Otto Strasser
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Otto Strasser | |
|---|---|
 Strasser delivering a speech soon after his return to West Germany following World War II | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser 10 September 1897 Bad Windsheim, Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died | 27 August 1974 (aged 76) Munich, Bavaria, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party (1917–1920) Völkischer Block (1922–1925) Nazi Party (1925–1930) Black Front (1930–1934) German Social Union (1956–1962) |
| Relatives | Gregor Strasser (brother) |
| Alma mater | Humboldt University of Berlin |
| Occupation | Philosopher, editor, politician |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  German Empire |
| Branch/service |  Freikorps |
| Years of service | 1914–1918 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser (also German: Straßer, see
Biography
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Early life and WWI
Born at Bad Windsheim, Strasser was the son of a Catholic judicial officer who lived in the Upper Bavarian market town of Geisenfeld. Strasser took an active part in World War I (1914–1918). On 2 August 1914, he joined the Bavarian Army as a volunteer. He rose through the ranks to lieutenant and was twice wounded.[1]
Freikorps and SPD (1919–20)
He returned to
In 1920, he participated in the opposition to the Kapp Putsch. Still, he grew increasingly alienated from his party's reformist stance, particularly when it put down a workers' uprising in the Ruhr, and he left the party later that year.[2]
Nazi Party (1925–30)
In 1925, he joined the
Despite disagreements with Hitler, the Strassers did not represent a radical wing opposed to the party mainstream.[4] Gottfried Feder was more radical and held great favour at the time. The Strassers were extremely influential within the party, but the Strasserist programme was defeated at the Bamberg Conference of 1926.[3] Otto Strasser, along with Gregor, continued as a leading Left Nazi within the party until he seceded from the NSDAP in 1930 following an aggressive attack led by Joseph Goebbels at a General Assembly on June 30, resulting in his expulsion from the meeting.[3][5]
Nazi dissident in Germany (1930–33)
On July 1, Strasser telegraphed Hitler requesting an explanation for Goebbels' actions. None would come. Strasser then seceded from the National Socialists and set up his own party, the Black Front, composed of like-minded former NSDAP members, to split the Nazi Party. His party proved unable to counter Hitler's rise to power in 1933, and Strasser spent the years of the Nazi era in exile. The Strasserists were annihilated during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, during which Gregor Strasser was killed. This left Hitler as an undisputed party leader and able to pacify industrialists and the military into accepting his new Nazi regime.[5]
Exile (1933–55)
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In addition to the Black Front, Strasser at this time[when?] headed the Free German Movement outside Germany; this group (founded in 1941) sought to enlist the aid of Germans throughout the world in bringing about the downfall of Hitler and his vision of Nazism.
Strasser fled[
During his exile, he wrote articles on Nazi Germany and its leadership for several British, American, and Canadian newspapers, including the
In 1950, East Germany invited Strasser to become a member of the National Front. Still, he declined, hoping that he would be permitted to return to Bavaria, which had been under US occupation until 1949.[7] In his view, West Germany constituted an American colony and East Germany a Russian colony.[8]
Return to Germany and later career (1955–74)
Strasser eventually gained West German citizenship, returned to Germany on 16 March 1955,[9] and settled in Munich.
He attempted to create a new "nationalist and socialist"-oriented party in 1956, the German Social Union (German: Deutsch-Soziale Union), but his organization was unable to attract any support. Strasser continued to advocate for his vision of Nazism until he died in Munich in 1974.[10]
Stance on Nazi anti-Semitism
Otto Strasser claimed that he was a dissenting Nazi regarding racial policies.[11] Throughout his life, he claimed to have actively opposed such policies within the Nazi movement, for example, by organizing the removal[when?] of Julius Streicher from the German Völkisch Freedom Party.[12][need quotation to verify]
Written works
- Hitler and I (translated by Eric Mosbacher and Gwenda David) [Hitler und Ich. Asmus-Bücher, Band 9. Johannes-Asmus-Verlag, Konstanz 1948.] First published in English in 1940, Boston: MA, Houghton Mifflin Company
- A History in My Time (translated by Douglas Reed)
- Germany Tomorrow (translated by Eric Mosbacher and Gwenda David)
- Gregor Strasser (written under the pseudonym of "Michael Geismeier")
- We Seek Germany (written under the pseudonym of "D.G.")
- Whither Hitler? (written under the pseudonym of "D.G.") [Wohin treibt Hitler? Darstellung der Lage und Entwicklung des Hitlersystems in den Jahren 1935 und 1936. Verlag Heinrich Grunov, Prag I 1936.]
- Europe Tomorrow (written under the pseudonym of "D.G.") [Europa von morgen. Das Ziel Masaryks. Weltwoche, Zürich 1939.]
- Structure of German Socialism [Aufbau des deutschen Sozialismus. Wolfgang-Richard-Lindner-Verlag, Leipzig 1932.]
- The German St. Bartholomew's Night [Die deutsche Bartholomäusnacht. Reso-Verlag, Zürich 1935.]
- European Federation
- The Gangsters Around Hitler
- Hitler tritt auf der Stelle. Oxford gegen Staats-Totalität. Berlin – Rom – Tokio. Neue Tonart in Wien. NSDAP-Kehraus in Brasilien. Die dritte Front, Band 1937,6. Grunov, Prag 1937.
- Kommt es zum Krieg? Periodische Schriftenreihe der "Deutschen Revolution", Band 3. Grunov, Prag 1937.
- Der Faschismus. Geschichte und Gefahr. Politische Studien, Band 3. Günter-Olzog-Verlag, München (u.a.) 1965.
- Mein Kampf. Eine politische Autobiografie. Streit-Zeit-Bücher, Band 3. Heinrich-Heine-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1969.
See also
- Strasserism
- The European magazine
References
- ^ Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1940, p. 11. p. 12.
- ^ a b c Rupp, Leila J.; Lane, Barbara Miller (1978). "Introduction – Nazi Ideology: Some Unfinished Business". Nazi ideology before 1933. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. XX.
- ^ a b c Rupp, Leila J.; Lane, Barbara Miller (1978). "Introduction – Nazi Ideology: Some Unfinished Business". Nazi ideology before 1933. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. XVI.
- ^ Rupp, Leila J.; Lane, Barbara Miller (1978). "Introduction – Nazi Ideology: Some Unfinished Business". Nazi ideology before 1933. Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. XVII.
If their writings are looked at as a whole, however, it would appear that Otto, not Gregor, was the disciple, and that far from being a disappointed dissident, Gregor successfully introduced more new ideas into the mainstream of Nazi thought than anyone else. Gregor wrote more than any other Nazi leader except Rosenberg and had one of the most fertile minds of all the Nazi writers. Nor was he a radical; he was, if anything, more conservative than Feder. Apart from the complications Otto's memoirs have created in interpreting Gregor Strasser's thoughts, there are several other reasons why he has often been regarded as a dissident and disappointed radical. The first is Hitler's rejection in February I926 of the draft program by Goebbels and Strasser. Goebbels' descriptions in his diaries of this event are highly emotional and portray it as a major defeat. The second reason is Gregor's organizational role in the party-his efforts to strengthen the party in the northern cities and his proposals to form Nazi trade unions. Finally, as Propagandaleiter, Strasser is known to have laid great stress on the frequent use of the term "socialism" in Nazi propaganda. Hitler's rejection of the draft program at the Bamberg conference has often been misinterpreted. He did not explicitly reject the content of the Strasser-Goebbels draft; instead, he convinced the assembled party leaders that it was inappropriate to formulate a new major program at that time. It was Goebbels who was disappointed – not Strasser. Gregor went on to write many more programs, major and minor; at least one of the major ones — the full-employment program of I932 — was wholly endorsed by the party, and it is quite probable that he also had a significant part in drafting the agricultural program of I930.
- ^ a b Pool, James. Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power. p. 244.
- ^ The Prisoner of Ottawa: Otto Strasser, by Douglas Reed, Cape, London, 1953
- ^ "Strasser Asked To Join East German Reds". The Manitoba Ensign. 8 April 1950. p. 2. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
- ^ Mahoney, William (19 March 1955). "Otto Strasser returns with 'new' platform". Stars and Stripes. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
- ^ Elzer, Herbert (2012). "Bonn oder Paradise? Die Bundesregierung, der SPD-Parteivorstand und die umstrittene Rückkehr des NS-Dissidenten Otto Straßer aus Kanada (1948–1952)" [Bonn or Paradise? The Federal Government, the SPD party leadership and the controversial return of the National-Socialist dissident Otto Strasser from Canada]. Jahrbuch Extremismus & Demokratie (in German). 24. Baden-Baden: Nomos: 72–101.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
MUNICH, West Germany, Aug. 27 (AP)—Otto Strasser, a prominent Nazi spokesman who broke with Hitler over party ideology, died today in Munich. He was 76 years old.
- ^
Silverglate, Jesse (1965). The Ideology of Otto Strasser. University of Wisconsin – Madison. p. 56. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
Strasser's most vitriolic attack on Hitlerite antiSemitism appeared in the [1935] article 'Genug – Ein Wort zur Judenfrage.'
- ^ Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. Jonathan Cape LTD, 1940, pp. 73–78.
External links
Media related to Otto Strasser at Wikimedia Commons- Newspaper clippings about Otto Strasser in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
- Straßer, Otto in Neue Deutsche Biographie
