My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

CHAPTER II
IT WAS in autumn 1925, when I went to a dinner party at the home
of a journalist, Dr. Fritz Kaufmann, that I first met Ludwig von
Mises. Kaufmann's wife was the daughter of our beloved pediatrician,
who-as long as Feri was alive-used to come to the apartment
every Saturday morning to have a look at the children. (This
was done for an annual fee. One can .hardly imagine today that
there ever existed arrangements like this with a private physician.)
Only recently I found a handwritten letter of recommendation
from Ludwig for Fritz Kaufmann, written in 1943: HDr. Fritz
Kaufmann was about twenty years ago a student of mine at the
University of Vienna, Austria. He has well succeeded in acquiring
a broad knowledge of economics and especially of the problems of
currency, banking and finance. After his graduation he worked as a
journalist with various newspapers and periodicals in Vienna and
in Berlin. His editorials and articles were highly appreciated by
the most competent experts."
There were six guests that evening, one of them was Ludwig von
Mises, a forty-four-year-old professor of economics, who also had
a law degree from the University of Vienna. But that evening I had
no idea who he was. What impressed me about him were his beautiful,
clear blue eyes, always concentrated on the person to whom
he talked, never shifting away. His dark hair, already a little grayish
at the sides, was parted, not one hair out of place. I liked his
hands, his long slim fingers, which clearly showed that he did not
use them for manual work. He was dressed with quiet elegance. A
dark custom-made suit, a fitting silk necktie. 'His posture indicated
the former army officer.
He sat next to me, and the conversation was mostly about eco-
21