View source for Otto Strasser

{{short description|German politician (1897–1974)}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Otto Strasser
| image               = Otto Strasser.jpg
| image_size          = 225px
| caption             = Strasser delivering a speech soon after his return to West Germany following World War II
| birth_name          = Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|df=y|1897|9|10}}
| birth_place         = [[Bad Windsheim]], [[Kingdom of Bavaria|Bavaria]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|df=y|1974|8|27|1897|9|10}}
| death_place         = [[Munich]], Bavaria, [[West Germany]]
| nationality         = German
| party               = {{Plainlist|
* [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] (1917–1920)
* [[German Völkisch Freedom Party|DVFP]] (1922–1925)
* [[Nazi Party|NSDAP]] (1925–1930)
* [[Black Front|KGRNS]] (1930–1934)
* [[German Social Union (West Germany)|DSU]] (1956–1962)
}}
| relatives           = [[Gregor Strasser]] (brother) <br> [[Bernhard Strasser]] (brother)
| alma_mater          = [[Humboldt University of Berlin]]
| occupation          = Philosopher, editor, politician
<!--Military service-->
| allegiance          = {{flag|German Empire}}
| branch              = {{flagicon image|Kaiserstandarte.svg}} [[Bavarian Army]]<br>[[Freikorps]]
| serviceyears        = 1914–1919
| rank                = Lieutenant
| battles             = [[World War I]]
}}

'''Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser''' (also {{langx|de|link=no|Straßer}}, see [[ß]]; 10 September 1897 – 27 August 1974) was a German politician and an early member of the [[Nazi Party]]. Otto Strasser, together with his brother [[Gregor Strasser]], was a leading member of the party's more radical wing, whose ideology became known as [[Strasserism]], and broke from the party due to disputes with the dominant [[Hitlerite]] faction. He formed the [[Black Front]], a group intended to split the Nazi Party and take it from the grasp of Hitler. During his exile and World War II, this group also functioned as a [[German Resistance to Nazism|secret opposition group]].

==Biography==
{{Nazism sidebar|expanded=People}}

===Early life and World War I===
Born at [[Bad Windsheim]], Strasser was the son of a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] judicial officer who lived in the [[Upper Bavaria]]n market town of [[Geisenfeld]]. Strasser took an active part in [[World War I]] (1914–1918). On 2 August 1914, he joined the [[Bavarian Army]] as a volunteer. He rose through the ranks to lieutenant and was twice wounded.<ref>Strasser, Otto. ''Germany Tomorrow''. Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1940, p. 11. p. 12.</ref>

===Freikorps and SPD (1919–1920)===
He returned to [[Weimar Republic|Germany]] in 1919, where he served in the [[Freikorps]] that in May 1919 put down the [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]], which was organized on the principles of [[workers' council]]s. About this time, he joined the [[Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands|Social Democratic Party]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In 1920, he participated in the opposition to the [[Kapp Putsch]]. Still, he grew increasingly alienated from his party's reformist stance, particularly when it put down a workers' uprising in the [[Ruhr]], and he left the party later that year.<ref name=":2" />

===Nazi Party (1925–1930)===
In 1925, he joined the [[National Socialist German Workers' Party]] (NSDAP), in which his brother, Gregor, had been a member for several years and worked for its newspaper as a journalist, ultimately taking it over with his brother. He focused particularly on the [[socialist]] elements of the [[Nazi 25-point program|party's program]] and led the party's faction in northern Germany together with his brother and [[Joseph Goebbels]]. His faction advocated support for ideologically Nazi [[trade union|unions]],<ref name=":2" /> [[Profit sharing|profit-sharing]]<ref name=":0" /> and – despite acknowledged differences – closer ties with the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Rupp |first1=Leila J. |title=Nazi ideology before 1933 |last2=Lane |first2=Barbara Miller |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1978 |location=Austin |pages=XX |language=en |chapter=Introduction – Nazi Ideology: Some Unfinished Business}}</ref>

Despite disagreements with Hitler, the Strassers did not represent a radical wing opposed to the party mainstream.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Rupp |first1=Leila J. |title=Nazi ideology before 1933 |last2=Lane |first2=Barbara Miller |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1978 |location=Austin |pages=XVII |language=en |chapter=Introduction – Nazi Ideology: Some Unfinished Business |quote=If their writings are looked at as a whole, however, it would appear that Otto, not Gregor, was the disciple, and that far from being a disappointed dissident, Gregor successfully introduced more new ideas into the mainstream of Nazi thought than anyone else. Gregor wrote more than any other Nazi leader except Rosenberg and had one of the most fertile minds of all the Nazi writers. Nor was he a radical; he was, if anything, more conservative than Feder. Apart from the complications Otto's memoirs have created in interpreting Gregor Strasser's thoughts, there are several other reasons why he has often been regarded as a dissident and disappointed radical. The first is Hitler's rejection in February I926 of the draft program by Goebbels and Strasser. Goebbels' descriptions in his diaries of this event are highly emotional and portray it as a major defeat. The second reason is Gregor's organizational role in the party-his efforts to strengthen the party in the northern cities and his proposals to form Nazi trade unions. Finally, as Propagandaleiter, Strasser is known to have laid great stress on the frequent use of the term "socialism" in Nazi propaganda. Hitler's rejection of the draft program at the Bamberg conference has often been misinterpreted. He did not explicitly reject the content of the Strasser-Goebbels draft; instead, he convinced the assembled party leaders that it was inappropriate to formulate a new major program at that time. It was Goebbels who was disappointed – not Strasser. Gregor went on to write many more programs, major and minor; at least one of the major ones — the full-employment program of I932 — was wholly endorsed by the party, and it is quite probable that he also had a significant part in drafting the agricultural program of I930.}}</ref> [[Gottfried Feder]] was more radical and held great favour at the time. The Strassers were extremely influential within the party, but the Strasserist programme was defeated at the [[Bamberg Conference]] of 1926.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Rupp |first1=Leila J. |title=Nazi ideology before 1933 |last2=Lane |first2=Barbara Miller |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1978 |location=Austin |pages=XVI |language=en |chapter=Introduction – Nazi Ideology: Some Unfinished Business}}</ref> Otto Strasser, along with Gregor, continued as a leaning Left Nazi within the party until he seceded from the NSDAP in 1930 following an aggressive attack led by Joseph Goebbels at a General Assembly on June 30, resulting in his expulsion from the meeting.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Pool |first=James |title=Who Financed Hitler: The Secret Funding of Hitler's Rise to Power |pages=244}}</ref>

===Nazi dissident in Germany (1930–1933)===
On 1 July, Strasser telegraphed Hitler requesting an explanation for Goebbels' actions. None would come. Strasser then seceded from the National Socialists and set up his own party, the [[Black Front]], composed of like-minded former NSDAP members, to split the Nazi Party. His party proved unable to counter Hitler's rise to power in 1933, and Strasser spent the years of the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi era]] in exile. The Strasserists were annihilated during the [[Night of the Long Knives]] in 1934, during which [[Gregor Strasser]] was killed. This left Hitler as the undisputed party leader and was able to pacify the industrialists and military elite by ridding the party of the influence of people like Gregor Strasser and [[Ernst Röhm]].<ref name=":3" />

===Exile (1933–1955)===
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2022}}
In addition to the Black Front, Strasser at this time{{when|date=October 2023}} headed the [[Free-Germany Movement|Free German Movement]] outside Germany; this group (founded in 1941) sought to enlist the aid of Germans throughout the world in bringing about the downfall of Hitler and his vision of Nazism.

Strasser fled{{when|date=October 2023}} first to Austria, then to Czechoslovakia ([[Prague]]), Switzerland, and France. In 1940, he went to [[Bermuda]] by way of [[Portugal]], leaving a wife and two children behind in Switzerland. In 1941, he emigrated to Canada, where he became the famed "Prisoner of Ottawa".<ref>''The Prisoner of Ottawa: Otto Strasser'', by Douglas Reed, Cape, London, 1953</ref>  Goebbels denounced Strasser as the Nazis' "[[Public enemy|Public Enemy Number One]]" and a price of $500,000 was set on his head. He settled for a time in [[Montreal]]. In 1942, he lived for a time in [[Clarence, Nova Scotia|Clarence]], Nova Scotia, on a farm owned by a German-Czech, Adolph Schmidt, then moved to nearby [[Paradise, Nova Scotia|Paradise]], where he lived for more than a decade in a rented apartment above a [[general store]]. As an influential and uncondemned former Nazi Party member still faithful to many doctrines of [[Nazism]], he was initially prevented from returning to [[West Germany]] after the war, first by the [[Allies of World War II|Allied powers]] and then by the [[History of Germany since 1945|West German]] government.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

During his exile, he wrote articles on Nazi Germany and its leadership for several British, American, and Canadian newspapers, including the ''[[New Statesman]]'', and a series for the ''[[Montreal Gazette]]'', which was ghostwritten by then-''Gazette'' reporter and later politician [[Donald C. MacDonald]].{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

In 1950, [[East Germany]] invited Strasser to become a member of the [[National Front of the German Democratic Republic|National Front]]. Still, he declined, hoping that he would be permitted to return to Bavaria, which had been under [[Allied-occupied Germany|US occupation]] until 1949.<ref>{{cite news |title= Strasser Asked To Join East German Reds|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=3_f9JqYsqVQC&dat=19500408&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |publisher= The Manitoba Ensign | page= 2 |date= 8 April 1950|access-date= 22 October 2019}}</ref> In his view, West Germany constituted an American colony and East Germany a Russian colony.<ref>{{Cite web|url= https://www.stripes.com/news/otto-strasser-returns-with-new-platform-1.43738|title= Otto Strasser returns with 'new' platform|last= Mahoney|first= William|date= 19 March 1955|website= Stars and Stripes|access-date= 9 February 2020|archive-date= 18 January 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210118043913/https://www.stripes.com/news/otto-strasser-returns-with-new-platform-1.43738|url-status= dead}}</ref>

===Return to Germany and later career (1955–1974)===
Strasser eventually gained West German citizenship, returned to Germany on 16 March 1955,<ref>
{{cite journal| last1= Elzer| first1= Herbert|title= Bonn oder Paradise? Die Bundesregierung, der SPD-Parteivorstand und die umstrittene Rückkehr des NS-Dissidenten Otto Straßer aus Kanada (1948–1952)| trans-title= Bonn or Paradise? The Federal Government, the SPD party leadership and the controversial return of the National-Socialist dissident Otto Strasser from Canada| journal= Jahrbuch Extremismus & Demokratie| language= de| publisher= Nomos| publication-place= Baden-Baden| publication-date= 2012| volume= 24| pages= 72–101}}</ref> and settled in [[Munich]].

He attempted to create a new "nationalist and socialist"-oriented party in 1956, the [[German Social Union (West Germany)|German Social Union]] ({{langx |de| Deutsch-Soziale Union}}), but his organization was unable to attract meaningful support. Strasser continued to advocate for [[Strasserism|his vision of Nazism]] until he died in Munich in 1974.<ref>{{Cite news |date= 1974-08-28 |title= Otto Strasser, 76, Theoretician Who Broke With Hitler, Is Dead |language=en-US |work= The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |quote = MUNICH, West Germany, Aug. 27 (AP)—Otto Strasser, a prominent Nazi spokesman who broke with Hitler over party ideology, died today in Munich. He was 76 years old. |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/28/archives/otto-strasser-76-theqretician-who-broke-with-hitler-is-dead.html|access-date=12 October 2020}}</ref>

==Stance on Nazi anti-Semitism==
Otto Strasser claimed to have dissented from Nazi racial policies.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Silverglate
 |first1               = Jesse
 |year                 = 1965
 |title                = The Ideology of Otto Strasser
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=RodjAAAAMAAJ
 |publisher            = University of Wisconsin – Madison
 |page                 = 56
 |access-date          = 19 February 2023
 |quote                = Strasser's most vitriolic attack on Hitlerite antiSemitism appeared in the [1935] article 'Genug – Ein Wort zur Judenfrage.'
}} 
</ref> During his life, he claimed to have actively opposed such policies within [[Nazism|the Nazi movement]], for example, by organizing the removal{{when|date=February 2023}} of [[Julius Streicher]] from the [[German Völkisch Freedom Party|German Folkish Freedom Party]].<ref>
Strasser, Otto. ''Germany Tomorrow''. Jonathan Cape LTD, 1940, pp. 73–78.
</ref>{{request quotation|date=February 2023}}

==Publications==
* {{Cite book |title=Entwicklung und Bedeutung der deutschen Zuckerrübensamenzucht |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1921 |pages=92 |oclc=216126812 |language=de}} Dissertation Würzburg.
* {{Cite book |title=Wir suchen Deutschland. Ein freier Disput über die Zeitkrisis zwischen Gerhard Schultze-Pfaelzer und Otto Strasser, Major Buchrucker, Herbert Blank |first1=Herbert |last1=Blank |first2=Bruno Ernst |last2=Buchrucker |first3=Gerhard |last3=Schultze-Pfaelzer |first4=Otto |last4=Strasser |date=1931 |pages=195 |oclc=560330578 |language=de}}
* {{Cite book |title=Aufbau des deutschen Sozialismus |first1=Otto |last1=Strasser |first2=Weigand |last2=von Miltenberg |date=1932 |language=de |edition=1-5 |publisher= Wolfgang Richard Lindner Verlag (W. R. Lindner) |location=Leipzig |series=Bücher der Zielgebung |pages=101 |oclc=72217664}}
** {{Cite book |trans-title=Construction of German Socialism |title=Aufbau des deutschen Sozialismus als Anlage d. histor. Gespräch Hitlers mit Dr. Straßer [Anlaß d. Trennung] |first=Otto |last=Strasser |edition=2nd |publisher=Grunov |location=Prague |date=1936 |pages=152 |oclc=245703335 |language=de}}
* {{Cite book |title=Gregor Straßer (Gregor Strasser) |series=Männer und Mächte |first=Michael |last=Geismeier |publisher=R. Kittler |location=Leipzig |date=1933 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7-FdAAAAIAAJ |pages=94 |language=de |oclc=163008925}} Michael Geismeier is a pseudonym of Otto Strasser.
* {{Cite book |title=Die deutsche Bartholomäusnacht |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1935 |publisher=Reso |location=Zurich |pages=241 |oclc=3047552 |language=de}}
* {{Cite book |title=Europäische Föderation |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1936 |series=Kulturpolitische Schriften, Heft 6 |publisher=Reso-Verlag AG. |location=Zurich |pages=32 |oclc=40811575 |language=de}} 
* {{Cite book |title=Wohin treibt Hitler? Darstellung der Lage und Entwicklung des Hitlersystems in den Jahren 1935 und 1936 |trans-title=Whither Hitler? |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1937 |publisher=Verlag Heinrich Grunov |location=Prague |pages=82 |oclc=1395066622 |language=de}}
* {{Cite book |title=Hitler tritt auf der Stelle |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1937 |publisher=Grunov |location=Prague |series=Die dritte Front, H. 6 |pages=32 |oclc=72770670 |language=de}}
* {{Cite book |title=Kommt es zum Krieg? |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1937 |publisher=Grunov |location=Prague |series=Die dritte Front, H. 3 |pages=15 |oclc=72770672 |language=de}}
* {{Cite book |title=Europa von Morgen : das Ziel Masaryks |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1939 |publisher=Weltwoche Verlag |location=Zurich |pages=284 |oclc=6821708 |language=de}}
* {{Cite book |title=Hitler and I |first=Otto |last=Strasser |translator-first1=Eric |translator-last1=Mosbacher |translator-link=Eric Mosbacher |translator-first2=Gwenda |translator-last2=David |date=1940 |pages=240 |publisher=Jonathan Cape |location=London |oclc=503756997}} Other versions: ''Hitler et moi'', and ''Hitler und Ich''. Asmus-Bücher, Band 9. Johannes-Asmus-Verlag, Konstanz 1948, 263 pages. Also 1940, Boston: MA, Houghton Mifflin Company.
* {{Cite book |title=Germany Tomorrow |first1=Otto |last1=Strasser |publisher=Jonathan Cape |location=London |pages=254 |date=1941 |edition=4th |oclc=312705331}}
* {{Cite book |title=A History in My Time [Erlebte Weltgeschichte.] |first=Otto |last=Strasser |translator-first=Douglas |translator-last=Reed |translator-link=Douglas Reed |date=1941 |location=London |publisher=Jonathan Cape |oclc=752976049 |pages=262}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Gangsters Around Hitler with a topical postscript "Nazi gangsters in South America" |first=Otto |last=Strasser |date=1942 |publisher=Allen |location=London |series=A Hurricane book |pages=63 |oclc=72650037}}
* {{Cite book |title=The Prisoner of Ottawa: Otto Strasser |first1=Douglas |last1=Reed |first2=Otto |last2=Strasser |location=London |publisher=Jonathan Cape |date=1953 |oclc=504698230}}
* {{Cite book |title=Der Faschismus. Geschichte und Gefahr |first=Otto |last=Strasser |series=Politische Studien, Beiheft 3 |publisher=Günter Olzog Verlag |location=Munich |date=1965 |pages=109 |oclc=901064063 |language=de}}
* Strasser, Otto; [[Alexandrov, Victor]] (1968). ''Le front noir contre Hitler'' (in French). Verviers (Belgium): Gérard et Cie, Bibliothèque Marabout n° 327, p. 305.
* {{Cite book |title=Mein Kampf : [eine politische Autobiografie] |first1=Otto |last1=Strasser |date=1969 |publisher=Heinrich Heine Verlag |location=Frankfurt |series=Streit-Zeit-Bücher, Band 3 |pages=234 |oclc=165470359 |language=de}}

==See also==
* ''[[The European (1953 magazine)|The European]]'' magazine

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Otto Strasser}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/017226}}
*[https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd118755749.html Straßer, Otto] in ''[[Neue Deutsche Biographie]]''

{{NSDAP}}
{{Nazism}}
{{Fascism}}
{{German far right}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strasser, Otto}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Neustadt (Aisch)-Bad Windsheim]]
[[Category:Nazi Party officials]]
[[Category:Pan-European nationalism]]
[[Category:Politicians from the Kingdom of Bavaria]]
[[Category:German anti-capitalists]]
[[Category:German fascists]]
[[Category:German Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:German expatriates in Canada]]
[[Category:German nationalists]]
[[Category:German Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:20th-century Freikorps personnel]]
[[Category:Strasserism]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni]]