title: The birth of neoliberal hegemony in Europe
Creators: name: Kögler, Thomas
Publisher: name: :none
Year: 2019

description: Diese Masterarbeit analysiert die Rolle Deutschlands in der Entstehung der europäischen Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion zwischen 1988 und 1992. Der Fokus liegt darauf, zu zeigen, wie es die ordo- und neoliberalen Kräfte Deutschlands schafften, ihre Positionen in den Verhandlungen zum Maastrichter Vertrag durchzusetzen und so eine neoliberale Hegemonie in Europa zu kreieren. Entscheidend dafür waren zwei Faktoren: einerseits verschob sich das Gleichgewicht der Kräfte zwischen Frankreich und Deutschland durch die deutsche Wiedervereinigung ganz klar in Richtung Deutschland und schwächte somit die französische Verhandlungsposition. Andererseits hatten die Neoliberalen deshalb eine so starke Position innerhalb des deutschen Verhandlungsteams, weil sie innerhalb Deutschlands eine hegemoniale Stellung im Sinne Gramscis innehatten und Kanzler Kohl, der in der Tradition Adenauers außen- und sicherheitspolitische Aspekte über wirtschaftliche Überlegungen stellte, sich primär mit der Politischen Union beschäftigte.
description: This thesis analyzes the role of Germany in the creation of the European Economic and Monetary Union between 1988 and 1992 and how the country’s powerful ordo- and neoliberal establishment managed to create a hegemony of neoliberal economic thought in the European Union. The EMU was originally a French idea that was intended to weaken the strength of the deutschmark, thereby countering Germany’s economic supremacy. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reunification of Germany, the overall balance of power in continental Europe shifted significantly toward Germany and undermined France’s bargaining power at the Maastricht negotiations. Consequently, at Maastricht, France was ready to accept almost every German demand in exchange for binding reunified Germany irreversibly into the European framework. Germany was mainly represented at these negotiations by members of its strong and powerful ordoliberal establishment, which revolved around the Bundesbank and the Ministries of Finance and Economics. Having been followed and practiced ever since Ludwig Erhard had become Minister of Economics, ordo- and neoliberalism became hegemonic within the Federal Republic by not only having the support of government institutions and employer and banking federations, but also by top-tier media outlets. In addition, neoliberal ideology appealed to the German public and, thus, also won out in the marketplace of ideas, thereby creating hegemony in the Gramscian sense. This enabled the ordoliberal establishment to punch well above its weight within Germany and, consequently, at the Maastricht negotiations. As Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who, in the tradition of Konrad Adenauer, saw foreign and security policy as much more important than economic and monetary policy, was preoccupied with his eventually futile attempts to create a political union, the ordoliberals essentially had a free hand in designing the Maastricht Treaty. As a result, they succeeded in creating a hegemony of neoliberal economic thought in the European Union.