Walter Frank (12 February 1900 - 9 May 1945) was a Nazi historian, notable for his leading role in anti-Semitic research.[1][2][3]
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Frank was born in Fürth, Kingdom of Bavaria. In his youth, he attended Julius Streicher rallies; his politics were heavily influenced by the Bavarian Soviet Republic and the Beer Hall Putsch. Later, he studied at the University of Munich under Alexander von Müller and Adolf Stoecker, who were anti-semitic and supportive of Adolf Hitler.[2] He was increasingly active in the Nazi movement, and published many anti-semitic works. He was director of the Reichsinstitut für Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands (Reich Institute for History of the New Germany, sometimes referred to as "Frank's Institute") from its opening in 1935. The institute's goal was to create a new, proper, Nazi historiography and study the "Jewish question"; this area had its own sub-institute from 1936.[1][2][4] Frank was a protegee of Alfred Rosenberg, one of Nazism's chief ideologues.[4] Notable Nazi historians working in the institute included Karl Alexander von Müller, Erich Marks and Heinrich von Srbik. Frank committed suicide at Brunsrode near Braunschweig in 1945, believing the world to be senseless after the death of Hitler.[5]