Edward A. Tenenbaum and the Deutschmark

Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich is Professor of Economics and Economic History at John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies of the Freie Universität Berlin. He is the author of The Great German Inflation 1914 to 1923 (1986) and has published extensively on business and banking history as well as domestic and foreign economic-policy issues. He is the recipient of The Financial Times/Booz-Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award and the Helmut Schmidt Prize in German-American Economic History at the German Historical Institute in Washington DC.

• 1. Introduction; 2. Ludwig Erhard, who took credit for Edward A. Tenenbaum's success; 3. Edward A. Tenenbaum's family roots, adolescence, and military experience until 1946; 4. In action for OMGUS and currency reform in Germany 1946–1948; 5. From OMGUS to civil service in Washington DC and for Europe 1948–1953; 6. Life and fate as a business and family man 1953–1975 and beyond; 7. Conclusion.

'Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich has provided a remarkable biography of both an economist and a currency. The deutschmark is rightly remembered for providing post-World War II Germany with rock-solid economic and financial stability. Edward Tenenbaum, its architect, is rather less well remembered. Holtfrerich, in this remarkable book featuring cameo appearances by everyone from US General Omar Bradley to German Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, fills in this gap in the historical record.' Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Berkeley