During one of his stays in Argentina, where he lived in a vegetarian commune, Gesell started the magazine Der Physiokrat together with Georg Blumenthal.

The Bavarian Soviet Republic, in which he participated, had a violent end and Gesell was detained for several months on a charge of treason, but was acquitted by a Munich court after a speech he gave in his own defense.

Silvio Gesell's mother was Walloon and his father was German, originally from Aachen, who worked as a clerk in the then-Prussian district of Malmedy, now part of Belgium.

Being forced to pay for his living expenses from an early age, he decided against attending a university and worked for the Deutsche Reichspost, the postal system of the German Empire.

From 1907 to 1911, Gesell was in Argentina again, then he returned to Germany and lived in the vegetarian commune Obstbausiedlung Eden, which was founded by Franz Oppenheimer in Oranienburg, north of Berlin.

Gesell chose the Swiss mathematician Theophil Christen and the economist Ernst Polenske as his assistants and immediately wrote a law for the creation of Freigeld, a currency system he had developed.

After the violent end of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, Gesell was detained for several months until being acquitted of treason[1] by a Munich court.

[4] Gesell considered himself a world citizen and was inspired by Henry George to believe that the earth should belong to all people, regardless of race, class, wealth, religion, or age, and that borders should be made obsolete.

Gesell based his economic thought on the self-interest of individuals, which he saw as a "natural" and healthy motive, in satisfying their needs and being productive.

He believed that this stance put him in opposition to Marxism, which, Gesell considered, proposed an economic system that was against human nature.

Believing that the talent and selfishness of individuals must be taken into account, Gesell called for free, fair business competition, with equal chances for all.

In the "natural economic order" which Gesell recommended, the most talented people would have the greatest income, without distortion by interest and rent charges.