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Stöcker, Adolf

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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German Protestant theologian, politician, and anti-Semitic agitator; born at Halberstadt Dec. 11, 1835. He studied at the universities of Halle and Berlin, and in 1863, after having acted for some years as tutor, was appointed pastor at Seggerda, near Halberstadt. In 1866 he was called to Hamersleben, and in 1871 to the pastorate of a military division at Metz. In 1874 he was appointed court preacher at the Domkirche of Berlin, which position he held until 1890, when he was dismissed on account of his political views. In 1878 he founded the Christian Socialistic party, which gave impetus to an anti-Semitic movement. From the pulpit, as well as in public assemblies, he denounced Judaism and its adherents as a danger to Christianity and the German empire; and upon the strength of this and similar accusations he was in 1879 elected a member of the Prussian Diet. From 1881 to 1893 he was also a member of the Reichstag, which he again entered in 1898.

Not only have many of Stöcker's former partizans, as Förster, Böckel, and Ahlwardt, become his bitter enemies, but also the general press and public have turned against him. Prof. Hermann L. Strack of the University of Berlin wrote a pamphlet entitled "Herr Adolf Stöcker, Christliche Liebe und Wahrhaftigkeit," in which he censured Stöcker very severely. In his work "Christlich-Social" (Bielefeld, 1884; 2d ed. Berlin, 1890) Stöcker published social-political and anti-Jewish speeches, while in his "Wach auf, Evangelisches Volk" (Berlin, 1893) he sets forth his religious-political views. He published also several collections of sermons (ib. 1894-1895, 1897, 1901), as well as a retrospect of his career as court preacher entitled "Dreizehn Jahre Hofprediger und Politiker" (ib. 1895). His "Gesammelte Schriften" appeared in Berlin in 1896. Since1887 he has been publisher, and since 1892 also editor, of the "Deutsche Evangelische Kirchenzeitung." See ANTI-SEMITISM; Bismarck.