Willibald Hentschel

Willibald Hentschel (7 November 1858 – 2 February 1947) was a German writer and political agitator of the agrarian and volkisch movement. He sought to renew the Aryan race through a variety of schemes, including selective breeding and polygamy, all within a firmly rural setting.

Early life and education Willibald Hentschel was born in Łódź, Congress Poland in 1858. His father was a textile factory owner from Burgenstein (Bohemia).

In 1874 he moved to Dresden, where he graduated from high school in 1875 and began to study chemistry and physics. In 1877 he moved to Jena, where he studied biology at the University of Jena.

Career After his PhD Hentschel initially remained an assistant with Haeckel, then returned to the Technische Hochschule Dresden, where he was involved with chemist Rudolf Schmitt in developing a new process to produce salicylic acid. In 1885/1886 Hentschel participated in an expedition to East Africa. After his return, he worked as a chemist at the University of Jena, University of Leipzig and University of Heidelberg. In 1903, Hentschel founded the anti-Semitic journal Hammer together with Theodor Fritsch. Hentschel's scheme attracted criticism not only from religious leaders but also from fellow racial nationalists who were outraged by what they saw as an attack on the institution of the family. and belonged to the tendency within German nationalism that was strongly opposed to Christianity. Despite the criticism he founded his own Mittgart-Bund to publicise his idea and even attempted to start his colony in Lower Saxony although this scheme met with little success and had been abandoned before 1914.

World War I Before and during WWI Hentschel worked in Radebeul and Schreckenstein. During and after World War I, Hentschel’s stocks became worthless.

Interbellum, 1918–1938 After World War I he moderated his ideas somewhat, calling instead for a migration of ethnic Germans into the east of the country in order to displace the Poles living there. His vision inspired the creation of the Artaman League youth movement in which the likes of Heinrich Himmler and Richard Walther Darré were active.

On 1 August 1929, Hentschel joined the Nazi Party as member number 144,649 although, whilst his ideas about eugenics were influential on Nazism as an ideology, he had no real influence in the party personally.

Personal life and death Hentschel was married with Hellen Zimmermann and had five daughters. After 1890 he lived on his estate in Seiffersdorf in Silesia, today Radomierz, municipality Janowice Wielkie. He died 1947 in Berg, Upper Bavaria.

Legacy Hentschel had many followers, including his teacher Ernst Haeckel, who shared his views on racial hygiene. Other admirers were Erich Ludendorff and Adolf Hitler, who congratulated the Hentschel couple on the occasion of their diamond wedding anniversary, even though Hentschel had left the NSDAP in 1941. In addition to the ethnic ideas, as expressed in the Lebensborn, Hentschel’s influence on National Socialism consisted above all in the enforcement of the Hitler salute which he initiated.