Margrit Kennedy (born Hübner 1939-2013) – Free thinker, critic and architect for a better money system
A successful architect, international urban planner and ecologist, Margrit Kennedy ” burned ” for her topic – the errors in our current monetary system and their disastrous consequences for humanity – from the moment it so suddenly and urgently entered her life. She would often speak about her sudden realization of the fact that interest and compound interest in the financial system repeatedly trigger crises in the economy. This realization changed her life. To confirm it was indeed true, she spent months studying what she had first understood through a half hour lecture by Helmut Creutz. Through her analysis, she also discovered that the money system systematically redistributes money to the wealthy. This grievous injustice made her angry. From 1987 to the end of her life, she never abandoned this theme, and became “the most familiar face among German monetary critics,” as Ulrike Herrmann notes in her recognition of her on 30.12.2013 on taz.de
Her many books, articles, interviews, countless lectures at home and abroad and finally the establishment of MonNetA (the Money Network Alliance- A professional network for research, development and support of complementary currencies and new money systems for the solution of social, economic and environmental problems) all illustrate an indefatigable enthusiasm for her life’s work – a just and equitable improvement of the monetary system.
In light of this Herculean task, and the economic illiteracy and blindness of many she encountered, she was sometimes driven to despair. In one of her last interviews, for Johanna Tschautscher’s film “The Financial Machine” she said, “If I were to take to heart the collective suffering that the money system inflicts upon the world, I believe I would drop dead on the spot because it is that horrific.”
Margrit Kennedy understood human nature. She had a zest for life and the ability to inspire one through her ideas. She accomplished this through two qualities that rarely coincide, but that together are irresistible: first, the ability to describe complex relationships so that people see the relevance to their own everyday lives; and second, a gift for scientific work that also enabled her to convince the experts. As the daughter of a driven German entrepreneur she was introduced early in her childhood to business principles. With a great love for all that lives, an open heart and open arms she reached out to people to inspire them. A synthesis of humanitarian and woman, she was a powerful networker. As a result, her friends and network partners in her life’s work, and at MonNetA ensure that Margrit Kennedy’s work for monetary system reforms and more humane and practical economic solutions will continue to bear fruit.
We bow before a charismatic, amiable and devastatingly honest woman, in mourning and in gratitude, but also with confidence that Margrit Kennedy’s ideas and initiatives bring us closer to a more just world.
On the 28th December 2013, at home in Steyerberg, Margrit Kennedy died of cancer.
Kathrin Latsch and Roland Spinola on 01/06/2014