Politician. He was a 20th-century German politician who was known as the "Vater des Wirtschaftswunders" or "the father of the economic miracle." As the first minister of economics, he is credited with developing West Germany's economy in the post-World War II era. From 1963 to 1966, he served as the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union. Born Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard, one of four children of a store owner of household linens, he suffered from polio at age three, resulting in a deformed right foot and forcing him to wear a special orthopedic shoe for the rest of his life. After attending local schools, where he was an average student, he was an apprentice in a clothing factory before working in his father's store hanging drapes. During World War I, he served in the 22nd Royal Bavarian Artillery Regiment and was trained as a gun aimer, seeing action on both the Western and Eastern fronts. After being diagnosed with typhus, he was sent home for a time to recuperate before he returned to his unit. During the First Battle of Ypres on September 28, 1918, he was critically injured with wounds in his left shoulder and leg. Following seven surgeries, his left arm was much shorter than the right. With his physical disabilities, he could not work in his father's shop and had to make a career change. Since he had not taken pre-college courses in school, he began to study economics at a business school before entering college and receiving a degree in business administration in 1922. He continued his studies at the University of Frankfurt, earning a PhD in December of 1924. While at the college, he married a childhood friend and fellow economics major, Luise Lotter. His wife was a war widow with a daughter, and the couple had another daughter. He returned to his father's company for three years before accepting a position at the Economic Observation of the German Finished Goods Industry in 1928. He refused to join Nazi organizations which left him disqualified for the position of university lecturer. With the Nazi Party in rule, he lost his position in 1942 for political reasons. With external conformity to German politics as a means of self-preservation, he wrote the book "War Finances and Debt Consolidation," which was published in 1944. He knew Germany was going to lose the war and would need an "economic miracle." Successively after the war, he served as the economics adviser in Middle and Upper Franconia, economics minister for Bavaria from 1945 to 1946, director of the Advisory Committee for Money and Credit from 1947 to 1948, and director of the economic council for the joint Anglo-U.S. occupation zone from 1948 to 1949. From September 1949, he was the economics minister under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of the Federal Republic of Germany. While he was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, he lost popularity with his foreign policies and was unable this time to manage the budget, resigning in October of 1966. He continued his political work by remaining a member of the West German parliament until his death. He wrote his last of six books on the subject of economics in 1973. He died from heart failure. Founded in 1967, the Ludwig Erhard Foundation aims to serve "the further development and strengthening of the Social Market economy" through publications, lectures, and public events. In 2018, an impressive permanent exhibition dealing with the life, work, and legacy of Ludwig Erhard was opened in his hometown of Fürth.