James M. Buchanan

on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday

with love and gratitude for almost thirty years of friendship

BM HGM

A brief history of how it all began …

In October 1970 during a stay at Ohio State University we (that is Hans and Bettina Monissen), had the chance to drive together with Rosemary and Karl Brunner to Blacksburg, Virginia, where we met the famous professors at VPI: James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock.

We stayed for some days at the university and had the unique opportunity not only to listen but also to talk to Professor Buchanan. This short stay at VPI was the beginning of what has by now become an acquaintance of almost thirty years and we proudly may say a special friendship with an extraordinary person.

In the early 1970s, Karl Brunner started his “Interlaken Seminar”, to which he invited scholars from all over the world, among these James Buchanan and … the Monissens. Some of the afternoon excursions or the evenings in the restaurant or the bar we would spend together, and we began to know each other better and better. We found it surprisingly easy to talk to the famous professor and to spend our time with him and his delightful wife, Ann, and we actually got the feeling that Jim Buchanan also enjoyed the time he spend with us.

During these “Interlaken years” our acquaintance with Jim slowly grew to a friendship. There are some funny events I recall from this time, like the day when we drove Jim and Steve Pejovich from Interlaken to Zuerich airport … .

We had the opportunity to meet each other not only in Interlaken but also in Konstanz, where we lived during that time. After moving from Konstanz to Muenster we were proud to invite Jim to visit us there and to give a lecture at the University of Muenster.

In 1976 Hans and Steve Pejovich taught a joint seminar at the “Europaeische Forum Alpbach”. Jim was also there. They spent two wonderful and very interesting weeks together and had a lot of fun, I was told. Since I was sick I couldn’t be with them and therefore was very sorry.

However, in 1978 the whole Monissen family spent some time in Alpbach during the Hochschulwochen, and again, we had the opportunity to meet Jim and to spend time with him. A very special recollection for me is the evening of my birthday, when Jim, Karl and Steve decided to invite Hans and me for dinner.

Actually, since my birthday is at the end of August, I very often had the privilege to spend it together with Jim, in Alpbach, in Fairfax, at MPS meetings … . In fact, Jim was, together with our friend Louis DeAlessi, the one who in 1980 nominated Hans as a member of the MPS! Therefore, during the MPS meeting in Stanford in 1980 Hans became a member of the MPS.

In 1978 we moved to Giessen and again, Jim would visit us regularly, presenting a talk most of the time. The colleagues and the students at the University of Giessen were very much impressed by his lectures. Thus, it was not too difficult for Hans to suggest to the faculty in 1982 that James Buchanan should receive an honorary degree from the University of Giessen on the occasion of the 475. year of its foundation.

On June 7, 1982 Jim became “Doctor honoris causa” and we celebrated the “Buchanan Day”. A large number of friends, colleagues and admirers of James Buchanan came to Giessen to celebrate with him. Since it was Jim’s first honorary degree he enjoyed it almost as much as we did. In the same year we spent some time together during the MPS meeting in Berlin.

We would see each other at conferences and more and more often privately, either in Germany or in Virginia.

The year 1986 was, of course, a very special year. We met in April for the European Public Choice Conference near Amsterdam. A few weeks later Jim came to see us in Wuerzburg, where we moved to in 1985, and then, again, we met in St. Vincent, Italy, for the MPS meeting. It was in this year, when we once more celebrated my birthday together with a special dinner.

Shortly after returning home, Jim finally was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. We, like all his other friends, were very excited and happy and celebrated the great and long expected news. Hans was even able to meet Jim at Frankfurt airport to congratulate him in person, shortly after the announcement was made public. And, of course, we watched the whole ceremony on December 10, 1986 on TV. We were so proud!

Being a Nobel Laureate, Jim stayed the same good friend to us as before. He would still come and visit us and spend time with us, and we would visit him. Since Wuerzburg is a beautiful city with a very nice area we had a lot to show him while he visited us. There still is a lot to show for the next hundred visits!

Over all these years our friendship grew. Therefore, when I started to think about how to celebrate Hans’ sixtieth birthday, I knew for sure that I wanted Jim to be part of it. Only after I talked to him about an “Invited Lecture” and his “of course, I will be there” I started to try to organize a birthday conference to bring our friends together. And it worked! I never was able to express my gratitude for all the support I got by Jim. He even was willing to serve as my advisory co-editor when I had the chance to compile the conference papers into a kind of scientific birthday Festschrift.

All these and more memories and the happiness and gratitude to call Jim our friend show that for us it was very important to celebrate his eightieth birthday with him, even if we had to wait for the doctor’s allowance for Hans to travel. Now we are here to say “happy birthday, Jim!” from the bottom of our hearts and we certainly hope to spend a lot more birthdays with him.

Love

Bettina