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Description area
Dates of existence
History
The fortnightly anti-Semitic periodical, Weltdienst, was founded by Ulrich Fleischauer, a retired German lieutenant, in Erfurt on 1 December 1933. August Schirmer, who, having already been employed at Weltdienst in the 'American Section', took over publication of the periodical in July 1939. Shortly afterwards he announced the relocation of the offices to Frankfurt am Main, where all anti Jewish 'research establishments' under Alfred Rosenberg's direction were concentrated. Schirmer resigned in August 1943, at which time Weltdienst was published in 18 languages.
Weltdienst continued well into 1944. Kurt Richter, the new publisher, was also director of an 'International Institute for the Enlightenment of the Jewish Question', also called 'Weltdienst'. This institute organised gatherings of European antisemites 'with a view to securing an exchange of ideas and experiences designed to steadily strengthen the common European defence action against Jewry'.
In 1934 Weltdienst was given the task of rounding up Russian émigré experts to defend the veracity of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, at Bern. This anti-Semitic forgery came under public scrutiny in June 1933, when a right wing Swiss nationalist organisation known as the National Front began distributing it during a demonstration in Bern. A group of leading Swiss Jews filed a suit against the distributors, contending that the document, which described a Jewish plot to take over the world, fell under the ban on 'indecent writings'.