The Discovery of the "Lost Papers" of Ludwig von Mises
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—
Richard
M
,
EbeJíng-
The
Discovery
of
the
''Lost
Liadwig
von
Mises
99
Shortly
after
the
Nazi
occupation
of
Austria
in
March
,
1938
,
the
Gestapo
ordered
apartment
18
at
24
WoUzeile
,
District
III
,
in
Vienna
,
sealed
and
all
the
possessions
in
it
boxed
up
and
transported
away
.
This
apartment
had
belonged
to
Ludwig
von
Mises
.
Mises
had
Uved
there
from
1911
to
the
Fall
of
1934
,
whai
he
moved
to
Geneva
,
Switzerland
,
to
take
up
a
position
as
Professor
of
Intemational
Economic
RelaticMis
at
the
Gradúate
Institute
of
International
Studies
.
But
he
had
kept
his
Vienna
apartment
,
with
his
mother
hving
there
until
her
death
in
1937
.
From
his
residence
in
G^ieva
,
Mises
mailed
out
,
on
March
9
,
1939
,
"
Information
"
to
his
firiends
in
Europe
that
the
Gestapo
had
carried
offthe
contents
of
the
back
He
explained
that
he
had
apaitmoit
,
and
no
attempt
to
get
it
had
succeeded
.
lost
his
library
,
his
pers
<
xial
and
family
documents
,
his
correspondence
,
files
,
papers
and
manuscripts
.
They
were
never
seen
again
.
Mises
and
his
fn^ds
assumed
that
they
had
been
destroyed
,
either
by
the
Nazis
or
in
the
destruction
of
war
.
Richard
M
.
Ebeling
is
the
Ludwig
von
Mises
Professor
of
Economics
,
at
Hillsdale
College
,
Hillsdale
,
Michigan
(
USA
).
This
was
not
the
case
.
In
May
,
1945
,
as
the
Second
World
War
was
coming
to
a
cióse
,
the
Soviet
Red
Army
occupied
Bohemia
,
the
westem
región
of
Czedioslovakia
.
One
of
the
towns
"
liberated
"
by
Stalin's
armed
forces
in
Bohemia
had
served
as
a
repository
for
records
,
files
and
archives
seized
by
the
Gestapo
in
countries
ovemm
by
the
Nazi
regime
.
Among
the
tens
of
thousands
of
files
,
papers
and
boxed
up
archives
the
Nazis
had
stored
away
were
those
lost
by
Ludwig
von
Mises
.
During
the
months
following
the
má
of
the
war
.
Soviet
military
trains
hauled
everything
found
in
this
repository
to
the
east
—
to
Moscow
.
There
,
these
captured
documents
including
those
of
Ludwig
von
Mises
—
^were
tumed
over
to
the
KGB
.
In
eme
of
the
great
ironies
of
history
,
the
papers
of
one
of
the
greatest
intellectual
opponents
of
sociahsm
in
the
20th
century
ended
up
in
the
taider
care
of
the
Soviet
secret
pólice
!
And
they
were
,
indeed
,
treated
with
care
.
On
March
6
,
1951
,
a
stamp
was
placed
on
the
"
opus
,"
or
annotated
index
,
to
all
of
Mises'
papers
,
indicating
they
had
been
read
,
arranged
and
organized
,
with
a
brief
paragraph
summarizing
each
of
the
topic
sections
in
the
"
Mises
Fund
."
This
"
Fund
"
contained
177
sepárate
files
,
with
many
of
them
ruiming
into
the
hundreds
of
pages
.
Laissez-Faire
50
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Indeed
,
the
entire
"
Mises
Fund
"
contained
more
than
10
,
000
items
.
Ludwig
von
Mises
died
in
1973
,
never
knowing
that
the
ideological
heirs
of
Karl
Marx
in
Moscow
had
done
everything
possible
to
assure
that
his
"
lost
papers
"
were
in
proper
and
protected
order
.
I
first
heard
about
the
possibility
that
Mises'
papers
were
,
in
fact
,
preserved
and
"
safe
"
in
Moscow
during
a
research
trip
that
my
wife
,
Anna
,
and
I
made
to
Vienna
in
the
summer
of
1993
.
But
we
had
no
finn
proof
until
this
past
summer
of
1996
,
when
we
found
out
the
ñame
of
the
archive
where
the
papers
were
being
stored
the
actual
catalog
number
of
the
"
Fund
."
and
Now
the
problem
was
how
to
gain
access
to
it
.
Besides
the
invaluable
assistance
of
several
archivists
in
the
United
States
,
access
to
the
papers
would
have
been
impossible
without
the
hard
work
of
my
wife
,
Anna
(
v^o
is
Russian
by
birth
),
and
her
numerous
friends
in
Moscow
.
These
fhends
knew
how
to
work
their
way
through
the
labyrinth
of
the
Russian
bureaucracy
and
the
network
of
personal
relationships
which
make
up
the
Russian
system
of
favors
and
privileges
.
Through
them
,
contact
was
made
with
the
archive
c
(
mtaining
Mises'
papers
,
official
invitations
were
issued
and
access
to
the
"
Fund
"
obtained
.
The
great
diffículty
in
arranging
all
of
this
was
due
to
the
fect
that
this
archive
still
is
secret
and
restricted
.
But
once
in
Moscow
,
access
to
the
entire
"
Fund
"
and
ability
to
photocopy
or
microfibn
almost
anything
we
wanted
would
still
have
been
impossible
or
greatly
hampered
if
not
for
my
wife's
special
negotiating
ability
on
the
spot
with
those
authorities
in
control
of
the
"
Fund
."
In
addition
,
Hillsdale
CoUege
,
and
especially
Presidait
George
Roche
and
Vice-President
for
Development
,
Jdin
Cervini
,
provided
total
support
for
the
project
.
They
arranged
from
"
friends
of
the
CoUege
"
the
most
generous
fínancial
assistance
,
without
which
the
joumey
to
the
Moscow
archive
,
and
the
expenses
connected
with
it
,
would
have
been
impossible
.
My
wife
(
who
,
besides
her
native
Russian
,
has
an
excellent
working
knowledge
of
spoken
and
written
Germán
)
and
I
spent
from
October
17
to
October
26
,
1996
going
througjh
Mises'
papers
.
Mises
kept
almost
everything
!
Indeed
,
he
seems
to
have
be^
something
of
a
compulsive
"
pack-rat
."
There
were
even
the
smallest
of
things
,
for
example
,
train
ticket
stubs
from
the
joumey
to
some
conference
and
the
receipts
from
meáis
eaten
at
hotels
on
some
lecture
trips
.
There
were
two
thick
folders
about
his
activities
during
the
First
World
War
as
an
ofiñcer
with
an
artillery
regimait
on
the
Russian
front
.
Mises
kept
numerous
papers
of
now
faded
,
almost
unreadable
,
battle
plans
and
orders
for
combat
operations
in
which
his
unit
participated
,
with
accompanying
battle
field
sketch
maps
of
front-line
positions
.
There
were
specific
orders
directed
to
him
for
various
activities
,
including
temporary
transfers
for
rest
and
recuperation
from
illnesses
he
had
.
(
During
our
1993
trip
to
Vienna
,
we
found
his
military
service
file
in
the
Austrian
military
archive
Mises
had
been
decorated
three
times
for
bravery
under
fire
.)
We
found
in
an
envelope
two
oíd
film
negatives
from
whidí
we
had
prints
made
.
These
eighty
year-old
photos
were
of
Mises
with
members
of
his
artillery
regiment
somewhere
in
the
Carpathian
Mountains
in
the
Ukraine
.
There
was
a
lengthy
monograph
Mises
had
written
about
the
economic
relationships
between
Austria-Hungry
and
the
Laissez-Faire
51
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Ukraine
.
It
had
been
written
by
him
whai
In
still
another
file
were
typed
lectures
he
was
the
officer
in
command
of
military
currency
OMitroI
in
occupied
Ukraine
,
after
the
Treaty
of
Brest-Litovsk
in
March
,
1918
had
^ded
the
war
on
the
from
some
of
the
seminars
he
taught
at
the
University
of
Viama
.
They
cover
a
variety
of
topics
on
economic
theory
and
policy
.
He
had
spent
part
of
one
term
in
the
early
eastem
front
.
Odessa
.
Mises'
headquaiters
was
in
1920s
presaiting
an
e
?
q
)
osition
of
the
mathematical-ec
(
Hiomic
ideas
of
Lecm
Later
in
1918
,
he
was
transferred
to
the
Austrian
General
Staff
in
Vioina
.
Another
file
contained
cq
)
ies
of
various
Austrian
govemment
documents
about
the
monetary
and
fiscal
problems
of
the
war
.
Among
the
documents
were
several
papers
and
monographs
written
by
Mises
for
the
Austrian
General
Staff
about
the
war-time
inflation
,
fiscal
and
exchange-rate
problems
in
war-time
,
and
on
the
problems
of
naticxial
minorities
in
the
Austro-
Hungarian
En^ire
.
In
another
two
thick
folders
were
hundreds
of
letters
and
postcards
written
to
him
by
his
mother
w^ile
he
was
at
the
fi-ont
.
She
seems
to
have
written
to
him
every
day
.
His
mother
wfote
tender
words
of
support
,
told
about
family
members
and
fiiends
and
the
situation
on
the
"
homefront
"
in
Vienna
.
There
were
only
a
few
short
postcards
from
his
brother
,
Richard
,
suggesting
that
they
were
not
really
cióse
.
There
were
also
some
letters
and
postcards
fi-om
a
young
lady
,
who
even
had
her
picture
put
on
one
side
of
a
postcard
.
The
words
in
them
suggest
that
Mises
was
a
bit
of
the
"
ladies'
man
"
in
his
earlier
years
!
We
also
fbund
in
another
file
love
letters
fi-om
his
fiíture
wife
,
Margit
,
written
to
him
in
1927-28
.
They
had
been
sent
in
envelopes
addressed
to
his
business
office
at
the
Austrian
Chamber
of
Commerce
.
Mises
clearly
did
not
want
his
mother
to
know
about
the
relationship
.
Walras
and
Vilfredo
Pareto
,
with
neatly
drawn
graphs
e
?
q
)
laining
the
logic
of
Paretian
Indiffer^ce
Curves
.
There
were
also
the
final
exams
of
his
University
students
in
1919
,
in
which
their
assignment
had
been
to
simunarize
the
argum^ts
Mises
had
developed
during
the
semester
on
"
The
Development
of
the
Mandan
Theory
of
Inq
)
erialism
."
There
was
a
file
about
the
private
seminar
he
held
at
his
Chamber
of
Commerce
office
.
He
kept
lists
of
the
attoidees
each
year
(
usually
jotted
down
on
the
back
of
pieces
of
paper
)
and
incomplete
lists
of
some
of
the
topics
discussed
.
But
there
were
also
the
typed
fiíll
texts
of
some
papers
Mises
deüvered
at
the
private
seminar
,
especially
on
questicms
relating
to
methodology
of
the
social
Sciences
,
and
the
typed
commentaries
of
other
seminar
participants
(
e
.
g
.,
Oskar
Morgenstem
).
In
yet
another
file
were
papers
relating
to
his
work
at
the
Austrian
Chamber
of
Commerce
.
There
were
some
of
the
memoranda
and
reports
he
had
prepared
,
including
an
account
of
the
Chamber's
work
from
1926
to
1932
,
in
his
own
clear
handwriting
.
Several
files
contained
his
correspondaice
.
Mises
not
only
kept
many
of
the
letters
he
received
(
including
the
CTvelopes
they
came
in
),
he
also
kqít
a
carbón
copy
of
his
replies
,
so
the
correspotidence
is
complete
.
Mises
was
almost
always
"
business-like
."
There
are
very
few
letters
with
informal
commoits
Laissez-Faire
52
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about
fhends
and
personal
affairs
.
Instead
,
they
are
frequently
a
continuation
of
economic
policy
debates
—
e
.
g
.,
about
the
monetary
causes
of
the
Great
Austrian
Inflation
of
the
early
1920s
,
the
problems
of
interventionism
and
the
unworkability
of
sociahsm
.
Most
of
these
exchanges
are
with
Germán
and
Austrian
writers
and
scholars
now
long-forgotten
or
unknown
.
But
there
was
a
sepárate
file
of
Mises'
correspondence
with
Friedrich
Hayek
,
after
the
latter's
move
to
London
in
1931
until
1934
,
when
Mises
moved
to
Geneva
.
And
there
was
a
thick
file
of
correspondence
between
Mises
and
Licaiel
Robbins
(
who
taught
at
the
London
School
of
Economics
).
There
was
even
the
receipt
fbr
the
price
of
a
copy
of
Mises'
book
,
"
Socialism
,"
which
he
had
sent
to
Robbins
in
1924
.
Mises
took
a
keen
and
concemed
interest
in
his
students
and
scholar-fi-iends
.
There
were
letters
of
recommendation
,
for
example
,
in
which
Mises
tried
to
get
research
grants
or
jobs
for
Fritz
Machlup
,
Gottfiied
Haberler
and
several
others
in
places
outside
of
Austria
.
He
seems
to
have
had
a
good
relationship
with
the
Rockefeller
Foundation
in
this
regard
.
Several
files
contained
exchanges
between
Mises
and
publishers
over
the
details
of
pubhshing
his
books
(
e
.
g
.,
ví^qi
galley
pages
would
be
sent
,
etc
.).
The
correspcmdence
files
also
clearly
demónstrate
Mises'
influence
and
highprofile
in
the
caitral
Eurq
)
e
of
the
1920s
and
early
1930s
.
There
was
a
large
number
of
letters
fi-om
industrial
and
business
organizations
inviting
him
to
join
their
associations
and
deliver
lectures
(
he
usually
decUned
joining
,
but
often
agreed
to
lecture
).
Numerous
research
institutes
,
professicmal
associations
and
universities
invited
him
to
paiticipate
in
conferences
or
deliver
a
paper
.
Beginning
in
1928
Mises
did
belong
to
the
Vienna
Rotary
Club
.
Resides
the
membership
forms
,
rules
and
by-laws
and
notices
of
meetings
,
there
was
in
the
file
the
words
of
a
"
firiendship
"
song
that
members
were
expected
to
sing
.
One
pictures
Ludwig
von
Mises
as
a
vocalist
at
a
Rotary
Club
luncheon
!
Mises
also
kept
copies
of
his
articles
,
and
he
was
extremely
prolific
.
This
refers
not
only
to
his
scholarly
articles
and
books
,
but
to
the
large
number
of
pieces
he
wrote
for
the
Vienna
newspapers
and
magazines
on
economic
pohcy
issues
,
with
his
contributions
often
being
the
lead
article
.
(
I
beheve
that
several
of
them
that
we
found
are
not
included
in
Bettina
Bien
Greaves'
excellent
annotated
bibüography
of
Mises'
work
.)
This
,
I
hqje
,
gives
a
"
flavor
"
of
some
of
what
we
found
among
Ludwig
von
Mises'
"
lost
papers
"
in
the
Moscow
archive
.
The
timing
of
this
visit
,
it
tums
out
,
was
most
fortuitous
,
because
we
were
told
that
the
archive
in
which
Mises'
papers
are
stored
is
being
transferred
to
another
ministry's
control
that
is
much
more
secretive
,
and
the
window
of
opportunity
to
have
had
access
to
them
is
once
again
closed
.
We
did
leave
Russia
with
many
thousands
of
pages
firom
the
"
Mises
Fund
,"
either
in
photocopy
or
on
microfilm
.
After
they
have
been
arranged
and
cataloged
they
will
in
time
be
available
fbr
use
by
scholars
in
the
Ludwig
von
Mises
Library
Room
at
Hillsdale
College
.
Important
and
interesting
aspects
of
Mises'
life
and
work
during
the
first
half
of
his
lüe
in
Europe
will
now
no
longer
be
as
much
in
the
dark
as
they
have
been
up
until
now
.
Laissez-Faire
53