European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 06, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine Ludwig Erhard right with Konrad Adenauer at the Bundo Foo in 1964. Ludwig Erhard architect of an economic miracle7 by Wolfgang Saxon new York times if any single Man deserved credit or West Germany s astounding economic Rise from the ashes of world War ii it was prof. Ludwig Erhard the rotund Pink cheeked incarnation of Prosperity who disregarded the outcries of his countrymen and their conquerors and put his economic vision to  remedy prescribed by Erhard who died thursday at age 80, was a free Market Economy with a social conscience formula his critics deemed a ludicrous answer tothe problems of a shattered truncated country where hunger and shortages abounded and Lucky strikes were the Coin of the  get his policies across Erhard at first moved with stealth after which Heser ionized coaxed and at times bullied labor and Industry As he busily opened a valve Here and tightened one there to get up More economic  he built the tools with which the government of Konrad Adenauer West Germany s first Chancellor could gain respectability abroad and give the germans Back their self respect. The economic Mission began for Erhard a trained economist without Nad past when an american major one Day in the Early summer of ims drove up in a jeep at us Home at. Forth in Bavaria. At a time when most German cities Lay in ruin he had been picked from a list of Good germans to help figure out ways in which to get factories Back into operation in his native  was driven to the imposing american occupation Headquarters at the . Farben building