Schmidt, Axel

Schmidt, Axel, b 20 October 1870 in Dorpat, Estonia, d 1940 in Berlin. German journalist. A newspaper editor in Tallinn (1896–1900) and Riga (1907–11), in 1911 he moved to Berlin, where he edited prominent journals, such as Deutsche Politik (1917–21) and Der Deutsche Gedanke (1925–8). A supporter of Ukrainian independence, during the First World War he advised the German government on its eastern policy, and he made an official visit to Kyiv in 1918. That year he cofounded the German-Ukrainian Society, and he served as the organization’s general secretary and as editor of its organ Die Ukraine in 1918–26. He wrote articles and several books about Eastern Europe and especially Ukraine, including #Ukraine—Land der Zukunft (1939), which was confiscated by the Nazi authorities.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of #Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]