73 years ago, Ludwig von Mises hosted the very last "Privatseminar" at the birthplace of Austrian economics. The Vienna of today does not have much in common with the city of those days. From one of the intellectual centers of Europe, bringing together the brightest minds of world, only the faades have remained. As beautiful as it still is, modern Vienna is a museum run by socialist wardens.
Yet, recently some exhibits in this museum of human achievement have come alive. The intellectual seeds of Austrian Economics seem to fall once again on fertile ground. A few days ago, the first "Privatseminar" on Austrian Economics since Ludwig von Mises has attracted more than twenty students from Austria, Germany and even the Netherlands to the University of Economics and Business Administration in Vienna. Organized by the "Institut für Wertewirtschaft,"* loosely translated as "Institute for value-based economics" (which also publishes the popular online magazine liberty.li), the seminar stretched over three days, from early morning to evening: Too little time for the challenging breadth of subjects and the lively discussions. Starting with an introduction into epistemology, all major aspects of praxeology were presented: Methodology, value theory, money, interest, production process, income, entrepreneurship, trade, business cycle theory …. In the end, the participants were taken aback how one could do economics and not be an Austrian economist. In contrast to other economic seminars, much attention was given to the ethical, anthropological and philosophical foundations. The ideas and path breaking insights of economists and social philosophers like Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich A. von Hayek, Murray N. Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Guido Hülsmann, and of their intellectual predecessors among the Spanish scholastics and the French physiocrats were presented and discussed with a passion reminiscent of the old world long gone.
Finally, the university's security guards had to convince the last participants to go home. The university has not seen so much enthusiasm for a long time. For these three days, it very much felt like the old Vienna coming alive. The spark of Austrian Economics, kept alight by our American friends, is about to enlighten a new generation of young Austrians. While at the university it is still impossible to write a dissertation based on praxeology, for it is deemed "unscientific" by the 
Keynesian and Marxist professors, more and more students are finding out about the incredible heritage that has been hidden from their sight for too long. Compared to the bloodless, pointless and boring mainstream, Austrian economics is indeed "an intellectual adventure, a deed of courage," "which challenges the ingenuity and imagination of our liveliest minds," as Hayek so aptly called for. This seminar, which will be continued soon and repeated due to its success, is the proof. Even though the students got no credits for it and had to sacrifice their spare time to attend and even cover the costs, the places were all filled very quickly. Finally, the Austrian School has come home.
*The lectures were given by the economists Gregor Hochreiter, a former participant of the Mises Institute's "Summer University," and Rahim Taghizadegan, who, inter alia, participated in the Advanced Austrian Economics summer program at FEE.
July 9, 2007
