Hans Knirsch was an Austro-German activist from Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

 for Austrian National Socialism

Austrian National Socialism

Austrian National Socialism was a Pan-German movement that was formed at the beginning of the 20th century. The movement took a concrete form on November 15, 1903 when the German Worker's Party was established in Austria with its secretariat stationed in the town of Aussig...

. After the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he led the original party in Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, called the Sudeten German National Socialist Party

Sudeten German National Socialist Party

The Sudeten German Party was created by Konrad Henlein under the name Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront on October 1, 1933, some months after the state of Czechoslovakia had outlawed the German National Socialist Workers' Party...

. Together with Rudolf Jung

Rudolf Jung

Rudolf Jung was an instrumental force and agitator of German-Czech National Socialism and, later on, became a member of the German Nazi Party....

 and Hans Krebs

Hans Krebs (National Socialist)

Hans Krebs was a Moravian Nazi Party member and SS-Brigadeführer from Czechoslovakia.-Career:Hans Krebs was born in the ancient town Jihlava in Moravia when it was part of the Habsburg Empire and was involved in the German nationalistic movements from his youth...

, he was one of the original core of National Socialists that remained in the Nazi Party after 1933.

Biography

Hans Knirsch became a Geschäftsführer, or managing leader, of the Mährisch-Trübauer Verband in 1901. In that capacity he published an appeal which extolled the political unification of all Germans into one state, referring to it as der alte Sehnsuchstraum der deutschen Demokraten ("the old nostalgic dream of the German democrats").

Active in several party congresses, before World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 he attempted to get the DAP to add the words "National Socialist" to their name. The effort failed, as the proposed name was felt to be too reminiscent of the Czech National Social Party

Czech National Social Party

Czech National Social Party was a civic nationalist political party established in 1898 within the Young Czech Party as a nominally socialist group with a stress on achieving Czech independence from Austria–Hungary Czech National Social Party (Czech: Česká strana národně sociální) was a civic...

 Following his arrest for the failed Beer Hall Putsch

Beer Hall Putsch

The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...

, Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

went on a hunger strike. It was Hans Knirsch who talked Hitler out of his depression and convinced him to resume eating.

Writings of Knirsch

• Aus der Geschichte der deutschen nationalsozialistischen Arbeiterbewegung Altösterreichs und der Tschechoslowakei, (Aussig, 1932).