Ludwig Erhard

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Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (* February 4th, 1897 in Fürth; † May 5th, 1977 in Bonn) was a German politician.

Erhard was born as son of salesman. After his middle school exam he started a training to became a salesman himself. He was wounded as soldier in World War I. After that war he started to study micro economy on a college in Nuremberg. After that he studied economy on the University of Frankfurt. In 1925 he finished his docorate thesis. Afterwards he worked in his father's company. After the Great Depression the company went bancrupt. From 1928 to 1942 he worked as sciencistic assistent, but he couldn't make his habilitation, because he didn't want to became member of a Nazi organisation. From 1942 to 1945 he was head of the institute for industrial research.

Up from 1949 he worked for the CDU, but joined still in 1963. From 1945 to 1946 he worked for the provisoric gouvernment of Bavaria, afterwards he was an economic organisation official for the British-American administration in West Germany.

In 1949 he became Secretary for Economy underr Konrad Adenauer. Up from 1957 he was Vice Chancellor. After Adenauer resigned in 1963, Erhard became the new chancellor. In 1966 Kurt Georg Kiesinger succeded him.

He died in 1977.