Josef Peukert

Josef Peukert
Peukert ca. 1890
Born	1855 Albrechtsdorf an der Adler, Bohemia, Austrian Empire
Died	1910 (aged 54–55) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Nationality	Austrian
Occupation	Journalist
Known for	Anarchist activism

Josef Peukert (22 January 1855 – 3 March 1910) was a German Bohemian anarchist known for his autobiographical book Memoirs from the proletarian revolutionary labour movement (German: Erinnerungen eines Proletariers aus der revolutionären Arbeiterbewegung). The book provided a glimpse into the early days of the radical labour movement in Austria, the start of the anarchist movement in Germany and the exile of the anarchists in London and America at the time of Socialist Law (1878-1890). The accuracy of the book was questioned by fellow anarchist and historian Max Nettlau, who looked upon it in a "highly-skeptical" manner.

Peukert grew up poor at Albrechtsdorf an der Adler in the Kingdom of Bohemia, a crown land of the Austrian Empire. From the age of six, he worked for his father's company and the age of eleven he was taken out of school. At the age of 16 he left home and worked odd jobs in Germany. Peukert contributed to social democratic workers' associations later becoming an Anarchist communist.

In exile in London, Peukert became involved in distributing Freiheit published by Johann Most, but became increasingly critical of Most as Social-Revolutionist as opposed to an anarchist. During this time he became even more radicalized and upon his return in the 1880s he became the leader of the radical Fraktion, who were believers in the concept of Propaganda of the deed, which calls for the use of terror against society civil rights.