Otto Strasser

Otto Strasser
Otto Strasser delivering a speech soon after his return to West Germany after World War II.
Personal details
Born	(1897-09-10)September 10, 1897 Bad Windsheim, Bavaria, German Empire
Died	August 27, 1974(1974-08-27) (aged 76) Munich, Bavaria, West Germany
Nationality	German
Political party	Social Democratic Party (1917–1920) Völkischer Block (1922–1925) Nazi Party (1925–1930) Black Front (1930–1934) German Social Union (1956–1962)
Alma mater	Humboldt University of Berlin
Occupation	Philosopher, editor, politician
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Service/branch	Freikorps
Years of service	1914–1918
Rank	Lieutenant
Battles/wars	World War I

Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser (also German: Straßer, see ß; 10 September 1897 – 27 August 1974) was a German politician and member of the Nazi Party. Otto Strasser, together with his brother Gregor Strasser, was a leading member of the party's left-wing faction, and broke from the party due to disputes with the ‘Hitlerite’ faction. He formed the Black Front, a group intended to split the Nazi Party and take it from the grasp of Hitler. This group also functioned during his exile and World War II as a secret opposition group.

Born at Windsheim in Bavaria, Otto Strasser took an active part in World War I. On 2 August 1914 he joined the Bavarian Army as a volunteer. He rose through the ranks to lieutenant and was twice wounded. He returned to Germany in 1919 where he served in the Freikorps that put down the Bavarian Soviet Republic which was organized on the principles of workers' councils. At the same time, he also joined the Social Democratic Party. In 1920 he participated in the opposition to the Kapp Putsch. However, he grew increasingly alienated with that reformist-socialist party's stand, particularly when it put down a workers' uprising in the Ruhr, and he left the party later that year. In 1925 he joined the NSDAP, in which his brother had been a member for several years, and worked for its newspaper as a journalist, ultimately taking it over with his brother. He took the 'socialist' element in the party's programme seriously enough to lead a very socialist-inclined faction of the party in northern Germany together with his brother Gregor and Joseph Goebbels. His faction advocated support for strikes, nationalisation of banks and industry, and — despite acknowledged differences — closer ties with the Soviet Union. Some of these policies were opposed by Hitler, who thought they were too radical and too alienating from parts of the German people (middle class and Nazi-supporting nationalist industrialists in particular), and the Strasser faction was defeated at the Bamberg Conference (1926), with Joseph Goebbels joining Hitler. Humiliated, he nonetheless, along with his brother Gregor, continued as a leading Left Nazi within the Party, until expelled from the NSDAP by Hitler in 1930.