Eberhard Achterberg

Eberhard Achterberg (9 January 1910 in Oliva, West Prussia, now part of Gdańsk, Poland – 11 August 1983 in Neumünster) was a religious scholar, a journalist, a high-ranking Nazi official in the Amt Rosenberg and later a leading member of the German Unitarian Religious Community and school and university teacher.

He received his doctorate in 1940 from the University of Jena with a dissertation entitled Glück und Schicksal im germanischen Lebensgefühl.

At the end of that year he became acting editor of Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte, published by Alfred Rosenberg, which described itself as the "central political and cultural periodical of the NSDAP".

[1][2] From March 1942 to January 1943, he headed the division for "Issues concerning Jews and Freemasons" (Juden- und Freimaurerfragen) on behalf of August Schirmer.

Achterberg had an important influence on Unitarian thought in Germany[4] and was an "outstanding exponent" of Unitarianism,[5] and for 14 years was the editor of the periodical Glaube und Tat—Deutsch-unitarische Blätter (now unitarische blätter), where he primarily concerned himself with issues raising questions about value orientation, anti-authoritarian education, social policy and personal interactions.

He lost a teaching position in German and philosophy at the Armed Forces University in Hamburg when one of his sons refused military service.