No Mises Bust at the University of Vienna

This previous summer season I joined my son in Vienna. He was there on a fellowship from his senior 12 months at Carleton School to review structure, particularly the work of Otto Wagner, the Secession motion, and so forth. I had solely been there as soon as earlier than, when backpacking throughout legislation faculty. I accompanied him on his explorations and we feasted on Viennese delicacies at locations advisable by native pals. 

I steered that we take time to go to the College of Vienna, in order that I may see the monuments to well-known Austrian economists who had taught there. The foyer highlights Nobel prize winners, together with Friedrich von Hayek; and within the “Colonnade,” or “arcade courtyard” (Arkadenhof, additionally regionally known as the aula), there are dozens of monuments—busts, bas-relief plaques—devoted to famous intellectuals, alumni, and professors from the College. Of specific curiosity to devotees of Austrian economics, there are monuments to Carl Menger and his two college students Friedrich von Wieser and Eugen von Böhm-Bahwerk, all positioned close to one another within the Arcade Courtyard. 

The method to have a monument accredited and funded may be very bureaucratic and may take years. It originates from a request from the faculty the place the professor taught (such because the College of Regulation and Political Science) and is then accredited by the Tutorial Senate, and apparently is often privately funded. Wieser’s monument took 21 years, for instance, from approval to completion. Menger’s was accredited in 1927 and accomplished and unveiled simply two years later. It seems to have been fast-tracked and a few guidelines waived because of Menger’s standing:

In 1927, the Tutorial Senate, following a request from the College of Regulation and Political Science, determined to erect a monument to Carl Menger within the arcades. This resolution was made simply six years after the loss of life of the person to be honored. The ready interval, which had solely lately been elevated from 5 to 10 years, was exceptionally not noticed in view of Menger’s extraordinary achievements.

The method culminates in a proper unveiling ceremony, which entails

a speech concerning the particular person being honored and their companies to science in one of many ceremonial halls, musical accompaniment by the educational choir and the next unveiling of the monument within the arcade courtyard. The monument was usually embellished with flowers.

Hayek has no monument within the Arcade however does have one within the foyer, subsequent to different Nobel Prize profitable alumni and professors of the College:

(The creator with the Hayek Nobel Prize monument.)

So the College of Vienna (UV) prominently and proudly options 4 of the nice early Austrian economists. Conspicuously absent, after all, is Ludwig von Mises, arguably the best Austrian economist of all time, who was additionally a professor at UV. His absence is conspicuous, provided that the College boasts about Mises on its web site, together with the opposite 4: Menger, Wieser, Böhm-Bawerk, and Hayek. 

I requested my pal Guido Hülsmann, Mises’s biographer, why Mises could be omitted. He surmised that Mises was too intransigent and never socialist sufficient. That is much like the explanation given by some Misesians as to why the Nobel Prize committee waited till Mises had died, in 1973, earlier than awarding the Nobel Prize in Economics for Mises’s work on enterprise cycle concept to his extra politically acceptable scholar, Hayek. 

Nonetheless, I puzzled, perhaps sufficient time has handed that the hostility to Mises has waned; in spite of everything UV promotes him on its web site and acknowledges he was discriminated towards for being Jewish—for “racist causes.” I used to be conscious of the Mises bust that had been commissioned by Doug French and Jeff Tucker when Doug was President of the Mises Institute:

I’ve one on my bookshelf. (My new personalized Texas license plate reads: MISES.) However I puzzled what it will take to have a flatter, “bas-relief“ model created, much like these of Menger, Wieser, and Böhm-Bawerk. One which be mounted on a wall as an alternative requiring a pedestal and more room. 

After some looking out I occurred throughout the work of sculptor Zenos Frudakis, well-known for his “Freedom Sculpture“ in Philadelphia:

He additionally featured a bust of Mises that I had by no means heard of earlier than, commissioned in 2023 for a personal collector:

Intrigued, I despatched a message inquiring into the price and feasibility of getting Frudakis put together a bas-relief bust of Mises for final presentation to the College of Vienna. To my shock, his spouse wrote me again expressing his curiosity on this mission. As Frudakis is a world-famous sculptor, it will not be low cost, after all. 

I introduced this concept to the eye of Guido Hülsmann and Hans Hoppe and some different trusted colleagues, who had been intrigued about the opportunity of having a Mises bust ready and introduced to UV. Even when the mission would take some years, we envisioned a ceremony on the college, attended by lots of of Mises followers and students from everywhere in the world, seeing Mises lastly get his rightful due and recognition at his alma mater. 

As well as, it appeared that there was a robust risk of some donors keen to fund the mission, and Frudakis was additionally on board. We had two of the world’s main Mises students on board, together with his biographer. The one factor standing in the way in which gave the impression to be the paperwork on the college. We requested our colleague, the famous scholar Rahim Taghizadegan, from Vienna, to inquire into the feasibility of this mission. 

Sadly, it seems that the college won’t settle for a Mises bust. Apparently there was an effort final 12 months by a famous Gödel scholar to have a monument devoted to the well-known mathematician Kurt Gödel positioned within the Arcade, as UV was his alma mater; he printed his well-known “Incompleteness Theorem” as a part of his doctoral research there, which he printed in 1931, shortly after his disseration in 1929. Nonetheless, over a 12 months of conferences amongst vice-rectors, the college senate, after which the formation of a “joint working group,” UV lastly determined to reject the Gödel monument—or every other new monuments, ever. The Arcade has apparently now turn out to be an ossified museum. 

The article doesn’t specify the explanations for this resolution—for rejecting a monument for one essentially the most well-known thinkers of the 20 th century and certainly probably the most notable of all of UV’s college students and professors. Our inquiries led us to conclude that the explanation for UV’s rejection of the Gödel monument, and for closing the Arcade to future monuments, akin to one for Mises, is that UV is now too “woke” to allow extra monuments to useless, white males. Though Mises was Jewish and, as UV acknowledges, was discriminated towards in his profession for for “racist causes,” and he’s the one one in every of their 5 main UV Austrian economics professors/alumni to not have a monument (and the one Jew), that is nonetheless not sufficient. He’s a white male. So, like Gödel: no monument for Mises. 

We will in all probability anticipate the brand new Arcade “museum” to begin that includes warnings and indicators condemning previous sexism and racism. Possibly some monuments might be eliminated, because the Nazis eliminated Menger’s since he was “labeled as ‘Jewish’ in response to Nazi standards.” Who is aware of. Or perhaps they are going to begin to enable monuments ultimately, however solely to ladies and minorities. As Hans Hoppe identified to me, it’s notable that “the slightly insignificant hard-core socialist lady Marie Jahoda acquired each conceivable honor from the college and the town of Vienna” in addition to a monument from UV in 2016. She, together with another ladies, acquired monuments, earlier than UV closed the Arcade Courtyard to additional monuments after the Gödel controversy final 12 months. 

Oh effectively. It was price a shot. Mises must be within the UV Arcade, subsequent to Menger and the others. Or perhaps the College of Vienna doesn’t deserve him. Luckily, nobody wants the permission of the College of Vienna to be taught and revenue from one in every of its brightest stars. It’s their loss.