This course examines the economies of the German-speaking area of Europe from 1945 to the present, with an emphasis on the German "Social Market Economy" (SME). Where appropriate, it takes students' living/working experience in Europe in Year III into account.

Students should learn why Germany purposely developed this specific political and economic system. The SME created a comprehensive social security system but also institutions, which emphasised non-confrontational, cooperative action of employers and employees within a free market. These neo-corporatist structures underpinned the German "economic miracle" and have decisively shaped modern culture.

Students not only will study the system's fundamentals but also analyse more recent serious challenges. Among them are the cost of collective social security in an unexpectedly reunited country, changing demographics, structural change in the industry, European interaction and the forces of globalisation.