Edgar Julius Jung, Right-Wing Enemy of the Nazis: A Political Biography

By the time of his death, Edgar Julius Jung (1894-1934) was well known in Germany and Europe as one of the foremost ideologues of the political movement that called itself the Conservative Revolution and as a right-wing opponent of the Nazis. He was speechwriter for and confidant of Franz von Papen (first Hitler's predecessor as chancellor, then Hitler's vice-chancellor), which put him at the center of political events right up until the Nazi seizure of power. Considered by Baldur von Schirach and Goebbels to be one of the worst enemies of the Nazis, Jung was assassinated by the Nazi regime in June 1934. The eleven years of Nazi rule that followed contributed to Jung's neglect by historians, as did distaste, since the war's end and the founding of the Federal Republic on democratic principles, for his strongly antidemocratic stance. Although there have been several studies on Jung's political thought, there has been until now no biography in German or English. Roshan Magub's book therefore fills a serious gap in German historical literature. It shows that Jung's opposition to National Socialism dates from the earliest days and that he had a very close relationship with the Ruhr industry, which supported him financially and enabled him to reach a nationwide audience. Magub uses, for the first time, all the available material from the archives in Munich, Koblenz, Cologne, and Berlin, and the whole of Jung's Nachlass. Her book sheds new light on Jung and demonstrates his importance in Germany's political history. ROSHAN MAGUB holds a PhD from Birkbeck College, University of London.