A lawyer as intermediary between state and market

Otto Ender, a case for economic history?

Abstract

As provincial governor of Vorarlberg and federal chancellor in 1930–31, Otto Ender had to tackle a number of tricky economic issues. They ranged from building up his province’s electricity supply to the near collapse of the Creditanstalt (CA), with its potentially disastrous ramifications for international finance. In principle, Ender preferred the state not to meddle with the economy, but in practice he often intervened in business affairs. The article shows that he justified such interventions as essentially defensive actions: the ‚good Christian people‘ had to be ‚protected‘ against the negative consequences of modernization.