Franz Blucher

Nationality

Germany

Date of Birth

1896

Date of Death

1959

Political
Preference

Free Democratic Party/German Party (Liberal?)

Franz Blücher, born in Essen, was a German politician and member of the German Parliament. He served as chairman for the Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP) in the British occupation zone (1946-1949). From 1949 to 1957, he was a member of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s cabinet, in which he occupied the position of Vice-Chancellor of Germany, and held the Ministry for Matters of the Marshall Plan, which was renamed the Ministry for Economic Cooperation in 1953.

In 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany was officially admitted to represent itself within the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC). In a meeting were Paul Hoffman called on the Europeans to move on with the liberalization of trade and multilateralization of payments, Blücher was present. He argued about the need for currency convertibility, internal financial stability and balance of payments equalisation. In this regard, he was a European proponent of American policy towards European economic cooperation.

Blücher regarded it as an important task of the OEEC to coordinate Member States monetary and financial policies, to avoid individual, unilateral measures that could hamper economic stabilization. Furthermore, Blucher was in favour of intergovernmental integration, under the auspices of the OEEC, to establish currency reserves, with strong cooperation among central banks.