Henry George and Europe

Abstract . Henry George's land reform ideas became known in Germany not through his writing or speaking but through the efforts of Michael Flürscheim, an industrialist and pioneer social reformer, who first presented those ideas to the public. The American's idea that the land value tax was the only legitimate source of government revenue as the only economic surplus had found no acceptance among German socialist leaders. It was a capitalist, Flürscheim, who was inspired by George's theories and wrote and spoke about them. Flürscheim brought about the foundation of the first German land reform organization. Though it failed, a successor became the largest such association in the world.