Aktionsgemeinschaft Soziale Marktwirtschaft

The association was founded on January 23, 1953. One of its co-founders, Otto Lautenbach, who had previously been head of the Freiwirtschaftsbund (Free Economy Association), became convinced that interest was not the main problem, as social reformer Silvio Gesell believed, but that increasingly excessive government activity would inevitably lead to collectivism and a totalitarian state. He therefore broke with the Freiwirtschaft and, together with several supporters, resigned from the organisation.

In 1953, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung compared the function of the ASM to that of a watchdog. The ASM was considered the "unofficial mouthpiece" of the federal government's economic policy and was particularly active in supporting the policies of Ludwig Erhard during election campaigns. A central platform during these years were the workshops attended by thinkers and practitioners of the social market economy such as Ludwig Erhard, Wilhelm Röpke, Alfred Müller-Armack, Franz Böhm, Günter Schmölders, and Karl Schiller.

In 1961, Wolfgang Frickhöffer took over as chairman of the ASM from Alexander Rüstow, who was appointed honorary chairman. Joachim Starbatty was elected as the new chairman in November 1991. The office was relocated from Heidelberg to Tübingen in 1993. In November 2014, Joachim Starbatty resigned from the board of the Action Group for Social Market Economy and was succeeded by Nils Goldschmidt. Against the backdrop of Starbatty's political involvement with the AfD, the Action Group realigned itself in terms of content and personnel. In 2018, Starbatty returned the Alexander Rüstow Plaque awarded to him by the association and resigned from the Action Group. He wanted to express his aversion to Angela Merkel, who had received the award in the same year.