The German Miracle stemmed from postwar rebuilding, not pro-market reforms

Evidence

28. Abelshauser (2004) challenged the ordoliberal interpretation of the “German Miracle” crediting pro-market reforms. High growth rates were rooted in the long-lasting phase of rebuilding the economy after the war, a modern system of production that was less damaged than many thought and in excellent international economic condition in the aftermath of the Korea crisis. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 588

Categorization

• XREF: Challenges the standard ordoliberal account of the Wirtschaftswunder — connects to any other German economic history scholarship in this library. — connects to: West German postwar restoration followed an anti-welfare neoliberal programme; The 1948 German state was legitimated via the free market mechanism — Michel Foucault, The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at…, 676; Germany financed postwar reconstruction mainly through money creation, not household savings (+7 more)
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: how much of the German Miracle narrative was constructed by ordoliberals as retrospective legitimation?

Broader Connections

• Germany financed postwar reconstruction mainly through money creation, not household savings #expands (0.85)
• Germany’s postwar boom was financed by money creation, not foreign aid #corroborates (0.82) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 143
• Germany’s postwar success depended on external macroeconomic favors rarely acknowledged by German policy makers #qualifies (0.80) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 908
• German prosperity and external threats made liberal reform seem less urgent #qualifies (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 328
• Wartime disruption generated a postwar window of optimism for liberal reconstruction #expands (0.75) — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 219
• Ordoliberalism rose in Germany partly because no Keynesian rival doctrine existed #expands (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 547
• German ordoliberals’ freedom was limited to economic, not political, liberty #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 501
• Nazi rule and restoration alienated postwar Germans from utopian-social criticism #complicates (0.70)