Alfred Roth (born 27 April 1879 in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

– died 9 October 1948 in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

) was a German politician and writer noted for his

anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. He was sometimes known by his pseudonym Otto Arnim. Away from politics, he was a leading figure in the Commercial Employees Union.

Early years

The son of a photographer, Roth trained as an accountant and worked in that capacity for an ironmonger.

Philip Rees Philip Rees (born 1941) is a British writer and librarian formerly in charge of acquisitions at the J. B. Morrell Library, University of York. He has written books on fascism and the extreme right. Works *''Fascism in Britain'' (Harvester Pres ...

, ''

Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 The ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'' is a reference book by Philip Rees, on leading people in the various far right movements since 1890. It contains entries for what the author regards as "the 500 major figures on the r ...

'', Simon & Schuster, 1990, p. 333 In 1897 he took up a role in the office of the ''Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband'' (DHV), a white-collar union, and from 1908 to 1911 he edited their journal ''Deutsche Handelwache''. Briefly a member of the rightist ''Deutsche Jungbund'' in 1896, Roth was strongly influenced by the

that dominated the DHV and became politically active. He met

Georg Ritter von Schönerer Georg Ritter von Schönerer (17 July 1842 – 14 August 1921) was an Austrian landowner and politician of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A major exponent of pan-Germanism and German nationalism in ...

in 1904 and became an enthusiastic supporter of his pan-German ideas and was an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for the German Social Party in 1907. He also held membership of the Pan-German League

''Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund''

Roth was active in

Theodor Fritsch Theodor Fritsch (born Emil Theodor Fritsche; 28 October 1852 – 8 September 1933), was a German publisher and journalist. His antisemitic writings did much to influence popular German opinion against Jews in the late 19th and early 20th c ...

's ''

Reichshammerbund Reichshammerbund (Reich Hammer League) was a German anti-Semitic movement founded in 1912 by Theodor Fritsch. Based on ''The Hammer'', a journal founded by Fritsch in 1902, the Bund argued that Jewish influences had contaminated Germany and attemp ...

'' (Imperial Hammer League) before serving as an officer in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

.Richard S. Levy, ''Antisemitism'', 2005, p. 623 He was wounded several times and awarded a number of decorations, before being discharged in 1917 as an invalid. After the death of Karl August Hellwig in 1914 he became leader of this group and he used this body to build up the strongly anti-Semitic Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund, which he formed in 1919 by fusing the League with other groups. As leader of the ''Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund'' (DVSTB) he became noted for his

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

work and was credited with attracting some 200,000 members to the group by the time it was banned in 1922 following the murder of

Walther Rathenau Walther Rathenau (29 September 1867 – 24 June 1922) was a German industrialist, writer and liberal politician. During the First World War of 1914–1918 he was involved in the organization of the German war economy. After the war, Rathenau s ...

. He was especially prone to attacking

Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...

and regularly quoted Zionist works as proof that

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

did not belong in Germany.Niewyk, ''The Jews in Weimar Germany'', p. 140 The DVSTB was the single most important producer of anti-Semitic and ''Völkisch'' material in northern Germany, and through this group he co-operated with the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

, which fulfilled a similar role in the south of the country. He also became a member of the

German National People's Party The German National People's Party (german: Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP) was a national-conservative party in Germany during the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the Nazi Party, it was the major conservative and nationalist party in Wei ...

(DNVP), briefly sitting in the Reichstag for them in 1924.Richard S. Levy, ''Antisemitism'', 2005, p. 624

Later years

Roth drifted from the DNVP, whilst the DVSTB had been dissolved in 1922 following the murder of

.Rees, p. 334 He established a new group based in

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, the ''Deutscher Befreiungs-Bund'', although this group and another he led, the ''Vereinigte Vaterländische Verbände'', struggled for influence. He maintained his own journal, ''Reichs-Sturmfahne'', until 1928 when he was forced to close it down and return to work as a publisher. He threw in his lot with the

, although he gained no real status, a failed candidacy in the local election in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1932 being his only noteworthy contribution. He held no office in

Nazi Germany 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 ...

, although in 1934 he was awarded 1,000 Marks by the Nazi government for his role in the DVSTB and in 1936 he was publicly acknowledged for his earlier role "in the ''völkisch'' awakening of the German people". He survived 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 ...

as a private citizen and died of natural causes in Hamburg in 1948.

Writing

In 1919 he published a book, ''The Jew in the Army'' which claimed that most Jews involved in the war were only involved as profiteers and spies. Roth claimed that his book was the result of the 1916 Judenzählung. He also blamed Jewish officers for imparting a defeatist mentality to their soldiers, with the book thus central to the Stab-in-the-back legend.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roth, Alfred 1879 births 1948 deaths Politicians from Stuttgart German National People's Party politicians Nazi Party politicians Military personnel of Württemberg Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class German trade unionists