Wilhelm Röpke was an economics professor at Philipps University, Marburg, during the Weimar Republic. An early conservative opponent of the Nazis, he fled Germany for Switzerland (via Amsterdam and Istanbul). After the war, he became a key activist of the neoliberal and neoconservative right. His idea to found a neoliberal journal was eventually merged with Hayek and Hunold's initiative to found the MPS. Röpke frequently contributed to MPS meetings and served as president from 1961 to 1962 when he resigned over the Hunold/Hayek affair (Walpen 2004). Zmirnak (2001) links his heart attack in 1962 leading up to his eventual death in 1964 to the tumultuous ending of his leadership in the MPS.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1345