Ludwig Quidde

Ludwig Quidde (; 23 March 1858 – 4 March 1941) was a German politician and pacifist who is mainly remembered today for his acerbic criticism of German Emperor Wilhelm II. Quidde's long career spanned four different eras of German history: Otto von Bismarck (until 1890), the Hohenzollern Empire under Wilhelm II (1888–1918), the Weimar Republic (1918–1933); and Nazi Germany. In 1927, Quidde was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Early life and career

Born into a wealthy bourgeois merchant family, Quidde grew up in Bremen, read history and got involved in the activities of the German Peace Society (Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft). In his younger years, he had already opposed Bismarck's policies. In 1881 he received his PhD at the University of Göttingen.

The fortune that Quidde inherited allowed him to devote himself entirely to politics. In 1893, he joined the German People's Party (DtVP), which was founded in 1868 and met his anti-militarist, anti-Prussian, democratic and pacifist expectations.

In 1894, Quidde published a 17-page pamphlet, Caligula. Eine Studie über römischen Caesarenwahnsinn (Caligula: A Study of Roman Imperial Insanity). Containing 79 footnotes, the short essay is exclusively about the Roman Empire of the 1st century AD. However, Quidde drew an implicit parallel between the Roman Emperor Caligula and Wilhelm II and de facto accused both rulers of megalomania. The author had insisted on publishing his pamphlet under his real name, which effectively ended his academic career as a historian when a periodical had a short review, which explained the parallels that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. After he had made a derogatory comment on a new medal in honour of Wilhelm I, German Emperor from 1871 to 1888, he was criminally convicted of lèse majesté and sentenced to three months in prison, which he served in Stadelheim Prison.

Post-war life After the end of the First World War, Quidde, like most other Germans, vehemently opposed the Treaty of Versailles but for different reasons from German militarists, who hated mainly the severe restrictions laid upon the German armed forces and the impending economic disaster that they stages would be caused by payment of the high reparations that the tretaty decreed. He and other German pacifists thought ahead and hoped that US President Woodrow Wilson would win the day by pointing out that such severe conditions would already sow the seeds of a new war:

When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Quidde escaped to Switzerland and finally settled down in Geneva for the rest of his days. He remained an optimist throughout his life. Aged 76, he published his essay "Landfriede und Weltfriede" (1934) while militarism was again on the rise. He believed that modern technology might serve as a deterrent from war:

Quidde died in his Swiss exile in 1941, aged 82.