Georg Ritter von Schonerer

Georg Ritter von Schonerer (July 17, 1842-August 14, 1921) was an Austrian extremist and politician active in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Schonerer was born in Vienna in 1842. As a young man he became a political activist, and got elected to Austria’s Reichsrat (Parliament) in 1873. Originally a liberal, Schonerer became more conservative as his career progressed, and by the peak of his career had transformed into a right wing extremist. Schonerer developed a political philosophy that featured elements of violent Anti-Semitism, anti-Slavism, authoritarianism, nationalism, and Pan-Germanism, themes which appealed to many lower class Viennese. As such, Schonerer rapidly became a popular and powerful political figure. Eventually he formed the Pan-German Party, which would become a considerable force in Austrian politics. In 1888, Schonerer was temporarily imprisoned for ransacking a Jewish-owned newspaper office and assaulting its employees. This action increased Schonerer’s popularity and helped members of his party get elected to the Austrian Parliament. Schonerer himself was reelected to the Reichsrat in 1897, and later that year helped orchestrate the expulsion of Prime Minister Kasimir Felix Graf von Badeni from office. Badeni had proclaimed that civil servants in Austrian-controlled Bohemia would have to know the Czech language, an ordinance which prevented many Germans (the majority of whom could not speak Czech) in Bohemia from applying for governmental jobs. Schonerer staged mass protests against the ordinance and disrupted parliamentary proceedings, actions which eventually caused Emperor Franz Joseph to dismiss Badeni. Schonerer became even more powerful in 1901, when 21 members of his party gained seats in the Parliament. His career crumbled rapidly thereafter, however, as a result of his fanaticism and hateful personality. His party suffered as well, and had virtually disintegrated by 1907. Schonerer died in Rosenau bei Zwettl in 1921, but his views and philosophy would go on to greatly influence Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party as a whole. \n