Hermann Ahlwardt

Hermann Ahlwardt (21 December 1846 – 16 April 1914) was a German antisemitic journalist.

Ahlwardt was born in Krien. He was originally an elementary school (German: Volksschule) teacher, but was dismissed in 1893 because of his anti-Jewish pamphlets (such as "Jew Rifles" [Judenflinten], which attacked the Loewe Weapons Factory) and sentenced to prison. In 1895, as one of the völkisch leaders, Ahlwardt, in a speech before the Reichstag, called Jews "predators" and "cholera bacilli" who should be "exterminated" for the good of the German people.^[1] He was a co-founder of the Antisemitic People's Party (Antisemitische Volkspartei); his three-volume work Verzweiflungskampf der arischen Völker mit dem Judentum (The Desperate Struggle of the Aryan Peoples with Judaism; 1890–1892) later influenced Nazi antisemitism. Ahlwardt was member of the German Reichstag during 1892–1902.^[2] He died in Leipzig in 1914.

Bibliography

• Christian Zentner, Friedemann Bedürftig (1991). The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. Macmillan, New York. ISBN 0-02-897502-2