Max Nettlau

Max Heinrich Hermann Reinhardt Nettlau ( born April 30, 1865 in Neuwaldegg, today part of Vienna, † July 23, 1944 in Amsterdam ) was a German linguist and major historian of anarchism.

Life

Once in Berlin, he studied Celtic language and literature since 1882, he began in 1885 to study in London, where he joined the Socialist League ( Socialist League ) and began to be interested in anarchist and socialist literature and those gathered. From 1885 to 1890 Nettlau was a member of the Socialist League and attended as their delegate the 2nd International. He was familiar with the ideas of anarchism through his contacts with Victor Dave and Johann Most. From 1895 he was a member of the anarchist Freedom Group and participated in the founding of the Freedom Press.

With the work "Contributions to cymrischen grammar ", he became the Dr. phil. doctorate. The dissertation was published in 1887 in Leipzig. Nettlau built in his life to a huge collection of magazines and books, and processed them in a presentation of the history of anarchism and its representatives. He was financially independent through an inheritance of his father died in 1892 and turned entirely to the study of the history of anarchism. These were particularly favored by his contacts with many famous anarchists.

In the following years Nettlau wrote many articles for various international anarchist newspapers such as the freedom or Les Temps Nouveaux Freedom and published biographies of Mikhail Bakunin, Elisée Reclus and Errico Malatesta. His principal work is his published from 1925, designed to 7 volumes history of anarchy. Band 6 and 7 remained unpublished and kept as handwritten manuscripts in the IISH.

During the economic crisis after the First World War, he lost by inflation, the inherited wealth from his parents and lived in poor conditions in Vienna. Nonetheless, he collected and published further. His collection had Nettlau sell in 1935 because of financial problems at the International Institute for Social History ( IISH ) in Amsterdam.

In 1938, when Austria was annexed by the German Reich, Nettlau went to Amsterdam, where he lived until his death in 1944. He continued to work on the cataloging of the archive of the IISH. The Nazis were in the apparently unaware and Nettlau probably died of stomach cancer without ever being bothered by them.

Quotes

" The social movements since 1917 and all previous and their previous failure to prove not mean that socialism fails because of the natural desire for freedom, but that this desire for freedom is not appropriate socialism is not viable, even if it for all the forced by violence aids available. For every organism needs to move freely sphere, without which stoppage and decay occur. "

Writings

  • Michael Bakunin. A biography (1896-1900)
  • Bibliography de l' Anarchy (1897; 1976)
  • History of anarchy. 7 volumes ( tables of contents ) Volume 1: The Early Spring of Anarchy (1925; 1993)
  • Volume 2: The anarchism of Proudhon to Kropotkin (1927, 1993)
  • Volume 3: Anarchist and Socialist Revolutionaries (1931, 1996)
  • Volume 4: The first period of anarchy, 1886-1894 (1981 )
  • Volume 5: anarchists and syndicalists, Part 1 ( 1984)
  • Volume 6: anarchists and syndicalists, Part 2 ( unveröff. )
  • Volume 7: anarchists and syndicalists, Part 3 ( unveröff. )
  • Supplement to the history of anarchy ( 1972 1984)
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