Rudolf Jung (16 April 1882 – 11 December 1945) was an instrumental figure and agitator in the German Bohemian Nazi movement, and later became a member of the Nazi Party.

Jung was born in Plasy in Bohemia and went to school in Jihlava, a town fractured by national antagonisms. He was a civil engineer employed by the national railways of Austria-Hungary. In 1909, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP) and became an ardent party agitator. Because of his political activism, Jung was fired, but the party put him on its payroll and he devoted himself to theoretical work.

At the end of World War I, the DAP was renamed the Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei (DNSAP). Jung convinced Hitler to include the term "National Socialist" in the name of the German Workers' Party, the DAP's counterpart in Germany. Hitler originally wanted to rename the German DAP the "Social Revolutionary Party".

Some of the posts Jung held were: President of the State Labour office in Middle Germany, Gauleiter ad Honorem (honorary), and in 1936, Member of the Reichstag for the district of Westphalia South. In 1943, Jung became the Reich Inspector and Director of the Reich Inspection of Labour Administration.

He wrote several books, including Der nationale Sozialismus: seine Grundlagen, sein Werdegang und seine Ziele (National Socialism, its Foundations, Development and Goals), Aussig, 1919. 2nd ed.; Munich: Deutscher Volksverlag Dr. Boepple, 1922.

After the war he was detained by Czechoslovak authorities and imprisoned. He died by suicide (starvation) in Prague's Pankrác prison before his trial for Nazi activities.

Rudolf Jung

One interesting feature of Jung’s book is that its different editions can be used to map the growth of the rapid  and dramatic impact which Hitler was to soon have on the National Socialist movement. In the first (1919) and second (1922) editions of Nationale Sozialismus Jung dedicates his work simply to “the courageous, the energetic, and the selfless”, and its foreword radiantly describes the “black-red-gold storm-banner” (still considered the colors of pan-German nationalism in Austria at the time) as the symbol of National Socialism. By the publication of the third edition in 1923, however, Jung has made changes – the book is now dedicated to Adolf Hitler, the foreword now praises the “red swastika banner” instead of the “black-red-gold”, and certain sections have been rewritten to more favorably reflect the movement’s growing sense of Führerprinzip.


 

Born

16th April 1882
Plasy, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)

Died

11th December 1945 (aged 63)
Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)