordoliberalism with Rüstow and Röpke; and third, a group of practitioners consisting of Ludwig Erhard and the longstanding editor of the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Erich Welter. Alfred Müller-Armack could be ascribed to the second and third strands of ordoliberalism. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 629

Categorization

• DEFINE: Useful taxonomy distinguishing Freiburg School, sociological wing, and practitioner strand — key for mapping German neoliberalism’s internal variety.
• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s stated aim of fracturing the crude ‘neoliberalism = one thing’ caricature by showing internal differentiation even within the German core. — connects to: Postwar German intellectual reconstruction proposals paired technocratic and cultural-visionary programs — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1679; The EU’s constitutional design embodies German ordoliberal principles — Mark Blyth, Austerity: The History of a Dangerous…, 374; German ordoliberalism originated by attacking the German Historical School — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 621 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• German ordoliberalism combined a strong-state Ordnungspolitik with sociocultural individualism and postwar integrationism #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 515