''Der arme Teufel'' ("The Poor Devil") was a leading German-American

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

magazine, published in German at

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

from 1884 to 1900, and edited mainly by the Detroit anarchist Robert Reitzel from 1884 until his death in 1898.

History

The first two volumes of the magazine were mainly concerned with the

freethought Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...

movement, and primarily consisted of articles on the subject of religious criticism. In issue # 583 (February 1, 1886), the editor, Robert Reitzel, declared that ''Der arme Teufel'' was now an anarchist publication. According to

Max Nettlau Max Heinrich Hermann Reinhardt Nettlau (; 30 April 1865 – 23 July 1944) was a German anarchist and historian. Although born in Neuwaldegg (today part of Vienna) and raised in Vienna, he lived there until the anschluss to Nazi Germany in 193 ...

, the magazine was "a treasure-trove of earnest and likable liberal and rebellious sentiments and thoughts, cutting-edge social critique and the shredding of Authority in all its forms, open and disguised." Half of the articles were abstracted from the magazines, ''Gesellschaft'' (''Society''), ''Zeit'' (''Time''), ''Die Zukunft'' (''The Future''), the ''Magazin für Literatur'' and the satirical journal ''Simplicissimus''. Under the laws of the time issues 86, 88, 93, 100, 104 and 107 were suppressed. Articles on politics as well as literature were preferred. 822 issues were published over 16 volumes. After Reitzel's death in 1898, his friend Martin Drescher continued ''Der arme Teufel'' for two years; then followed it with the magazines ''Wolfsaugen, ein Blatt für freie Geister'' (''Wolf's Eyes: A Paper for Free Spirits''), appearing in 1900, and ''Der Zigeuner'' (''The Gypsy'') published at Chicago around 1902.Max Nettlau (1931), ''Geschichte der Anarchie'', Vol. 3. Berlin. 389.

Contributors and Staff

Karl Henckell Karl Friedrich Henckell (17 April 1864, Hanover – 30 July 1929, Lindau) was a German author, poet, and publisher. Henckell studied at the universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, Munich, and Zurich. He lived abroad, in Switzerland, in Zurich and m ...

* John Henry Mackay * Christian Wagner *

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

* Adolf Ehrenberg *

Franz Held Franz Held (born 6 May 1948) is a German rower who competed for West Germany in the 1968 Summer Olympics and in the 1972 Summer Olympics. Held was born in Passau. In 1968, Held and his partner, Günther Karl, finished twelfth in the coxless ...

* Edward Fern * George Herwegh * Emma Clausen

Other Anarchist Periodicals of the Same Name

* ''Der arme Teufel'', published by Albert Weidner and edited by Erich Mühsam. Appeared from 1902 to 1904. * ''Der arme Teufel'', appearing in Nordböhmen (Austria). 1906 to ? * ''Der arme Teufel'', a local newspaper in Ludwigshafen by the Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (FAUD). Appeared from around 1930 to ?

References

* Ulrike Heider, ''Der arme Teufel. Robert Reitzel – Vom Vormärz zum Haymarket''. Elster-Verlag 1986. * Oliver Benjamin Hemmerle, ''Der arme Teufel. Eine transatlantische Zeitschrift zwischen Arbeiterbewegung und bildungsbürgerlichem Kulturtransfer um 1900''. Münster: LIT-Verlag 2002. * Rudolf Rocker, ''Johann Most. Das Leben eines Rebellen''. ''Der arme Teufel (Detroit),'' Pages 379-381. Berlin 1924/25. Neuauflage: Libertad Verlag, Berlin und Köln 1994. * Hartmut Rübner, ''Freiheit und Brot. Die Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands. Der arme Teufel (Ludwigshafen)'', Seite 283. Libertad Verlag, Potsdam 1994.

External links

In the Bibliothek der Freien

an
''Der arme Teufel'' (Berlin)
in ''Datenbank des deutschsprachigen Anarchismus'' (DadA, ''Database of German-language Anarchism'').
In the catalog of the Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
Anarchist periodicals published in the United States Defunct political magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States German-American culture in Detroit Magazines established in 1884 Magazines disestablished in 1900 Magazines published in Detroit German-language magazines {{italic title