Bernd Lucke

Bernd Lucke (born 19 August 1962) is a German economist and politician, and a Member of the European Parliament. He was a professor of macroeconomics at the University of Hamburg, a co-founder of "Wahlalternative 2013" (translated: "Electoral Alternative 2013"), and a founding member of the Alternative for Germany. Lucke lost out on the leadership of the AfD in July 2015, and subsequently left the party. In July 2015 he and other former AfD members founded the Alliance for Progress and Renewal (ALFA).

Biography

Between 1982 and 1984, Lucke read economics, history, and philosophy at the University of Bonn and attended graduate studies in economics at the universities of Bonn and Berkeley between 1984 and 1987. He finished his PhD on real business cycle theory under supervision of [[{{{1}}}]] at the Free University of Berlin in 1991. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he worked in the Council of Economic Experts of the East German Government and, after reunification, as an assistant to the Senate of Berlin. His research interests include sovereign default, news driven business cycles, growth in developing countries, dynamic CGE models, and applied econometrics.

Lucke was an advisor to the World Bank and a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Lucke is a frequent guest in German political talk shows. He is married and has five children.

During a campaign speech in Bremen on 24 August 2013, Lucke was attacked with pepper spray by two left-wing extremists. Several people in the audience were treated for irritation of the eyes and throat.

On 4 July 2015, he was displaced as leader of the Alternative for Germany by his former deputy, Frauke Petry, after several months of factional infighting within the party. On 9 July 2015, Lucke left the Alternative for Germany, saying that the party had “fallen irretrievably into the wrong hands” after Petry's election, and on 19 July, he and other former members of the AfD established a new party, the Alliance for Progress and Renewal (ALFA).

External links

• University of Hamburg, Bernd Lucke (de)
• Homepage of "Plenum of Economists"
• Homepage of "Bündnis Bürgerwille" (Alliance of Citizens' Will")
• Cofounder of "Wahlalternative 2013" (Election Alternative 2013)
• Party Hompeage Lucke speaker of "Alternative für Deutschland" (Alternative for Germany)
• Marsh, David, "New anti-euro party intensifies pressure on Merkel", MarketWatch, 15 April 2013.
• Spiegel portrait of Bernd Lucke and AfD, May 2014
• Business Insider: Meet The Influential German Professor Who Wants To Get Rid Of The Euro In Order To Save Europe retrieved 30 March 2013.
• Deutsche Welle interview with Bernd Lucke: Where is the German Euroskeptic party AfD headed? retrieved July 2015.