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Johann Most

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Also known as John Most, Johann Joseph "Hans" Most, Johann Joseph Most

German-American anarchist

Person · Open Library

Born
5 February 1846
Died
17 March 1906
Works
45

Top works

  • Der narrenthurm
  • Tie socialen Bewegungen im alten Rom und der Cärismus
  • Down with the anarchists
  • Die Gottespest
  • Down with the anarchists!

via Open Library + Wikidata

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
3
Total plays
10

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Johann+Most">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Johann Most

Quotes

  • Anything that can tear up the side of a mountain should definitely be effective against a high society party attended by royalty or capitalist exploiters (monopolists).
  • "Among the beasts of prey, man is certainly the worst." This expression, very commonly made nowadays, is only relatively true. Not man as such, but man in connection with wealth is a beast of prey. The richer a man, the greater his greed for more. We may call such a monster the "beast of property". It now rules the world, makes mankind miserable, and gains in cruelty and voracity with the progress of our so-called "civilization".
  • Either by direct brute force, by cunning, or by fraud, this horde has from time to time seized the soil with all its wealth. The laws of inheritance and entail, and the changing of hands, have lent a "venerable" color to this robbery, and consequently mystified and erased the true character of such actions. For this reason, the "beast of property" is not yet fully recognized, but is, on the contrary, worshipped with a holy awe.
  • In order to labor, there are required not only ability and will, but also room to work, tools, raw materials and means of sustenance. The poor man must, therefore, by force of necessity, apply to those who possess these things in plenty.
  • His pretended "saviors" ... place him under the yoke of labor - they force him to the utmost of his mental and physical abilities to produce new treasures, which however he is not entitled to own.
  • It is the lash of hunger which compels the poor man to submit. In order to live he must sell &mdash;"voluntarily" sell&mdash;himself every day and hour to the "beast of property".

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
( 1846-02-05 ) February 5, 1846, Augsburg , Kingdom of Bavaria
Died
March 17, 1906 (1906-03-17) (aged 60), Cincinnati, Ohio , US

via Wikipedia infobox

~19 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Johann Joseph "Hans" Most (February 5, 1846 – March 17, 1906) was a German-American Social Democratic and then anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and orator. He is credited with popularizing the concept of "propaganda of the deed" in the United States. Most became a widely noted controversial figure when he published literature on how to make and use bombs, and was imprisoned several times for advocacy of violent anarchism.

Early years

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Johann Most” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.