Professional career:

1967-1971
Teaching and research assistant as well as doctoral student at the University of Muenster, Germany (Professor Richard H. Tilly, PhD)

Part-time teaching of economic theory and policy as well as social history at the Catholic Social Academy “Franz Hitze-Haus”, Muenster, Germany, and for the educational program of the Confederation of German Trade Unions

14 July 1971
Dr. rer. pol. in economics at the University of Muenster, Germany; dissertation title: “Quantitative Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Ruhrkohlenbergbaus im 19. Jahrhundert. Eine Fuehrungssektoranalyse”, published in 1973 (Advisors: Prof. Richard H. Tilly, PhD, and Prof. Drs. Walther G. Hoffmann)

1971-1974
Head of division (“Referent”) in the Foreign Trade Department of the Federation of German Industries in Cologne, Germany, responsible for German bilateral economic relations with Western industrialized and developing countries and for contributions to basic issues of trade and exchange-rate policies

1974-1980
Assistant professor of economics and economic history at the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Teaching in the departments of economics and of history

Aug. 1975 - July 1976
John-F.-Kennedy memorial fellow at the Center for European Studies of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. Research on international financial relations of the 1920s

10 November 1979
“Habilitation” at the department of economics of the Free University of Berlin, Germany; title of second dissertation: “Die deutsche Inflation 1914-1923. Ursachen und Folgen in internationaler Perspektive”, published in 1980 (Advisors: Prof. Drs. Wolfram Fischer and Prof. Dr. Detlef Lorenz)

1980 - 1983
Professor of economic and social history at the department of history of the University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany

1981 - 1982
Managing director of the Historical Seminar of the department of history, University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Jan. - April 1982
Visiting professor at St. Antony’s College of Oxford University, England

Sept. 1982 - Aug. 1983
Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC, USA

Oct. 1983 - Sept. 2007
Professor of economics and economic history at the department of economics and at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies of the Free University of Berlin, Germany

Jan. 1984 - July 1985
Chairman of the Research Committee of the J.F. Kennedy Institute

June 1985 - Jan. 1987
Chairman of the J.F. Kennedy Institute

1990
Offer of the chair for economic and social history at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. After negotiations with the Free University of Berlin the offer was declined

1994
Speaker of the Graduate School “Democracy in the United States” at the J.F. Kennedy Institute of the Free University of Berlin

1995 - 2000
Chairman of the Research Committee of the J.F. Kennedy Institute

1995 - 2000
Chairman of the research group on banking history of the “Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte” (Association for Business History), Frankfurt am Main, Germany

1999 - 2005
Chairman of the Budget Committee of the J. F. Kennedy Institute

2000 - 2002
Chairman of the J.F. Kennedy Institute

1 Oct. 2007
Retirement from duties at the Free University of Berlin

Dec. 2007
Elected as an Ordinary Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg (formerly: Prussian) Academy of Science, Class of Social Sciences

Dec. 2015
Helmut Schmidt Prize for German-American Economic History awarded by the German Historical Institute, Washington D.C., and the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius.

Prof. Dr. Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich (emeritus) in an interview with the "Institute for New Economic Thinking" (INET)

 

Prof. Holtfrerich addressed the topic of the current euro crisis and in how far the European state debt crises endanger the euro as common currency.

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Memberships in academic advisory councils:

1976 - 1997
German Academic Exchange Program, Committee for the selection of scholarship holders, Bonn

1986 - 1993
Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, Berlin

1988 - 2003
„Institut für Zeitgeschichte“ (Institute for Contemporary History), Munich

1988 - 1997
German Marshall Fund of the U.S., Berlin

1990 - 2003
German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C., USA

1991 - 1999
European Association for Banking History, Frankfurt am Main

1997 - 2005
„Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte“ (Association for Business History), Frankfurt am Main

1997 - 2000
„Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg“ (Research Center for Contemporary History in Hamburg), Hamburg

2007 - current

FU Berlin International Summer and Winter University (FUBiS) and FU Berlin European Studies Program (FU-BEST)

2012 - current

Board of Trustees, Stiftung Deutsch-Amerikanische Wissenschaftsbeziehungen im Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Essen

Memberships in academic associations:

1978 - 1995
„Institut für bankhistorische Forschung“ (Institute for research on banking history), Frankfurt am Main

1986 - 2008
„Verband der Historiker Deutschlands“ (Association of German Historians), member of the managing board 1990 - 1996

1989 - 1990
„Studienkreis Internationale Beziehungen“ (Study Group on International Relations), Berlin, member of the Managing Council

1977 - 2002

„List Gesellschaft“ (List Association)

1977 - 2007

„Gesellschaft fuer westfaelische Wirtschaftsgeschichte“ (Association for Westphalian Economic History), Dortmund

1977 - 2007

„Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte“ (Association for Social and Economic Research)

1976 - current

Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften/Verein für Socialpolitik (=German Economic Association)

1984 - current

„Berliner Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft“ (Berlin Association of Science)

 

Publication of the report Wirtschaftspolitik in Deutschland 1917–1990, December 2016

You can access the German report here.

Publication of the report Government debt: causes, effects and limits, May 2015

You can access the report here

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Prof. Dr. Holtfrerich has published a discussion paper entitled "Government Debt in Economic Thought of the Long 19th Century." The paper can be accessed here.

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Prof. Dr. Holtfrerich has edited a Special Issue on "Government Debt in Democracies: Causes, Effects, and Limits" of the German Economic Review (Vol. 15, Issue 1). All papers including Prof. Holtfrerich's contribution "Public Debt in Post-1850 German Economic Thought vis-à-vis the Pre-1850 British Classical School" can be accessed here.

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Selected Publications

Quantitative Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Ruhrkohlenbergbaus im 19. Jahrhun­dert. Eine Fuehrungssektoranalyse. (Untersuchungen zur Wirtschafts-, Sozial- und Technikgeschichte, Bd. 1) (Dortmund: Ardey, 1973).

Die deutsche Inflation 1914-1923. Ursachen und Folgen in internationaler Perspektive (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1980). Revised version in English translation: The German Inflation 1914-1923. Causes and Effects in International Perspective (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1986). In Italian translation: L'inflazione tedesca 1914-1923 (Rom: Laterza, 1989). In French translation: L'inflation en Allemagne 1914-1923. Causes et conséquences au regard du contexte international (Paris: Comité pour l'histoire économique et financière de la France [of the French Ministère de l’Économie, des Finances et de l’Emploi], 2008).

Vom Weltglaeubiger zum Weltschuldner: Erklaerungsansaetze zur historischen Entwicklung und Struktur der internationalen Vermoegensposition der USA (Bankhistorisches Archiv, Beiheft 13) (Frankfurt/M.: Knapp, 1988) (Co-author: H.O. Schoetz).

Economic and Strategic Issues in U.S. Foreign Policy (de Gruyter Studies on North America, Bd. 3) (Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 1989) (Ed.).

Interactions in the World Economy: Perspectives from International Economic History, (Hemel Hempstead, U.K.: Harvester-Wheatsheaf/New York University Press, 1989) (Ed.).

Wirtschaft USA. Strukturen, Institutionen und Prozesse (Munich/Vienna: Oldenbourg, 1991) (Ed.) 2. Aufl. 2000.

Die Deutsche Bank 1870-1995 (Munich: Beck, 1995) (Co-authors: L. Gall, G.D. Feldman, H. James and H.E. Bueschgen). In English translation: The Deutsche Bank 1870-1995 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1995).

Fuenfzig Jahre Deutsche Mark. Notenbank und Waehrung in Deutschland seit 1948 (Munich: Beck, 1998) (Co-authors: E. Baltensperger et al., ed. by the Deutsche Bundesbank). In English translation: Fifty Years of the Deutsche Mark. Central Bank and the Currency in Germany since 1948 (Oxford University Press, 1999). In Russian translation (Moscow University Press, 2003).

Finanzplatz Frankfurt. Von der mittelalterlichen Messestadt zum europaeischen Bankenzentrum (Munich: Beck, 1999). In English translation: Frankfurt as a Financial Centre. From medieval trade fair to European banking centre (Munich: Beck, 1999).

The Emergence of Modern Central Banking from 1918 to the Present (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1999) (Co-editors: J. Reis and G. Toniolo).

Requiem auf eine Waehrung. Die Mark 1873-2001 (Stuttgart/Munich: DVA, 2001) (Co-authors: Harold James and Manfred Pohl).

International Financial History in the Twentieth Century: System and Anarchy (Publications of the German Historical Institute at Washington, D.C.) (Cambridge University Press, 2003) (Co-editors: Marc Flandreau and Harold James).

Wo sind die Jobs? Eine Streitschrift für mehr Arbeit (Munich: DVA, 2007).

Stellungnahmen und Empfehlungen zur MINT-Bildung in Deutschland auf der Basis einer europäischen Vergleichsstudie (Berlin: Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2012) (Co-authors: Ortwin Renn i.a.).

Special Issue on Government Debt in Democracies: Causes, Effects, and Limits (= German Economic Review, Bd. 15 (2014), S. 1-224. Available online.

Staatsschulden: Ursachen, Wirkungen und Grenzen (Berlin: Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften, 2015) (Co-authors: Lars P. Feld, Werner Heun, et al.). In English translation: Government debt: causes, effects and limits (Berlin: Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften, 2016).

Das Reichswirtschaftsministerium der Weimarer Republik und seine Vorläufer. Strukturen, Akteure, Handlungsfelder (Ed.) (= Bd. 1 von Wirtschaftspolitik in Deutschland 1917-1990, Editors: W. Abelshauser/S. Fisch/D. Hoffmann/C.-L. Holtfrerich/A. Ritschl) (Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2016).

Wirtschaftspolitik in Deutschland 1917-1990, Bde. 1-4. (Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2016) (Co-editors: Werner Abelshauser, Stefan Fisch, Dierk Hoffmann, and Albrecht Ritschl). 

Aus dem Alltag des Reichswirtschaftsministeriums während der Großen Inflation 1919-1923/24, in Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich (Hrsg.), Das Reichswirtschaftsministerium und seine Vorläufer. Strukturen, Akteure, Handlungsfelder, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter: 2016, S. 224-360.

 Konjunkturpolitik: Vom Beginn der Austerität 1929 bis zur sekundären Deflation 1931/32, in Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich (Hrsg.), Das Reichswirtschaftsministerium und seine Vorläufer. Strukturen, Akteure, Handlungsfelder, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter: 2016, S. 637-676.

 Views about public debt: German versus British classical economists, in Alain Alcouffe/Monika Poettinger/Bertram Schefold (Hrsg.), Business Cycles in 19^th and 20^th Century Economic Thought: Analysis, Policy and General Perception, London: Routledge, 2017, S. 115-128.

“Wie ein amerikanischer Leutnant Ludwig Erhard half. Edward A. Tenenbaum und die Währungsreform von 1948“, in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 28. Mai 2018, S. 16.

„Power or Economic Law? Fresh Reflections on ECB Policy“, in Intereconomics. Review of European Economic Policy 53 (2018), S. 164-169.

“The American Behind the Deutsche Mark”. Blog of Institute for New Economic Thinking, 20 Juni 2018. Online:https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/the-american-behind-the-deutsche-mark (Accessed 20 June 2018).

You can access a list of all publications here.