10 Facts About Axel Ripke

Axel Herbert Ewald Ripke was a German journalist and politician of the German Fatherland Party and the Nazi Party.

In 1917 Ripke joined the German Fatherland Party a far-right party, which represented the most right-wing and pro-war elements in the political spectrum of Imperial Germany during the last years of World War I In November 1917 Ripke was discharged from the Prussian Army in order to become chief of the press department of the DVP.

Axel Ripke was swiftly dismissed from that position on account of his inept handling of the party's finances - creating a debt of 40,000 Reichsmarks.

Axel Ripke became one of the first members of the Nazi Party after its re-foundation in February 1925.

Axel Ripke established his Gau headquarters in the city of Elberfeld.

In June 1925 Goebbels published an essay entitled Verkalkte Intelligenz which represented a frontal attack against Axel Ripke, who was clear to everyone to be the target of Goebbels polemics, even though his name was not mentioned.

Axel Ripke was succeeded by a triumvirate consisting of Kaufmann, Goebbels, and Viktor Lutze.

Goebbels, despite his machinations against Axel Ripke, conceded in his diary that the latter had taught him "infinitely much" as a propagandist and that Axel Ripke had been "an event in my life".

In 1929 Axel Ripke managed to gain a post as a Municipal Policy Specialist in Gau Dusseldorf.

Axel Ripke did re-enter politics when he was re-elected to the municipal council of Wuppertal.