[null, null, {"document_url": "https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Feder", "unformatted_src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:300x300/42/133342-004-824B5CE2.jpg", "src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:300x300/42/133342-004-824B5CE2.jpg", "formatted_filename": "B CE", "alt_text": "Feder, Gottfried"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Feder", "unformatted_src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:250x600/31/149831-004-E1DF5942.jpg", "src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:250x600/31/149831-004-E1DF5942.jpg", "formatted_filename": "E DF", "alt_text": "Donald J. Trump, 2010."}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Feder", "unformatted_src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:250x600/09/75509-004-CFE09F17.jpg", "src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:250x600/09/75509-004-CFE09F17.jpg", "formatted_filename": "CFE F", "alt_text": "Einstein, Albert"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Feder", "unformatted_src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:250x600/91/82291-004-B396E162.jpg", "src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/s:250x600/91/82291-004-B396E162.jpg", "formatted_filename": "B E", "alt_text": "Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi."}, null, null, {"document_url": "https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Feder", "unformatted_src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/mendel-insights-slider/curiosity-popup-image.png", "src": "https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/mendel-insights-slider/curiosity-popup-image.png", "formatted_filename": "curiosity popup image", "alt_text": "Curiosity Compass"}, null]
Gottfried Feder

German economist

Gottfried Feder, (born Jan. 27, 1883, Würzburg, Ger.—died Sept. 24, 1941, Murnau), German political activist who was the principal economic theoretician of the initial phase of German Nazism.

Feder, a civil engineer, gained notoriety in 1919 for his vaguely socialistic “Manifest zur Brechung der Zinsknechtschaft” (“Manifesto on Breaking the Shackles of Interest”), and his speech before a German Workers’ Party meeting at Munich in September of that year provided the immediate inspiration for Adolf Hitler’s entry into politics. Feder’s socialist and anticapitalist ideas subsequently found expression in Hitler’s 25-point program for the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party in March 1920, as well as in Feder’s own book, Der deutsche Staat auf nationaler und sozialer Grundlage (1923; “National and Social Bases of the German State”), considered by Hitler to be “the catechism of the [Nazi] movement.” Between 1924 and 1936 Feder sat in the German Reichstag and served as chairman of the Nazi Party’s economic council (1931), state secretary of the German Ministry of Economics (1933), and state housing commissioner (1934). With the general accommodation of Nazi policy to the existing economic system, however, Feder’s role in party affairs drastically diminished, and by 1936 he had been relegated to virtual obscurity.


 January 27, 1883
Würzburg, Germany

September 24, 1941 (aged 58)
Murnau, Germany

title / office

political affiliation

notable works

View Biographies Related To categoriesdates
Edit Mode
Tips For Editing


 description Article collections Media
Thank you for your feedback