Günther Schwab (7 October 1904 inPrague – 12 April 2006 inSalzburg,Austria) was an Austrian writer andauthor, and member of theNazi party.^[1] He founded theWorld Union for Protection of Life.

After the First World War his family, who were merchants, moved toVienna, Austria, where Schwab discovered his love for nature. In Vienna, he joinedNSDAP (Nazi Party) as well asSturmabteilung (SA or Brownshirts) in which he was a lieutenant from 1930.

Through Prof. Dr. Günther Schlesinger, an AustrianNature Protection Referent, Günther Schwab got more involved with nature protection. He studied in those years, as expected of the family, at the commercial academy, but due to his love for nature he soon became a forest ranger.

During his life, he would serve on the advisory panel of theSociety for Biological Anthropology, Eugenics, and Behavior Research.^[1]

His first bookAbenteuer am Fluss (Adventures At The River), published by Franz-Eher-Verlag, the Central publishing house of the Nazi party, was proof of his love. as were all his following booksDer Wind über den Feldern (The wind across the fields),Kamerad mit dem haarigen Gesicht (A story about a dog),Land voller Grande (Land of grace),Das Glück am Rand (Fortune at the edge).

In 1951, he gave up his profession, moved to Salzburg and dedicated his life to writing. He realised that the new upcoming 1950s affluent society threatened to destroy all that he loved: the countryside with all its inhabitants, the solitude of the wilderness, the wildlife as he knew it up to then. Günther Schwab proved to be almost clairvoyant when, at the age of 50, he held a lecture with the title "The catastrophe has started already", at the Audi Max in Vienna in 1954.

To explain his fears more plainly and understandably for the man in the street, Günther Schwab wrote his bookDer Tanz mit dem Teufel (The dance with the devil). It reads like a subtle, interesting detective story, which he finished in 1958. The theme was mankind's industrial sins causing environmental damage in condemning manyAmericans as degenerates. The book prophesied that improperly-managed population sizes from other continents would avalanche Europe. This was an effort to renewSocial Darwinism andeugenics theories.^[1] The English translation was published in 1963.

• The Forester of the Silver Wood (1954)

Günther Schwab reached 100 years of age in 2004 when he received the Cup of Honour of Salzburg and theAustrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class.^[2] He died on 12 April 2006.

• Schwab, Günther.Dance with the devil. A dramatic encounter. Geoffrey Bles, London 1963.

• "Schwab, Günther".AEIOU. Retrieved2009-09-17.

• Günther Schwab atIMDb