Ordoliberalism has been identifi ed as an important ideational force during the European sovereign debt crisis. A lively scholarly and public debate has erupted on how much influence the ideology had on the German position during the crisis. This paper concentrates on an aspect that this debate has so far omitted: the cultural foundations and the ethical provisions of ordoliberalism. The paper reconstructs the profound roots of ordoliberalism in German Protestant social teachings. It argues that the religious connection ensured the political appeal of ordoliberla ideology even beyond the highly religious environment of post-WWII Germany since it transposed religiously inspired values into secular ideological form. Ordoliberalism became a transposition machine that created a cultural linkage between the parts of German society that have a Protestant heritage and ensures the common appeal of ordoliberlaism even in a secularized present. This came however at a cost. The reliance of ordoliberalism on cultural commonplaces based on Protestant values made it a strong tool for political communication within Germany and for bonding with culturally likeminded countries like the Netherlands and Finland during the European crisis but it has made ordoliberalism toxic for Southern European countries that are based on a Catholic or Orthodox cultural heritage. The paradox is that today, ordoliberalism does barely exist anymore as a research paradigm in German economics. It therefore lacks the scientific and intellectual potential to generate an ideational blueprint to show a way out of the crisis. Instead, the pop-ordoliberalism used by German politicians to demonstrate ethic socio-economic standpoints during the crisis has degenerated to an ideological dividing line that flanks the structural and institutional divergences between the Northern and Southern members of the Union.
