ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with German and Kreditanstalt fÜr Wiederaufbau (KfW) attempts to raise investment capital and the problems they were faced with. Furthermore, the history of the KfW's bonds will be explored. The chapter shows most clearly the improvements which took place in the 1950s German capital market but it also stresses once more the controversy between Ludwig Erhard and Fritz Schäffer on matters of economic and fiscal policy. The issuing of bonds by the KfW is of special interest for various reasons. The economic and even more so the political effects of the Auxiliary Investment Law were considerable. In the economic field it was not so much the raising of DM 1 billion by industry, which was celebrated in a good propaganda stunt as 'a sacrifice'. Although Economics Minister Erhard and Bank deutscher Länder were strongly opposed to the scheme it was prepared by an inter-ministerial working party on February 1950 and passed by the Cabinet one week later.
