Rudolf Jung

(1882-1945)

Rudolf Jung was an instrumental force and agitator of Austrian National Socialism and, later on, became a member of the German Nazi Party.

Rudolf Jung was born in Plasy and was a native of Jihlava, a town fractured by national antagonisms. He was a civil engineer employed by the national railways of the Austro-Hungary. His party work took him from Vienna, to Bohemia. In 1910, he joined the German Workers Party (DAP) and became an ardent party agitator. Because of his party provocations, Jung was fired but his party put him on their payroll and he devoted himself to theoretical work. Along with Dr. Walter Riehl, he drafted the Jihlava party program of 1913 "which contained a more detailed comparison of international Marxism and national socialism and a more pointed attack on capitalism, Democracy, alien peoples, and Jews. Here, anti-semitism ranked behind anti-Slavism, anti-clericalism and anti-capitalism."

In 1919, he completed his theoretical work Der Nationale Sozialismus. Jung expressed the hope in his introduction that his book would play the same role for national socialism that Das Kapital did for Marxian socialism. Because he was an extreme provacatuer, he was forced to flee Bohemia and moved to Munich, Germany. He brought with him a National Socialist Program which he undoubtedly shared with the DAP party in Munich under the leadership of Anton Drexler and Adolf Hitler. It is he that convinced Hitler to use the term "National Socialist" since Hitler wanted to rename the Munich DAP, the "Social Revolutionary Party."

Some of the posts and honors he held were; President of the State Labour office in area Middle Germany; Gauleiter ad Honorem (honorary); in 1936, Member of the Reichstag for the district Westfalia South. In 1943, he became the Reich Inspector and Director of the Reich Inspection of Labour Administration.

He died of starvation in Prague's Pankrác prison.

Sources: Wikipedia