After the war, Schmölders repeatedly described the workings of this group as resistance against the Third Reich, especially referring to a conference at which a future conspirator against Hitler, Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, was present. The publication of the proceedings as “Competition as a Means to Enhance Economic Performance and Selection,” which argued that the market mechanism was superior to price controls and state monopolies in stimulating economic performance, was indeed courageous, as any critique was under the conditions of the National Socialist dictatorship. Yet, the contributions hardly amounted to resistance against the Third Reich, as the National Socialists had few fixed views on economic policy, and the book offered suggestions on how to improve it, focusing in particular on the postwar economic order.

Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, loc. 321