Friedrich Wichtl

Friedrich Wichtl
File:Friedrich Wichtl (1872-1922).jpg
Member of the Vienna National Assembly
In office 21 October 1918 – 16 February 1919
Personal details
Born	(1872-03-15)15 March 1872 Vienna
Died	Vienna
Political party	German-National Party

Friedrich Wichtl (15 March 1872 – 29 July 1921) was an Austrian German nationalist politician and member of the Imperial Council (1911) and, from 21 October 1918 to 16 February 1919, a member of the first provisional National Assembly of the Republic of German-Austria as a member of the German National Party (DnP). He was also chairman of the League of Germans in Lower Austria (Vienna/Josephstadt). Wichtl was a lawyer with a doctorate and a private school director by profession and founder of Austria's first private law school in Vienna. He wrote textbooks for his own school.

Biography

Friedrich Wichtl was born in Vienna. Wichtl attended the Franz-Josef-Gymnasium in Vienna and studied law at the University of Vienna. During his studies, he co-founded the defence association Amicitia in 1894. He was awarded a doctorate in law. He initially worked as a violin teacher, was an instructor in a count's house and then founded the first Austrian private law school in Vienna to train lawyers.

Immediately after the First World War, Wichtl was noted by his writings against Freemasonry. The most widespread was the publication Weltfreimaurerei - Weltrevolution - Weltrepublik. Carl Vogl claimed that the material and guidelines for the work were supplied by the Foreign Office in Berlin in 1917. He had received this information from the writer Gustav Meyrink, the author of The Golem, who was initially given the task by the Foreign Office in Berlin of writing a novel for propaganda purposes in which it was to be proven that the Freemasons were to blame for the war. This novel was also to be translated into English and Swedish and sent all over the world in a print run of half a million copies. Meyrink took on this task — probably with the intention of defusing the intended result — but was relieved of it again, as his views obviously did not coincide with those of the Foreign Office. According to Vogl, the task was then assigned to Friedrich Wichtl.

Wichtl was also the author of other German national propaganda literature, including the pamphlets Dr. Karl Kramarsch, der wahre Anstifter des Weltkrieges (1918) and Freimaurermorde (1920), which also formed the basis for General Erich Ludendorff's anti-Masonic writings. Wichtl's publications were very popular, especially against the backdrop of the lost world war and in a time of political and social upheaval that was perceived as uncertain by large sections of the German population. Wichtl's position was that World War I was brought about by Masonic intrigue, chiefly in France, Italy, and England, for the overthrow of the Central Powers and as a first step towards a world revolution and one world-wide republic.

Friedrich Wichtl died in Vienna and was buried in the Protestant section of Vienna Central Cemetery.

See also

• Nesta Webster

Works

• Dr. Karl Kramarsch, der wahre Anstifter des Weltkrieges (1918)

References

• Dvorak, Helge (2005). Biographisches Lexikon der Deutschen Burschenschaft. Band I: Politiker. Teilband 6: T–Z. Heidelberg: Winter, p. 288.
• Markner, Reinhard (2018). "Friedrich Wichtl (1872–1921)". In: Helmut Reinalter, ed., Handbuch der Verschwörungstheorien. Leipzig: Salier, pp. 334–37.
• Markner, Reinhard (2021). "La Première Guerre mondiale vue comme l’œuvre des francs-maçons : Friedrich Wichtl et son ouvrage Weltfreimaurerei, Weltrevolution, Weltrepublik (1919)." In: Christian Chelebourg & Antoine Faivre, eds., Secrets, complots, conspirations. Cadillon: Le Visage Vert, pp. 53–75.

External links

• Works by Friedrich Wichtl at German National Library