Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) - Find a... (2024)

Nobel Prize Recipient. Friedrick Hayek, Austrian-born British economist, received notoriety after he was awarded the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish economist. The two economists received the coveted award, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." Myrdal was a Keynesian economist, a champion of social democracy and the welfare state, whereas F. A. Hayek, as he was called, was the first non-Keynesian economist to receive the Nobel Prize, supporting classical liberalism and free-market capitalism. Born the oldest of three sons of August von Hayek, a Prussian physician in the municipal health service and professor at the University of Vienna, he read the genetic and evolutionary works of Hugo de Vries and the philosophical works of Ludwig Feuerbach. In school he was much taken by one instructor's lectures on Aristotle's ethics. During World War I, he joined in 1917 an artillery regiment in the Austro-Hungarian Army and fought on the Italian front. Much of his combat experience was spent as a spotter in an airplane. He suffered damage to his hearing in his left ear during the war and was decorated for bravery. After the war, he decided to pursue an academic career, determined to help avoid the mistakes that had led to the war. In 1921 he earned doctorate degrees in law and political science at the University of Vienna. Afterward he, together with other young economists joined a private seminar known as the Austrian equivalent of John Maynard Keynes's "Cambridge Circus." In 1927 he became the director of the newly formed Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research. In the early 1930s, at the invitation of Barron Lionel Robbins, he moved to the faculty of the London School of Economics, where he stayed for eighteen years, becoming a British citizen in 1938. In 1944 he became a Fellow in the British Academy. He spent most of his academic career at the London School of Economics (LSE), the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg. In 1984, he was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for his "services to the study of economics." Besides the Nobel Prize, he was the first recipient of the Hanns Martin Schleyer Prize in 1984. In 1991, United States President George H. W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States, for a "lifetime of looking beyond the horizon". In 2011, his article "The Use of Knowledge in Society" was selected as one of the top 20 articles published in "The American Economic Review" during its first 100 years. A prolific author for seventy decades, he was still publishing at the age of eighty-nine. His first book, "Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle" was in 1929. His 1944 text, "The Road to Serfdom," has been translated in over 20 languages and sold over 2 million copies. In his 1988 text, "The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism," he outlined profound insights to explain the intellectuals' attraction to socialism and then refuted the basis for their beliefs. A Roman Catholic, he met with Pope John Paul II in 1980, and is one of two Nobel Prize recipient to have done this. In 1926, he married Berta Maria von Fritsch, and the couple had a son and a daughter. After a divorce in 1950, he married a beautiful, widowed cousin, Helene Bitterlich; as a couple, they had a serious relationship when they were very young but did not marry each other. He lived long enough to see the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics devolved, vindicating that socialism brings poverty to the mass population. Although lucid until almost the end of his life, he stopped writing in 1985. Dying a home at the age of 92, he had Catholic rites with hundreds of people attending.

Nobel Prize Recipient. Friedrick Hayek, Austrian-born British economist, received notoriety after he was awarded the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish economist. The two economists received the coveted award, according to the Nobel Prize committee, "for their pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and for their penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena." Myrdal was a Keynesian economist, a champion of social democracy and the welfare state, whereas F. A. Hayek, as he was called, was the first non-Keynesian economist to receive the Nobel Prize, supporting classical liberalism and free-market capitalism. Born the oldest of three sons of August von Hayek, a Prussian physician in the municipal health service and professor at the University of Vienna, he read the genetic and evolutionary works of Hugo de Vries and the philosophical works of Ludwig Feuerbach. In school he was much taken by one instructor's lectures on Aristotle's ethics. During World War I, he joined in 1917 an artillery regiment in the Austro-Hungarian Army and fought on the Italian front. Much of his combat experience was spent as a spotter in an airplane. He suffered damage to his hearing in his left ear during the war and was decorated for bravery. After the war, he decided to pursue an academic career, determined to help avoid the mistakes that had led to the war. In 1921 he earned doctorate degrees in law and political science at the University of Vienna. Afterward he, together with other young economists joined a private seminar known as the Austrian equivalent of John Maynard Keynes's "Cambridge Circus." In 1927 he became the director of the newly formed Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research. In the early 1930s, at the invitation of Barron Lionel Robbins, he moved to the faculty of the London School of Economics, where he stayed for eighteen years, becoming a British citizen in 1938. In 1944 he became a Fellow in the British Academy. He spent most of his academic career at the London School of Economics (LSE), the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg. In 1984, he was appointed a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for his "services to the study of economics." Besides the Nobel Prize, he was the first recipient of the Hanns Martin Schleyer Prize in 1984. In 1991, United States President George H. W. Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the two highest civilian awards in the United States, for a "lifetime of looking beyond the horizon". In 2011, his article "The Use of Knowledge in Society" was selected as one of the top 20 articles published in "The American Economic Review" during its first 100 years. A prolific author for seventy decades, he was still publishing at the age of eighty-nine. His first book, "Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle" was in 1929. His 1944 text, "The Road to Serfdom," has been translated in over 20 languages and sold over 2 million copies. In his 1988 text, "The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism," he outlined profound insights to explain the intellectuals' attraction to socialism and then refuted the basis for their beliefs. A Roman Catholic, he met with Pope John Paul II in 1980, and is one of two Nobel Prize recipient to have done this. In 1926, he married Berta Maria von Fritsch, and the couple had a son and a daughter. After a divorce in 1950, he married a beautiful, widowed cousin, Helene Bitterlich; as a couple, they had a serious relationship when they were very young but did not marry each other. He lived long enough to see the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics devolved, vindicating that socialism brings poverty to the mass population. Although lucid until almost the end of his life, he stopped writing in 1985. Dying a home at the age of 92, he had Catholic rites with hundreds of people attending.

Bio by: Linda Davis

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