Bidspirit auction | DINTER ARTUR: (1876-1948)

DINTER ARTUR: (1876-1948) - DINTER ARTUR: (1876-1948) German writer and politician, an early adherent of the Nazi Party and a prominent exponent of völkisch antisemitism. D.S., being a German Personalausweis identity card issued to Dinter by the Bürgermeisteramt of Zell am Harmersbach, 8th July 1940. The small 8vo folding card, completed in typescript, provides Dinter's date of birth, 27th June 1876, and physical description, recording his age as 64, height as medium, hair as grey-white, eyes as blue and face as full/oval, and further noting scars on both index fingers as distinguishing features. To the right appears a head and shoulders photograph of Dinter, identified as Schriftsteller Dr. Artur Dinter and secured by two official circular stamps of the municipality of Zell am Harmersbach. Signed (´ Dr. Artur Dinter´ ) by Dinter in fountain pen ink in the designated area beneath his personal details. Further bearing official signatures and municipal stamps, one incorporating a revenue stamp, and with two file holes to the left edge. Some light overall age wear, otherwise VG Artur Dinter was an extreme German nationalist and antisemitic writer whose notorious novel Die Sünde wider das Blut (1917) became a bestseller in völkisch circles. An early Nazi Party member, he became Gauleiter of Thuringia in 1925, but increasingly came into conflict with Hitler and was expelled from the NSDAP in 1928. His political activities were subsequently restricted by the Nazi authorities, making the issue of the present identity document in Germany in 1940 an interesting survival from the later and considerably less influential period of his life.