Gustav Landauer | |
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Born | |
Died | 2 May 1919 | (aged 49)
Spouse | Hedwig Lachmann |
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Gustav Landauer (7 April 1870 – 2 May 1919) was one of the leading theorists on anarchism in Germany at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of social anarchism. As an avowed pacifist, Landauer advocated the principle of "non-violent non-cooperation"[1] in the tradition of Étienne de La Boétie and Leo Tolstoy.
In 1919, he briefly served as Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction in the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic during the German Revolution of 1918–1919.[2] He was murdered by right-wing paramilitary (Freikorps) soldiers when this republic was overthrown.[3]
Landauer is also known for his study of metaphysics and religion, and his translations of William Shakespeare's and Peter Kropotkin's works into German.