Julius Lippert was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 politician in the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 party.

Born in Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, he became an extreme anti-Semite

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 in his youth after reading the anti-Semitic philosophers Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain

Houston Stewart Chamberlain

Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a British-born German author of books on political philosophy, natural science and the German composer Richard Wagner. He later became a German citizen. Chamberlain married Wagner's daughter, Eva, some years after Wagner's death...

. He joined the German military and fought in 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...

, twice being wounded, and ended the war as a 2nd Lieutenant.

In 1922, Lippert participated in the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther von Rathenau, and he eventually joined the NSDAP (the Nazi party). He became prominent in the NSDAP due to his rabid anti-Semitism and connection with Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...

. In 1933, he was appointed the State Commissioner of Berlin, purged the Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 government of opposition, and was responsible for much of the early persecution of Jews in Berlin. He was also the head of propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 in southeastern Germany.

In 1936, Lippert supervised the Olympics

1936 Summer Olympics

The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...

 and tried to make a good impression on the tourists. However, his power struggles with more powerful politicians would lead to his downfall. By 1937, Goebbels came to detest Lippert for his behaviour. Finally, in 1940, Lippert argued with Albert Speer

Albert Speer

Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...

 over the organization of Berlin, leading to his dismissal on the orders of Adolf 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...

, who had become increasingly hostile to him, writing in a journal entry, “Lippert is an incompetent, an idiot, a failure, a zero.”

He then joined the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 and was transferred to Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 where he became the commandant of Arlon in 1940. Lippert’s primary role in the war, however, was organizing radio propaganda in Belgrade

Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...

.

After the war, he was extradited to Belgium in January 1946 for trial. He was sentenced to six years’ hard labor on 29 June 1951, for involvement in war crimes. Although the sentence was increased to eight years in early 1952, he was released on 15 April 1952, since by this time most of his time had been served in Belgian captivity. He was subsequently classified as a Nazi activist by a de-Nazification court. He lectured at universities until his death on 30 June 1956, in Bad Schwalbach

Bad Schwalbach

Bad Schwalbach is the district seat of Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany.- Geographic Location :Bad Schwalbach is a spa town some 20 km northwest of Wiesbaden. It lies at 289 to 465 m above sea level in the Taunus, along the small river Aar...

.