Talk:Walther Rathenau

Fate of Rathenau's assassins?
The page presently makes no mention of whether Rathenau's assassins were brought to justice. I also have difficulty understanding the intended sense of a memorial stone that "...commemorates the crime" -- ! -- Deborahjay 09:51, 27 February 2007 (UTC)


 * Presently the wording is that the stone "marks" the crime scene. Richard David Ramsey 04:11, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Homosexuality reference
Although interesting, "rumors of homosexuality" should have a proper citation, not just a link to a GLBT advocacy web page, which itself contains no citations. Wikipedia policy is that citations have to be scholarly sources. Suggestion: find a published history or biography which cites rumors of homosexuality as part of the right-wing smear campaign against Rathenau. J M Rice (talk) 18:17, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

Date of death and how assassinated
The follow citation shows date of death to be June 28, not June 24. Further it says more than one car was involved.

In the Adam Fergusson book "When Money Dies" (ISDN: 978-1-58648-994-6)pg. 78-79, it says:

''"In the early morning of June 28 on the way home from a late evening of argument about coal deliveries to the Entente at the American Ambassador's house in Berlin, Rathenau, a Jew like Erzberger, had just undergone, like Erzberger, a vitriolic attack in the Reichstag from the Rightist leader Dr. Helfferich.

''A few hours later, as Rathenau was driven from his home to the Foreighn Office, the path of his car was blocked deliberately by another, while two assassins in a third car which had been following riddled him with bullets at close range. A bomb, thrown into his car for good measure, nearly cut his body in two." ''


 * However, in The Great Inflation by William Guttmann and Patricia Meehan, Saxon House, 1975, page 25 says "...assassination of the German Foreign Minister, Walter Rathenau, by right-wing fanatics. This event, which took place on 24th June 1922,..."  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.233.4.0 (talk) 05:01, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
 * It's been corrected. -- Orange Mike  &#x007C;   Talk  15:46, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Fergusson got many things wrong, including the claim, that Erzberger was Jewish.--Assayer (talk) 17:27, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

family
Was he married with children? If so, what was their fate in the third Reich? 121.73.7.84 (talk) 12:27, 26 July 2012 (UTC)
 * No, he never married and didn't have any children. He was survived by his mother Mathilde (1845-1926) and his sister Edith Andreae. His younger brother Erich had died in 1903.--Assayer (talk) 17:24, 16 September 2012 (UTC)

Undo/restore
I removed a lot of unsourced material of questionable encyclopedic character that may be original research and contained several errors:

"I am a German Jewish origins my people are the German people, my home is German land, my belief is German belief, which stands above all denominations"

is probably not what Rathenau wrote - it probably lacks an "of" and a full stop somewhere. However I restored some sourced content by the same editor. The part about imagery needs to be edited, though, at least the final sentence makes no sense as it stands now.Drow69 (talk) 11:01, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

This is an astonishing glowing biography of someone who could apparently do no wrong, yet in reality he was widely loathed. He was eventually assassinated. I think it needs toning down. 86.133.117.180 (talk) 21:34, 18 January 2017 (UTC)

Science fiction writer?
The article has the Category:German science fiction writers set - is it warranted? Are there any reliable sources calling him a science fiction writer and which (if any) of his works could be considered science fiction?

--Fixuture (talk) 19:47, 30 November 2016 (UTC)
 * A short short SF story of his, titled "Die Resurrection Co.", was published in 1898 under the pseudonym "W. Hartenau", and seems to have been reprinted several times. It is discussed briefly on page 399 of Deutsche Science Fiction 1870-1914: Rekonstruktion und Analyse der Anfänge einer Gattung by Roland Innerhofer (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag Wien, 1996); and on pages 56-57 of Deutsche Geschichtsdenker um die Jahrhundertwende und ihr Einfluß: Kurt Breysig, Walther Rathenau, Oswald Spengler by Pierluca Azzaro (Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang, 2005). Sadly, my German is not up to translating either reference further. Friedrich Kittler discussed the story in his essay "Gramophone, Film, Typewriter", reprinted in Literature, Media, Information Systems (London and New York: Routledge, 2013). -- Orange Mike &#124;  Talk  01:17, 19 January 2017 (UTC)
 * And of course there's Kaplan, Louis. “Walter Rathenau's Media Technological Turn as Mediated through W. Hartenau's ‘Die Resurrection Co.' An Essay at Resurrection.” New German Critique, no. 62, 1994, pp. 39–62. -- Orange Mike &#124;  Talk  01:24, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

developing supply chains to bring peace and for regime change within Germany
This would be an amazing accomplishment, if true. :-)  Was a line or two of text somehow dropped somewhere?  "...developing supply chains to bring peace and for regime change within Germany"

DlronW (talk) 03:39, 17 January 2017 (UTC)

Philosopher for socialism
This section is marked by stilted and inapt word choices and near incoherence. StN (talk) 06:11, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

Should be deleted in its entirety. Incoherent, no informational value. Prof235689 (talk) 00:55, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

It looks as if this section, and not only this section, was written by a non-native speaker of English, but it is so incoherent as to be beyond rectification (which in normal circumstances I would willingly do), because the intended meaning is impossible to detect. I've read hundreds of articles over the years, but have never before been left wondering, "What on earth is this person trying to say?"CWO (talk) 16:06, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

External links modified
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A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 15:39, 13 November 2019 (UTC)
 * Wappen Deutsches Reich (Weimarer Republik).svg

Clarify, please
During World War I his opinions hardened
 * Does that mean his mistrust of the government, or his support for the war? Valetude (talk) 08:55, 3 June 2020 (UTC)