Karl Harrer (8.10.1890 Munich – 5.9.1926 Munich)

Severely injured, Karl Harrer returned from the Western Front of World War I and worked as a sports reporter for the München-Augsburger Abendzeitung starting in 1918. Karl Harrer was among the members of the Thule Society. In October 1918, Harrer joined forces with Anton Drexler and a few others to form a 'political workers' circle' in order to win over the working class for ethnic-chauvinist-anti-semitic goals. Drexler and Harrer founded the German Workers' Party (DAP) on January 5, 1919.

In the first few months, Karl Harrer assumed a leadership position in the DAP alongside Drexler. At the member meetings up to the summer of 1919, Harrer gave lectures on the alleged blame of the Jews for the First World War and called for a boycott of Jewish newspapers. Nevertheless, the political workers' circle continued to exist under Harrer's chairmanship. Its members were appointed by Harrer and had to belong to the German Workers' Party (DAP) starting in March 1919. Reflections for a party manifesto were already discussed here.

In September 1919, Adolf Hitler attended an assembly of the DAP for the first time and enrolled in the party shortly afterwards. In a short while, Hitler became the DAP's key speaker and increasingly emerged into the public eye as the party's propaganda officer. Unlike Anton Drexler, Karl Harrer did not fully welcome this progress and wanted to curb Hitler's activism. This difference of opinion between Harrer and Hitler over the form of the DAP's propaganda activities came to a head.

Since December 1919, Hitler had been trying to push Karl Harrer out of the party leadership. He accomplished this with Harrer's resignation from all party positions on January 5, 1920. Anton Drexler took over the party leadership. Karl Harrer no longer appeared within the Nazi Party. Nothing is known about his further career path until his death in 1926.