Gustav Landauer

Gustav Landauer (7 April 1870 in Karlsruhe, Germany — 2 May 1919 in Munich, Germany) was a German anarchist and revolutionary who was involved in establishing the short-lived Bayerische Räterepublik (Bavarian Soviet Republic) and serving as its Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction in April of 1919. Landauer is also known for his study and translation of William Shakespeare's works into German.

Biography

The son of Jewish parents, Landauer studied Philosophy, German studies, and the history of art at Heldelberg, Strasbourg, and Berlin. After breaking off his studies in 1893, he worked as a freelance journalist and public speaker.

His second wife, Hedwig Lachmann, was an accomplished translator, and they worked together to translate Oscar Wilde, Walt Whitman, and other works into German.

Landauer spent much of his life involved in anarchist and socialist political groups, newspapers, and journals. After the German Revolution of 1918, Landauer became a representative for the Bavarian Soviet Republic. After the invasion of counterrevolutionary troops, Landauer was arrested and slain in prison.

Works

• Skepsis und Mystik (1903)
• Die Revolution (trans. Revolution) (1907)
• Aufruf zum Sozialismus (trans. Call to Socialism)(1911)

• Editor of the journal Der Sozialist (trans. The Socialist) from 1893-1899

• "Anarchism in Germany" (1895), "Weak Statesmen, Weaker People" (1910) and "Stand Up Socialist" (1915) are excerpted in Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas - Volume One: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300CE-1939), ed. Robert Graham [[1]]

References

Background Resources

• Thomas Esper. The Anarchism of Gustav Landauer. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961)
• Gustav Landauer. Gesammelte Schriften Essays Und Reden Zu Literatur, Philosophie, Judentum. (translated title: Collected Writings Essays and Speeches of Literature, Philosophy and Judaica). (Wiley-VCH, 1996) ISBN 3050029935
• Ruth Link-Salinger Hyman. Gustav Landauer: Philosopher of Utopia. (Hackett Publishing Company, 1977). ISBN 0915144271
• Eugene Lunn. Prophet of Community: The Romantic Socialism of Gustav Landauer. (Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company, 1973). ISBN 0520022076
• Charles B. Maurer. Call to Revolution: The Mystical Anarchism of Gustav Landauer. (Wayne State University Press, 1971). ISBN 0814314414

External links

• Gustav Landauer Page from the Anarchist Encyclopedia