Georg Friedrich Knapp (German: [knap]; 7 March 1842 – 20 February 1926)[2] was a German economist who in 1905 published The State Theory of Money, which founded the chartalist school of monetary economics, which argues that money's value derives from its issuance by an institutional form of government rather than spontaneously through relations of exchange.

[6] Knapp was the father of Elly Heuss-Knapp, the future wife of Theodor Heuss, the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany.

[3] He raised his two daughters alone, uncommon at the time, after their Georgian-born mother, Knapp's wife Lydia v. Karganow,[3] became mentally ill. Knapp is mostly remembered for this book which was partially translated into English by the Royal Economic Society and published for the first time in the United Kingdom in 1924, nineteen years after its first publication in German.

Apart from its theoretical insights, the book is particularly interesting in that it is a very detailed source of information on 19th century European monetary history, focusing on the following countries: England, France, Holland, Austria and Germany.

Due to a lack of financial means, the Royal Economic Society voluntary omitted the translation of Chapter IV which contains a historical review of England, France, Germany, Austria, and appendices containing specific case studies.