Gerhard Merk was a German economist, scholar and author. A large part of his academic work was devoted to economic and financial terminology, monetary policy and the language used by central banks and other financial institutions.
Over many years, he built up a very extensive collection of financial and economic terms. These were not simply short dictionary entries. In many cases, the definitions reflected the actual language used in reports, publications and institutional documents. This gave the collection a very practical and, at the same time, academic character.
The glossary eventually grew to several thousand entries and covered a broad range of topics in economics, banking, finance, monetary policy and economic policy.
What I consider particularly valuable about Gerhard Merk’s work is its systematic nature. He did not treat financial terminology as something static. The terms were embedded in the context in which they were actually used, especially in reports and publications issued by central banks and other important economic institutions.
However, from 2014 onwards, Gerhard Merk no longer continued the systematic expansion of the financial terminology collection. As a result, an increasing gap developed between the existing glossary and the terminology that emerged in the years that followed.
After his death, I decided to preserve and continue this work.
The objective is not to replace Gerhard Merk’s original collection, but to build on it carefully and to continue it where his work ended. For this purpose, reports and publications issued by the Deutsche Bundesbank are being used again as an important basis. In addition, publications from other internationally significant financial and economic institutions are included.
These sources are reviewed in order to identify new terms, changes in terminology and developments in economic and financial language since 2014.
New definitions that are added as part of this continuation are usually highlighted in yellow. This makes it easier to distinguish later additions from the original body of work. Existing definitions may also be supplemented, updated or, where necessary, rewritten if terminology or economic developments have changed significantly. These revisions, however, are not highlighted separately by colour.
Another important step after Gerhard Merk’s death was the internationalisation of the collection.
I translated the financial terms and definitions into numerous languages in order to make the material accessible to a much broader readership. The original work was largely focused on a German-speaking audience. Today, however, the subject matter is clearly international, and I therefore consider it important that students, researchers, practitioners and other interested readers from different countries can also use the collection.
These translations were created after Gerhard Merk’s death and are part of the further development of the project. They are not original translations produced by Gerhard Merk himself.
The website gerhardmerk.de now serves as both an archive and a continuously developing digital reference work. The original material is preserved, structured and made searchable, while at the same time the collection is gradually being extended beyond the point at which Gerhard Merk stopped updating it.
For me, the central idea is quite simple: Gerhard Merk created a substantial and highly specialised body of work over many years. It should not remain frozen at the level of 2014.
The aim is therefore to preserve his original contribution, to make it accessible internationally and, at the same time, to continue the work in a careful and transparent way. In this form, the collection can remain useful for teaching, research and professional practice, while also reflecting developments in financial and economic terminology that have taken place since 2014.