Patent of Nobility

Mayer Rachmiel Mises (1801-1891) was born in Lemberg. He was ennobled in 1881 by Franz Joseph I of Austria in recognition of his economic achievements. The coat of arms granted to him and his legal offspring features the staff of Mercury, god of commerce and communication, a representation of the Ten Commandments, a red banner displaying the Rose of Sharon (which in the litany is one of the names given to the Blessed Mother), as well as the Stars of the Royal House of David, a symbol of the Jewish people.

Mayer Rachmiel Mises was the great-grandfather of the economist Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (1881-1973), who was a major influence on the modern libertarian movement. He has been called the "uncontested dean of the Austrian School of economics". His theories have influenced such subsequent economists as Friedrich von Hayek, Eric Voegelin, and Murray Rothbard.

Ludwig’s brother Richard von Mises was an applied mathematician who worked on fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, aeronautics statistics and probability theory. He gave the first university course on powered flight in 1913. In 1939 Richard von Mises emigrated to the USA and got a professorship at Harvard University. He died 1953 in Boston, Mass.

An Institute named for Ludwig von Mises was founded in Alabama as a research and educational center of classical liberalism, libertarian political theory, and the Austrian School of economics (Oesterreichische Schule der Nationaloekonomie). The Logo of the Ludwig von Mises Institute is the family’s coat of arms as featured in the patent.