Friedrich Hayek

Independent activity Liberalism and republicanism 1899.5.8.–1992.3.23. ○ Natural death

Austrian School economist who wrote The Road to Serfdom and founded the Mont Pelerin Society

Born in Vienna, Hayek took doctorates in law and political studies at the University of Vienna, joined the London School of Economics in 1931 and became a British national in 1938. In The Road to Serfdom (1944) he warned of the tyranny that results from central planning, and in 1947 he organised the Mont Pelerin Society. He taught at the University of Chicago and later at Freiburg and Salzburg, and shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize with Gunnar Myrdal. Thatcher held up his The Constitution of Liberty saying "this is what we believe", and he influenced Keith Joseph, Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe. He defended the Pinochet regime in a letter to The Times. He died in Freiburg in 1992.

Also known as: Friedrich August von Hayek