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

One day Lu told me he had been offered a high position at the
Credit Anstalt, the foremost banking institution in Vienna, but that
he had decided not to accept it. When I asked him the reason for
his refusal, he told me that a great "crash" would be coming and
that he did not want his name in any· way connected with it. He
preferred to write and teach. "If you want a rich man,~~ he told me,
"don~t marry me. I am not interested in earning money. I am writingabout
money, but will never have much of my own."
I did not need to assure him how I felt. When the stock market
crashed in New York in October, 1929, the effect was worldwide.
An international depression followed, world trade was seriously
affected, and jn 1931, on May 11, the Austrian Credit Anstalt went
into bankruptcy, exactly as Lu had told me beforehand. The Austrian
government tried to save the bank and appealed for help
abroad. France promised support, but under impossible conditions.
At the last moment England helped Austria with a loan of
150 million Austrian schillinge to the Austrian National Bank. But
the Credit Anstalt could not be saved. This newest crash led to a
financial crisis a~d a panic in all Central Europe.
From then on, there was hardly a quiet day in Vienna. Hitler had
used the fear, th~ despair, and the insecurity in Germany to follow
his own devilish purposes, and he succeeded so well in his evil
designs, that, in January, 1933, he became chancellor of Germany.
The consequence was a growing antigovernment movement in
Austria. In March, 1933, Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austrian chancellor,
whose government consisted of a coalition of Christian Socialists
and Agrarians, prohibited parades and assemblies and restricted
the freedom of the press. In spite of this, the Austrian
Nazis, who now, unsuppressed, dared to come out into the open,
staged a great riot in Vienna. The city looked like a fortress; the
streets were full of soldiers; shops and schools were closed; no one
dared to go out. The entrance doors of all buildings had to be
closed at 8 P.M. After that hour no citizen was allowed in the
streets. There was Standrecht in Vienna, which meant that the
police had the power to shoot anyone who 'did not obey orders.
Lu was very concerned about us. He called three and four times
daily and asked me not to go out. But he himself went out, in spite
of everything, and came to see us. I never knew how he found the
time for all the work he was doing. He was by then the full-time
legal adviser and financial expert of the Chamber of Commerce; he
had his lectures at the University of Vienna; he had his seminar; he
had conferences and luncheons with visiting authorities; he had to
travel; he did a tremendous amount of reading and writing; and he
always had time for me. He was so interested in my work he read
every play I was doing, constantly urging me to do some writing of
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