Richard Kunze (5 February 1872 in Sagan – May 1945) was a German

right-wing 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, authorit ...

politician known 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 ...

Early years

Kunze's political career began around 1914 when he was employed by the

German Conservative Party The German Conservative Party (german: Deutschkonservative Partei, DkP) was a right-wing political party of the German Empire founded in 1876. It largely represented the wealthy landowning elite Prussian Junkers. The party was a response to Ge ...

along with fellow rightist

Wilhelm Kube Wilhelm Kube (13 November 1887 – 22 September 1943) was a Nazi official and German politician. He was an important figure in the German Christian movement during the early years of Nazi rule. During the war he became a senior official in the o ...

. Serving the party as general secretary he earned 12,000 marks per month for a role that largely involved travelling Germany drumming up support. Near the end of the war he became involved with the Fatherland Party where he gained the nickname ''Knüpple Kunze'' (Cudgel Kunze) because of strong attacks on the

Jew 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""Th ...

s.Paul Bookbinder, ''Weimar Germany: The Republic of the Reasonable'', Manchester University Press, 1996, p. 45

Post-war activity

After the war Kunze was associated with the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund and in 1920 he joined with

Reinhold Wulle Reinhold Wulle ( – ) was a German Völkisch politician and publicist active during the Weimar Republic. ''Völkisch'' politics Wulle was born in Falkenberg, Pomerania. He studied theology, German and history and in 1908 embarked on a career as ...

and Arnold Ruge to form the ''Deutschvölkischen Arbeitsring Berlin'', a short-lived successor group. The group was absorbed by the joined

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) in June 1920 and Kunze joined the DNVP and became the party's chief publicist. However Kunze split from the party in 1921, feeling that it did not match his own hard-line stance on the Jews.Donald L. Niewyk, ''The Jews in Weimar Germany'', Transaction Publishers, 2001, p. 50

German Social Party

In 1921 Kunze established his own anti-Semitic party in north Germany known as the German Social Party, an early rival to 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 ...

on the

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 ...

. The new party rejected the

monarchism Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

of the DNVP, arguing that Jewish influence had been just as pronounced in the

German empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

as in the new

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...

. The party became noted for provocative street activities, with Kunze himself becoming a well-known demagogue. However support was lost as Kunze also gained a reputation for using the party as a way to make money for himself, diverting funds into his own pockets and after a number of defections he wound the party up in 1929.Bernd Kruppa: ''Rechtsradikalismus in Berlin 1918−1928''. Overall-Verlag, Berlin 1988, pp. 300; 327ff; 362

Nazism

In 1930 Kunze joined his old rivals as a member of the Nazi Party. Kunze was elected to the

Preußischer Landtag The Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower House of Representat ...

as a Nazi delegate in 1932, and in

November 1933 The following events occurred in November 1933: November 1, 1933 (Wednesday) *The regulations for Germany's Dachau concentration camp were put into effect by its commander, Theodor Eicke, and used as a blueprint for other camps. Under Article ...

he was elected to the Reichstag, serving in what by then, had become a perfunctory institution until 1945. Kunze was arrested after the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula– ...

, but went missing in May 1945 and was presumed dead.Ernst Rudolf Huber: ''Deutsche Verfassungsgeschichte seit 1789. Band 6, Die Weimarer Reichsverfassung''. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1984, p. 282.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kunze, Richard 1872 births 1945 deaths People from Żagań People from the Province of Silesia German Protestants German Conservative Party politicians German Fatherland Party politicians German National People's Party politicians Nazi Party politicians Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany Leaders of political parties in Germany People declared dead in absentia Missing in action of World War II German civilians killed in World War II