Friedrich Adler

Who was Friedrich Adler?

Friedrich Wolfgang Adler was an Austrian politician, lobbyist and revolutionary. He is perhaps best known for his assassination of Count Karl von Stürgkh in 1916.

Adler was born in Vienna, the son of social democratic politician Victor Adler. He studied chemistry, physics and mathematics in Zurich. In 1897 he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria and from 1907 was editor of the magazine Der Kampf. He was a good friend of Albert Einstein.

He participated in the philosophical discussion about Ernst Mach, publishing Die Entdeckung der Weltelemente - The Discovery of the World-Elements published in Der Kampf in 1908.

In 1909-1910, while established in the University of Zurich, Adler was being considered to chair the physics department, but deferred to Einstein's superior expertise and lobbied for Einstein's appointment instead.

Adler was engaged in the international trade union movement and in 1911 he gave up his scientific activities to become the secretary-general of the SPÖ in Vienna, an office he held until 1914. He became the spokesperson of the left wing of the party and after the start of the First World War he agitated particularly against the SPÖ's policy of supporting the war.