Background
Adler was born in Vienna, the son of social democratic politician, Victor Adler, and the writer, Emma Adler.
Adler was born in Vienna, the son of social democratic politician, Victor Adler, and the writer, Emma Adler.
He studied chemistry, physics and mathematics in Zurich.
He is perhaps best known for his assassination of Count Karl von Stürgkh in 1916. He participated in the philosophical discussion about Ernst Mach, publishing Die Entdeckung der Weltelemente (zu East Machs 70 Geburtstag) - The Discovery of the World-Elements (On the Occasion of East Mach"s 70th Birthday) published in Der Kampf in 1908. This was part of Lenin"s attack on the Russian Machists.
In 1909-1910, while established in the University of Zurich, Adler was being considered to chair the physics department, but deferred to Einstein"s superior expertise and lobbied for Einstein"s appointment instead.
In 1910, Adler became editor of the newspaper Volksrecht in Zurich. He was engaged in the international trade union movement and in 1911 he gave up his scientific activities to become the secretary-general of the Sozialistische Partei Österreichs (Socialist Party of Austria) in Vienna, an office he held until 1914.
He became the spokesperson of the left wing of the party and after the start of the First World War he agitated particularly against the Sozialistische Partei Österreichs (Socialist Party of Austria)"s policy of supporting the war. In his fight against the war policy of Austria-Hungary, Adler resorted to drastic measures.
On October 21, 1916, in the dining room of the Viennese hotel Meißl und Schadn, he shot the Minister-President of Austria Count Karl von Stürgkh three times with a pistol, killing him.
After a period when attempts were made to avoid a trial by declaring Adler insane, he went to trial in May 1917 where he was able to publicly present his act in the context of the case against the war. Adler was sentenced to death, a sentence which was commuted to 18 years imprisonment. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Adler fled to the United States.
In 1946, he retired from politics and edited his father Victor"s exchange of letters with August Bebel and Karl Kautsky.
Adler died on January 2, 1960 in Zurich.
Adler was secretary of the International Working Union of Socialist Parties in 1921, and subsequently active in the formation of the Labour and Socialist International, serving as secretary-general firstly jointly with Tom Shaw then on his own until 1940.
This was hostilely cited by Vladimir Lenin in Materialism and Empirio-criticism, who called Adler a "naïve university lecturer".
In 1897, he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (Sozialistische Partei Österreichs (Socialist Party of Austria)) and from 1907 was editor of the magazine Der Kampf. After the outbreak of the revolution of 1918, he was released and played a significant role as the leader of the Arbeiterräte (workers" councils) and as a member of the National Council of Austria.