Franz Gehrels (22 March 1922, in Eckernförde – 6 November 2018, in Irschenberg) was a German-American economist and university teacher.

His parents emigrated with their two-and-a-half-year-old son to the US in March 1924 via Bremerhaven and Ellis Island, New York City, to San Mateo, California.

Shortly after the end of World War II, Gehrels, being a professor of the Fulbright program in Mainz and Frankfurt, traveled to Germany on behalf of the US military administration (Office of Military Government, United States) (OMGUS).

His task was to take stock of the available and unburdened German economists, at a time when many scientists occupied the reorganized chairs solely on the basis of their pro-French or anti-Nazi stance instead of their scientific qualifications.

[5] His research interests were in the areas of foreign trade and macroeconomics and economic growth.