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EnglishWhat Is the "Swiss, German, Jewish School of Monetary Freedom" on ReinventingMoney.com?
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The "Swiss, German, Jewish school of monetary freedom" is the label John Zube used to describe a cluster of early-20th-century monetary thinkers whose works ReinventingMoney.com has archived. According to the site, this school included German authors Heinrich Rittershausen and Ulrich von Beckerath, the Swiss writer Edgard Milhaud, and two Jewish contributors to the Four Law Drafts, Walter Zander and Walter Unger. The site presents this collection as a unique archive of monetary-freedom scholarship from the first half of the twentieth century that "you won't find elsewhere."
Who belonged to this school?
The site's own description breaks the group down by national and cultural background, which is where the "Swiss, German, Jewish" phrasing comes from:
| Figure | Background | Role in the school |
|---|---|---|
| Heinrich Rittershausen | German | Named by the site as foremost among the Germans |
| Ulrich von Beckerath | German | Named alongside Rittershausen as foremost among the Germans |
| Edgard Milhaud | Swiss | The Swiss contributor to this school of monetary thought |
| Walter Zander | Jewish | One of two Jewish contributors to the Four Law Drafts; escaped to England |
| Walter Unger | Jewish | The other Jewish contributor to the Four Law Drafts; murdered by the Nazis |
The grouping is Zube's characterization, not a formal academic category, and ReinventingMoney.com adopts it as the organizing frame for part of its Library.
What connects these thinkers?
Two threads tie the group together on the site:
- The Four Law Drafts. Zander and Unger are identified specifically as the two Jewish contributors to this set of drafts. The site argues that had the Four Law Drafts been enacted in Germany during the 1930s, "Hitler might never have come to power and World War II might never have happened." That is the site's claim, presented as the historical stakes of the material rather than as settled fact.
- The free money movement of the 1930s and 1940s. The site directs "serious students of money, the exchange process, and currency alternatives" to dig into this movement, noting that much of its scholarship appeared in The Annals of Collective Economy, now called the Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics.
Why the site treats this as a distinct collection
ReinventingMoney.com describes itself as an archival site "designed mainly for monetary researchers and historians," with a mission to "demystify money and liberate the process of exchange." Within that mission, the Swiss-German-Jewish school is positioned as the site's most distinctive holding: a body of work by authors from the first half of the twentieth century that the site says is not available elsewhere in one place.
If you want to read the primary material rather than a summary, the site points you to two sections in particular:
- Case Studies — for applied or historical examples.
- Library files — which the site says contain many of the works from this school.
Where to go next
ReinventingMoney.com is explicitly an archive, not an active blog. The site says its regular posts, articles, presentations, and interviews — aimed at practitioners, social entrepreneurs, and students — now live at BeyondMoney.net. So if your interest is the historical school itself, stay on ReinventingMoney.com and work through the Library and Case Studies; if you want ongoing coverage of currency alternatives and exchange developments, the site itself redirects you to BeyondMoney.net.