Talk:Karl Nobiling

Anarchist?

This article, not citing any references or sources, currently states that Nobiling was an anarchist. The corresponding article in the German Wikipedia, however (de:Karl Eduard Nobiling), says that there is nothing directly supporting an anarchist or socialist background of Nobiling's action:

Aufgrund seiner schweren Verwundung waren Nobilings Aussagen am Tatort nur bruchstückhaft und ließen keinen Rückschluss auf eine anarchistisch bzw. sozialistisch motivierte Tat zu, auch wenn Nobiling vor der Tat möglicherweise losen Kontakt zu sozialistischen Agitatoren gehabt haben könnte. Der Schweizer Anarchist Paul Brousse etwa bezeichnete dementsprechend Nobilings Anschlag in der Zeitschrift "L´Avant-guarde" als „republikanisch“, nicht aber als anarchistisch motiviert. Gewisse sporadische Aussagen Nobilings lassen zudem darauf schließen, dass er in erster Linie aus Größenwahn gehandelt hat.

Rough translation: Because of his severe injuries, Nobiling's statements at the site of crime were only fragmentary and didn't allow the conclusion of an anarchist resp. socialistically motivated act, although Nobiling may have had loose contact with socialist agitators prior to the act. E.g. in the periodical "L´Avant-guarde", the Swiss anarchist Paul Brousse called Nobiling's assault "republican", but not anarchistically motivated. Certain sporadic statements by Nobiling furthermore seem to indicate that he acted primarily out of megalomania. The German Wikipedia article, giving some sources, looks more believable to me than the unsourced stuff here. In Wikisource, there's also a flyer by the German Socialist Worker's Party from 1878, saying that Nobiling was "an aristocrat thoroughly" and denying that he had anything to do with socialists. It seems that Bismarck gladly declared Nobiling a socialist as a pretext to further the Anti-Socialist Laws, but whether Nobiling really had socialist views it seems nobody can say for sure, and there's even less supporting an anarchist connection. I'm therefore going to delete these disputable parts from the article, alongside with the "Dr." (the German article doesn't indicate that he had a doctorate). Gestumblindi (talk) 20:50, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

I'd agree that there isn't any particular evidence he was. One of the listed books in the 'literature' section is by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly who associates him with Propaganda of the deed but doesn't actually appear to describe Nobiling as an anarchist. Wikociewie (talk) 09:57, 30 June 2026 (UTC)