Joseph Alois Schumpeter · 1919
This file is a single parliamentary speech, delivered in the Constituent National Assembly for German-Austria on 25 April 1919. Its immediate scope is administrative: Schumpeter answers an interpellation about blocked accounts under measures securing the Vermögensabgabe. Its broader thesis is that emergency fiscal control must stop exactly where it begins to obstruct economic recovery. The state may need registration to prevent tax flight, but it must not immobilize working capital or suffocate the revival of production.
Ich weiß vollkommen, daß man es dem Wirtschaftsleben erleichtern muß, sich wieder zu erholen, daß wir der Industrie helfen müssen, daß wir nichts tun dürfen, was möglicherweise die Erholung hindern kann.
English translation: I fully know that economic life must be made easier so that it may recover, that we must help industry, that we must do nothing which could possibly hinder recovery.
This sentence gives the speech its governing criterion. Schumpeter does not reject the wealth levy; he insists that its instruments be judged by their effect on recovery. The Sperrverordnung is defended only by being narrowed: account blocking is to secure declaration, not to deprive businesses of usable funds.
Vielleicht ist das nicht sehr glücklich ausgedrückt, aber gemeint ist, daß jeder sein Konto sofort anmelden kann – das ist notwendig, um die Steuerflucht zu vermeiden – und, sowie er es angemeldet hat, es freibekommt.
English translation: Perhaps that is not very felicitously expressed, but what is meant is that anyone may register his account at once—which is necessary in order to prevent tax evasion—and, as soon as he has registered it, obtain its release.
The key conceptual move is to separate fiscal visibility from economic paralysis. Once an account is registered, the purpose of the measure has been met. Schumpeter emphasizes flexibility in administration, especially where seasonal or commercial needs require rapid access to funds. His defense of state action is therefore also a warning against bureaucratic excess.
Ich sehe vollkommen ein, daß diese Festlegung von Betriebsmitteln natürlich in einzelnen Fällen zu einer Katastrophe führen könnte, daß daher jede bureaukratische Engherzigkeit in der Handhabung dieser Vorschriften ein Malheur wäre.
English translation: I fully recognize that this tying-up of working capital could of course in individual cases lead to catastrophe, and that any bureaucratic narrow-mindedness in the handling of these regulations would be a misfortune.
The speech then broadens from accounts to liquidity as a general condition of national recovery. Schumpeter presents the release provision as his own insertion into the ordinance, despite anticipated political attacks on the finance administration. His reasoning is pragmatic: once the tax authority has the declaration it needs, continued blocking becomes economically indefensible.
Gestatte die hohe Nationalversammlung, daß ich noch hinzufüge, daß es sich nicht nur um die Freigabe dieser Betriebsmittel handelt, sondern daß es vielmehr auch in vielen anderen Beziehungen notwendig sein wird, die Volkswirtschaft flüssig zu machen und ihr den Wiederbeginn der Arbeit zu erleichtern.
English translation: May the high National Assembly permit me to add that this concerns not only the release of these working funds, but that it will also be necessary in many other respects to make the national economy liquid and to facilitate its resumption of work.
The phrase Volkswirtschaft flüssig zu machen condenses the argument. Postwar disorder appears here as a problem of blocked flows: accounts, claims, business funds, and communications. This explains Schumpeter’s support for advancing money on unpaid army claims, even while saying they cannot simply be recognized. Legally uncertain claims can still be mobilized to keep firms working.
Denn in der Tat – und da hat die Interpellation recht und das ist das erfreulichste Anzeichen der Zeit – zeigen sich bereits Ansätze der Wiederbelebung unseres Wirtschaftslebens.
English translation: For indeed—and here the interpellation is right, and this is the most gratifying sign of the times—the first signs of a revival of our economic life are already appearing.
The closing extension to censorship follows the same logic. Restrictions on private and commercial life are treated as economic burdens to be eased wherever possible. The relevance of the speech lies in its compact vision of emergency economic governance: the state must tax, prevent evasion, and act quickly, but its higher administrative duty is to restore circulation, enterprise, and work.
Ich möchte noch hinzufügen, daß wir dabei sind, alle Zensurschikanen, die auf dem Privat- und Geschäftsleben schwer lasten, zu mildern, soweit es irgendwie geht, um auch in dieser Beziehung den berechtigten Gravamen der Bevölkerung entgegenzukommen.
English translation: I should like to add that we are engaged in mitigating, so far as is at all possible, all the censorship harassments that weigh heavily upon private and commercial life, in order in this respect too to meet the justified grievances of the population.
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