Monday, June 25, 2007

Hans Sennholz has died.

February 3, 1922–June 23, 2007

Thats' a good website to study.

Here's what Mises.org has so far. Apparently they don't can obits ahead of time, but it's a good speech Rockwell gave in Sennholz' honor in 2004.

Update: I forgot that FEE might have something to say about Sennholz dying. He was President there from '92-'97.

Oddly enough, Richard Ebeling's (current President of FEE) obit is a better read than the one at Sennholz.com. Here's the fun part:
Rising to speak at that seminar, Hans was soon hunched over the podium, a finger pointed at the audience, in what I discovered was his characteristic pose. He proceeded to explain the "absurdities" of government intervention, socialism, and inflation. In a thick but easily understood German accent -- that always had a great effect on the crowd -- he preached hell-fire and brimstone about how free markets and limited government were the only paths away from economic and political perdition.

In the evening he sat around with a group of the attendees and told us about his early life. Hans had been born on February 3, 1922, in the Rhineland area. He had been drafted into the German Luftwaffe in World War II and was shot down while serving in North Africa. He ended up in a POW camp outside of Austin, Texas. I asked him what it was like to be a prisoner of war. He replied that those were among the best years of his life. The camp cook had been a chef in a Berlin restaurant before the war, and all the meals were "wonderful." It turned out that he had some relatives who had immigrated to America in the 1920s and who happened to live in the area. They vouched for him so he could enroll at the University of Texas at Austin. He was escorted by a military policeman, who would stand behind him at attention in the classroom.

Then he went back to Germany (Marburg; I've been there!), discovered Mises and became a great economist.

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