Editing Silvio Gesell (section)

==Life==
Silvio Jean Gesell was a son of a marriage between Ernst and Mathilde Gesell, the seventh of nine children. His mother was a daughter of Nicolas and Jeanette Joseph Talbots. She was [[Walloons|Walloon]] and his father, Ernst Gesell, was [[Germans|German]], originally from [[Aachen]]. He was a secretary of the earlier [[Prussian]] {{ill|Kreis Malmedy|de}}, now part of [[Belgium]]. His birthhouse is located in St. Vither Rathausstraße 81. The building is decorated with a commemorative plaque. His grandmother Jeanette Talbots, who Gesell was given his middle name after, was daughter of the well-known St. Vither builder Josef Lentz. Before her marriage, she worked in [[Verviers]] and [[Andenne]] as a teacher Don Carlos, [[prince of Capua]] and brother of [[Francis II of the Two Sicilies]].

[[File:Casa Gesell.jpg|thumb|The company headquarters, the "Casa Gesell", in Buenos Aires]]

After attending public school in [[Sankt Vith]], he moved to the [[Gymnasium (school)|Gymnasium]] in [[Malmedy]]. He had to pay for his living expenses from an early age and could not afford higher education, so he decided against attending a university and worked for the German ''[[Reichspost]]'', the [[mail|postal system]] of the [[German Empire]]. However, he was dissatisfied with the job, so he began an apprenticeship to his merchant brothers in [[Berlin]]. He then lived in [[Málaga]], [[Spain]] for two years, working as a correspondent. He then returned to Berlin to complete his [[Conscription in Germany|compulsory military service]]. Subsequently, he worked as a merchant in [[Braunschweig]] and [[Hamburg]].

In 1887, Gesell relocated to [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]], where he became self-employed and opened a [[Franchising|franchise]] of his brother's business in Berlin. The [[Baring crisis|1890 depression in Argentina]] hurt his business considerably, so he transferred ownership of his Argentinian franchise to his brother in 1890. The ongoing economic crisis caused him to think about the structural problems caused by the [[money|monetary system]]. In 1891, Gesell released his first theoretical writing on currency: [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5088112_Silvio_Gesell's_Theory_and_Accelerated_Money_Experiments The Reformation of the Monetary System as a Bridge to a Social State] ({{langx|de|Die Reformation des Münzwesens als Brücke zum sozialen Staat}}). He also wrote and published ''The Nerve of Things'' ({{langx|la|Nervus rerum}}, 1891) and ''The nationalization of money'' ({{langx|de|Die Verstaatlichung des Geldes, 1892}}). He returned to Europe in 1892.

After a short stay in Germany, Gesell settled in [[Les Hauts-Geneveys]] in the [[Canton of Neuchâtel]] in [[Switzerland]], where he acquired a farm. In addition to working in agriculture, he dedicated himself to studying economics and writing.
He completed his [[self-taught]] education by reading the works of the most important economists, trying to contrast their monetary theories. Judging by the quotations, he read [[David Hume]], [[Adam Smith]], [[David Ricardo]], [[Karl Marx]], [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], [[Henry George]], [[Knut Wicksell]], [[Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk]], [[Carl Menger]], [[Georg Friedrich Knapp]], [[John Law (economist)|John Law]].
He also started publishing a magazine, ''The Money and Land Reform'' ({{langx|de|Die Geld- und Bodenreform}}) in 1900, but it was not a great success. He discontinued it in 1903 for financial reasons.

From 1907 to 1911, Gesell lived in Argentina again. He then returned to Germany where he chose to live in the [[vegetarian]]-oriented fruit-growing [[cooperative]] called [[Eden]] (Heaven) ({{langx|de|Obstbaugenossenschaft Eden}}), which was founded by [[Franz Oppenheimer]] in [[Oranienburg]], north of Berlin.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}} There, he founded his magazine ''Der Physiokrat'' together with {{ill|lt=Georg Blumenthal|Georg Blumenthal (Schriftsteller)|de}}. In March 1916, further publication was prohibited due to [[wartime censorship]] during the [[World War I]].<ref name="onken-2000"/>
Gesell left Germany and returned back to his farm in Switzerland. Through his business, he acquired certain assets, with which he was able to dispatch so that crises did not damage him to a large extent. He also received support from his friends, especially from Paul Klemm in [[Transylvania]], [[Romania]], a wealthy [[wood]] manufacturer who occasionally paid the printing costs for Gesell's most sold publications.

[[File:Postkartengruss Gesell.png|thumb|Postcard from Silvio Gesell around 1920. He writes, among other things: "The big house was built by my great-grandfather [...],"<ref>The entire handwritten postcard text reads: "The big house was built by my great-grandfather [arrow]. I met many old acquaintances here. Although I haven't been there for 30 years, some stopped me on the streets. <u>I know you, rascal.</u> They were all genuinely happy to see the lost Catholic sheep again."</ref> referring to the St. Vith master builder Josef Lentz.]]

[[File:Silvio Gesell  Grab 2023-3-17.jpg|thumb|Silvio Gesell's grave in the [[Oranienburg]] City Cemetery on 17 March 2023 (coordinates: {{coord|52.7478|13.2265|region:DE_type:landmark|name=Grabstätte von Silvio Gesell}})]]
[[File:Silvio Gesell  Grab Infotafel 2023-3-17.jpg|thumb|Information board at the grave (March 17, 2023)]]

In April 1919, Gesell received a call from [[Ernst Niekisch]] from the revolutionary government of [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]] to come to [[Munich]]. This offered him a seat in the so-called [https://www.bavarikon.de/object/bav:BSB-CMS-0000000000003991?lang=en Socialization Commission] and he was appointed shortly, on suggestion of [[Erich Müchsam]] and [[Gustav Landauer]], as the "People's Representative for Finance" ({{langx|de|Volksbeauftragte für Finanzen}}) situated in Munich. Gesell worked with law Professor {{ill|Karl Polenske|de}} from the [[University of Greifswald]] and the Swiss physician and mathematician [[Theophil Friedrich Christen]]. He wrote a law for the creation of [[Freiwirtschaft|Freigeld]] (Free Money), a currency system he had developed. However, his term lasted for only seven days.

After the violent end of Soviet Republic, Gesell was arrested. There he shared a cell with the poet [[Gustav Gräser]], whose writing on revolution he funded. After several months in prison, he was acquitted on July 1919 in a [[high treason]] trial for his self-defense speech in front of a Munich [[court martial]].<ref name="onken-2000"/> He claimed that he didn't have anything to do with the political decisions of the Republic and was just trying to offer a plan to restructure the economy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ilgmann |first1=Cordelius |title=Silvio Gesell: 'a strange, unduly neglected' monetary theorist |journal=Centrum für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung |date=April 2011 |volume=38 |issue=23 |pages=532–564 |url=https://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/51275 |jstor=48540611|doi=10.1080/01603477.2015.1099446|hdl=10419/51275 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> The legal costs of the process were paid by the state treasury. However, he, Gräser, and others was deported from [[Bavaria]]. Immediately after his discharge, Gesell and his supporters resumed their activism for his revolutionary ideas

Due to of his participation with the Munich Soviet Republic, the Swiss authorities refused to let him return to his farm, as an "undesirable foreigner". Gesell subsequently retired to {{ill|Bergholz-Rehbrücke|de}}, [[Potsdam-Mittelmark]], then back to Oranienburg-Eden once again. In 1924, another stay in Argentina followed. In 1927, he lived in Eden again until he died from [[pneumonia]] on 11 March 1930. He was buried in a [[cemetery]] in Oranienburg. {{ill|Bertha Heimberg|de}} delivered his funeral speech. Silvio Gesell was married to Anna (born Böttger), with whom he had four children. From his relationship with Jenny Bumenthal (born Führer), his son Hans-Joachim Führer was born in 1915. Gesell had further relationships and children with Wanda Tomys and Grete Siermann.