Hermann Ahlwardt (21 December 1846 – 16 April 1914)[citation needed] was a writer, a member of the Reichstag (German parliament) and a vehement antisemite.

After stealing money collected for a children's Christmas party in 1889, Ahlwardt was fired from his job as a primary school principal.

[1] In 1892, Ahlwardt accused arms manufacturer Ludwig Loewe & Co. of being in a Jewish-French conspiracy to sell defective rifles to the German army in order to weaken the country militarily and was sentenced to five months' imprisonment for this unfounded defamation but was not jailed because by this time he had been elected to the Reichstag.

World agriculture prices were depressed at the time and he had told this farming community that their troubles were due to the Jews.

[2] This is supposedly contradicted by news articles of the time that show the names of officers printed during his 1895 visit are not generally used by Jews, such as Cartright and O'Brien.