Hans-Hermann Hoppe - Academic Career

Academic Career

Born in Peine, West Germany, he attended the Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken, and the University of Frankfurt, studying philosophy, sociology, history, and economics. His doctoral studies began with Marxist thought, under Frankfurt School philosopher Jürgen Habermas as his Ph.D advisor. However he quickly became disillusioned in this pursuit, partly due to the influence of Eugen Böhm von Bawerk and his critique of marxism and Milton Friedman. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Goethe University Frankfurt in 1974. He was then a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, United States, from 1976 to 1978. He earned his habilitation in Foundations of Sociology and Economics from the University of Frankfurt in 1981. He taught at several German universities and at Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center for Advanced International Studies, Italy. In 1986, he moved from Germany to the United States, to study under Murray Rothbard. He remained a close associate to Rothbard until his death in January 1995. Hoppe was then Professor of Economics at University of Nevada, Las Vegas until retirement in 2008. Hoppe was involved in the formation of what came to be called paleo-libertarianism. Hoppe has served as the editor of the Journal of Libertarian Studies, coeditor of the Review of Austrian Economics, and coeditor of the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics. He is a Distinguished Fellow with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and the author of several widely-discussed articles and books. In 2005, he founded the Property and Freedom Society as a more radical alternative to the Mont Pelerin Society.