A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

242 ■ A CLASS WITH DRUCKER
the views of Friedrich Julius Stahl, an early-19th century political conservative,
who was a college-age Jewish convert to Christianity. Unlike others,
Peter did not fool himself into thinking that the Nazis would leave
him alone, or that they would soon be ousted from the government. He
did not waste time wishing that Hitler had not come to power, or hoping
that his dominance wouldn’t last. When Hitler was elected chancellor in
Germany in 1933, <strong>Drucker</strong> immediately emigrated to England.
It is noteworthy that <strong>Drucker</strong> foresaw the likely course of events at a
time when popular wisdom was that Hitler and the Nazis were a temporary
aberration that would soon be reversed. Most likely, the two habits he
had acquired, of extensive reading and engaging in an interchange of ideas
<strong>with</strong> others, assisted him in coming to the conclusion that he should get
out of Germany as soon as possible.
Every month that someone of Jewish ancestry remained in Germany
made it more difficult to leave. Those who waited to see what was going to
happen eventually lost all rights of citizenship, were not allowed to work in
their professions, and were prohibited from taking any money out of the
country if they emigrated. Soon after this period, Jews had their assets confiscated
by the German government and were not allowed to leave the
country at all. Eventually, most of them perished in the Holocaust.
However, <strong>Drucker</strong>’s leaving Germany this early was again a risk. To give
up what he had worked for—possibly even a full-time teaching position at
a major university—must have been a difficult decision. It is sheer speculation
on my part, but I am sure that many advised him against this move
and to wait at least a little longer to see what was going to happen.
Be Flexible
When Peter arrived in England, he did not pick up his planned work as
either a journalist or a professor of political economics. Perhaps a lack of
fluency in spoken English or his heavy Viennese accent limited his ability
to immediately continue in the career and the work he had previously
planned to take up in Cologne. In any case, Peter remained in England for
four years, working first as a security analyst <strong>with</strong> an insurance company,
and then as an economist <strong>with</strong> a bank.
He did not teach at a university as he had planned. However, he continued
to write, and not only articles. Most notably, he wrote a book, his first
best seller, The End of Economic Man: A Study of the New Totalitarianism. An