Alfred Loritz (born 24 April 1902 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

– died 14 April 1979 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

lawyer and politician who briefly rose to prominence in the immediate aftermath of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life

lawyer, the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Loritz was a right-wing opponent of the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. In early 1939, he made contact with a group of Bavarian monarchists in an ultimately-abortive attempt to foment discontent. Ultimately he would spend most of the war in exile in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Political career

In 1945, he established his own political party, the '' Wirtschaftliche Aufbau-Vereinigung'' (WAV) and soon gained a reputation as a demagogic speaker. A believer in a strong

federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...

Germany, Loritz's fiery rhetoric attracted attention both in Germany itself and from the occupiers, with some even suggesting that he might prove to be "a new

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

". However, although he belonged to the

political right Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, auth ...

, Loritz's

populism Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed ...

lacked a strong ideological basis, and he appealed mainly to internal refugees who saw him as a strong voice for their defence. He was also a strong advocate of

denazification Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...

and under the Bavarian government of

Hans Ehard Hans Ehard (10 November 1887 – 18 October 1980) was a German lawyer and politician, a member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, Christian Social Union (CSU) party. Biography Hans Ehard was born in Bamberg in 1887, the son of a local off ...

was chosen to head up a special ministry for that purpose.Gavriel David Rosenfeld, ''Munich and Memory: Architecture, Monuments, and the Legacy of the Third Reich'', University of California Press, 2000, p. 356 Always at best a loose organisation, the WAV won twelve seats in the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

in the 1949 election but by then had already largely disintegrated as an organisation and saw its vote collapse in the state elections of 1950 and the municipal elections of 1952, when its vote share had fallen to 0.3%.Alfred Grosser, Germany in Our Time, Penguin Books, 1971, p. 252 In the Bundestag, the party quickly fell apart, with four deputies breaking away in October 1950 to link up with the Centre Party. That was followed by six more in December 1951 leaving WAV to join the German Party, along with a seventh, who joined the

Deutsche Rechtspartei The German Right Party (german: Deutsche Rechtspartei, DRP) was a far-right political party that emerged in the British zone of Allied-occupied Germany after the Second World War. Also known as the ''Deutsche Konservative Partei - Deutsche Recht ...

. Loritz was thus left as the sole member in the Bundestag and, although a handful of

far-right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

independents linked up with him in 1953, his influence had largely gone.Grosser, ''Germany in Our Time'', p. 253

Disappearance and death

In the late 1950s Loritz sought to relaunch his political career in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

, but before this could take off he was arrested on charges of incitement to perjury.Obituary
from ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' Loritz escaped to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

where he was eventually granted

political asylum The right of asylum (sometimes called right of political asylum; ) is an ancient juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereign authority, like a second country or another enti ...

. He would live out his days there, dying in a Vienna hospital in 1979.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Loritz, Alfred 1902 births 1979 deaths 20th-century German lawyers Fugitives wanted by Germany German Roman Catholics Leaders of political parties in Germany Members of the Bundestag for Bavaria Politicians from Munich