Dietrich Eckart

Dietrich Eckart (ˈɛkaʁt; 23 March 1868 – 26 December 1923) was a German völkisch poet, playwright, journalist, publicist, and political activist who was one of the founders of the German Workers' Party, the precursor of the Nazi Party. Eckart was a key influence on Adolf Hitler in the early years of the Party, the original publisher of the party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter ("Völkisch Observer"), and the lyricist of the first party anthem, Sturmlied ("Storming Song"). He was a participant in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and died on 26 December of that year, shortly after his release from Landsberg Prison, from a heart attack. Eckart was elevated to the status of a major thinker upon the establishment of Nazi Germany in 1933, and was acknowledged by Hitler to be the spiritual co-founder of Nazism, and "a guiding light of the early National Socialist movement." Eckart was born on 23 March 1868 in Neumarkt, about southeast of Nuremberg in the Kingdom of Bavaria, the son of Christian Eckart, a royal notary and lawyer, and his wife Anna, a devout Catholic. Eckart's mother died when he was ten years old and he was expelled from several schools. In 1895, his father died, leaving him a considerable amount of money that Eckart soon spent. Eckart initially studied law at Erlangen, later medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and was an eager member of the fencing and drinking Student Korps. He decided in 1891 to become a poet, playwright, and journalist. Diagnosed with morphine addiction and nearly stranded, he moved to Berlin in 1899. There he wrote a number of plays, often autobiographical, and became the protégé of Count Georg von Hülsen-Haeseler (1858–1922), the artistic director of the Prussian Royal Theatre. After a duel, Eckart was incarcerated at the Passau Oberhaus. As a playwright Eckart had success with his 1912 adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, which played for more than 600 performances in Berlin alone.