The Institute for Austrian Asset Management (IfAAM) in Hamburg, Germany, has announced that economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe has won the Roland Baader Award 2019. The award ceremony will take place on November 23rd, 2019 during a ceremonial conference in Vienna, organised by the Scholarium, an independent research institution, in cooperation with the IfAAM Institute – to celebrate Hoppe's 70th birthday and the 70th anniversary of the publication of ‘Human Action,’ Ludwig von Mises' main work, which for the first time will be presented in German.

In their press release, the Steffen Krug, founder of the IfAAM, states:

“Prof. Hans-Hermann Hoppe is one of the most important current representatives of the Austrian School of Economics. Like Roland Baader, with whom he was befriended, Hoppe is of German origin and thus also stands for the fact that the Austrian School of Economics is no longer just a US-American phenomenon, but is regaining international importance and taking root in Europe. Like Roland Baader, Hoppe also stands for the unbroken continuity of teacher-student relationships, which has enabled the survival of this tradition as a school, in the best sense of the word, against all resistance and adversity.

“Roland Baader was the most important student of Friedrich August von Hayek, who in turn was the most important European student of Ludwig von Mises – probably the most important representative of the Austrian School after its founder Carl Menger. Hans-Hermann Hoppe was the most important student of Murray N. Rothbard, who was the most important American student of Ludwig von Mises. Hoppe became Rothbard’s successor in the chair at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, where he was one of the few full professors of the Austrian School for a long time.”

Just like Roland Baader in his lifetime, Hans-Hermann Hoppe never minces his words and resists all thought prohibitions, the IfAAM press release continues. They remind us that he was one of the first and most prominent victims of the growing political correctness at US universities. Krug: “He was put under massive pressure, but remained steadfast and, with the ACLU (most important civil rights group of the USA), achieved a significant victory for the freedom of teaching.”

Like Baader and Rothbard, “Hoppe is an interdisciplinary academic and made important contributions to political theory and epistemology. He continued the tradition of natural law, which his teacher Rothbard had rediscovered for economics, and combined it with argumentation theory.” Hoppe liberated the approaches of Jürgen Habermas, whose student he used to be, “from collectivist ideology and put them on an analytical-deductive basis. Hoppe's critical analysis of democracy tied in with Western philosophical tradition, but proved to be a taboo break.”

Hoppe created the Property and Freedom Society, which has met annually since 2006 in Bodrum, Turkey. Its motto is ‘uncompromising intellectual radicalism.’ It is, says Krug, “the first international salon for taboo-free interdisciplinary thinking and an important annual refuge for the remaining free spirits across the world.”

The press release concludes: “Like Roland Baader, Hans-Hermann Hoppe always addresses a broad audience, doesn’t shy away from either clear words or political questions of the time, reaches a large audience outside the academic field and is for many an introduction to the rich tradition of the Austrian School of Economics. “The laudation will be given by the winner of the Roland Baader Award 2017, the Austrian economist and philosopher Rahim Taghizadegan.”

‘equity & freedom’ congratulate Hans-Hermann Hoppe on the award named after his friend and fellow traveler Roland Baader. It is well deserved. May his work continue to inspire people in Germany, Europe and around the world to stand for individual freedom and uncompromising intellectual radicalism.