In memoriam: Professor Helmut Schlesinger

In 1994, Professor Helmut Schlesinger joined the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA, then called Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs) at Princeton University for one semester after stepping down as president of the Deutsche Bundesbank. At Princeton, he not only engaged in the academic community, but also shared his experiences in a graduate course on monetary policy.  This course he taught together with Paul Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve (from 1979 to 1987) and a Princeton graduate himself.

For students, this course provided a remarkable opportunity to learn from the experiences of two highly distinguished policy makers who had shaped monetary policy in a meaningful and lasting way. Serving the Bundesbank for more than 40 years, Professor Helmut Schlesinger had long been regarded as the key intellectual power long before he rose to the top of the institution in 1991. From 1964 to 1972, he had been leading the department of economics and statistics before serving the Bundesbank as chief economist, member of the executive board and president. Advocating the importance of money supply targets in managing the risk of inflation, he played an instrumental role in establishing the credibility of the German currency and paving the way for the European Monetary Union.

While being at Princeton together with his wife, Professor Helmut Schlesinger was generous in sharing his experience and insights in ongoing research projects related to matters of monetary policy. Experts in this field included Professor Ben Bernanke, Professor Harold James and then graduate student Thomas Laubach, who later served the Federal Reserve. As one student of the course on monetary policy put it, „Professor Schlesinger left an indelible mark on us all.“

At the end of his semester in Princeton, Professor Helmut Schlesinger, a native Bavarian and passionate mountaineer, organized a get together for his students to introduce them to typical white sausages with sweet mustard and pretzels. The picture shows the course at the farewell gathering in December 1994. Back in Germany, he kept in occasional contact with the local Princeton community. At age 100, Professor Schlesinger passed away on December 23, 2024.

Grateful for the time, insights and inspirations Professor Schlesinger shared, we will commemorate him with great respect and grief. Our thoughts and prayers are with Professor Schlesinger’s family. May he rest in peace.

Michael Fabricius *99