Hayek

Author: Wang Jun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Hayek spent his entire life in the ivory tower. He dedicated himself to the role of a scholar throughout his life. His life experience was moving from one university to another, and his daily routine consisted of reading, teaching, researching, and writing. He neither possessed the leadership charisma of a politician who maneuvered and strategized nor the grand life of a military commander who lived a tumultuous and life. His life could be described as ordinary. However, the brilliance of Hayek's thought pierced through the corners of history and the dust of phenomena. His ideas and concepts influenced and transformed the world, making his ordinary life shine with brilliance.
1.1 Studying in Vienna: War and Youth
On May 8, 1899, Friedrich August von Hayek was born into a scholarly family in Vienna, Austria. In his family, his grandfather, maternal grandfather, father, and two brothers, as well as his own daughter and son, were scientists and teachers. However, unlike Friedrich Hayek, most of them were natural scientists. The ancestors of the Hayek family were ennobled in 1789, adding the prefix "von" before their surname "Hayek." The family of Hayek's origin belonged to the upper-middle class of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Hayek's father was a respected municipal official and a biology professor at the University of Vienna, while his mother was a professor of public law and had once served as the Director of the Austrian-Hungarian National Statistics Office. During his youth, Hayek attended the Vienna Gymnasium and, influenced by his father, developed a keen interest in the study of natural sciences.
In 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated in Sarajevo, marking the outbreak of World War I. At the time, Hayek was 15 years old. In March 1917, at the age of 17, Hayek entered the Austro-Hungarian field artillery troops before completing his studies at the senior secondary school and served in the field army. After seven months of training, Hayek became an officer and was sent to the Italian front, where he spent a year and a half in military service, participating in some battles and nearly being killed. After the war, Hayek returned home with severe malaria.
It was precisely this war that shifted Hayek's interest from natural sciences to social sciences. When recalling the reasons for his shift, he said: "World War I, especially my service in the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian army, had a decisive influence on me. To some extent, I witnessed a major empire disintegrate due to nationalist issues. In the unit where I served, people spoke 11 different languages. It compelled me to focus on the problems of political organization." During his time fighting in Italy, Hayek had already decided to study economics. When he was bored on the battlefield, a fellow soldier gave him an economics book—a mediocre book about economics that introduced him to the of economics.