Werner Stiefel, RIP

Brian Doherty | June 19, 2006

Werner Stiefel, a strong candidate for the title of father of the "new libertarian nation" movement--an approach to freedom sometimes known as libertarian Zionism--had died, at age 85, of cancer. Spencer Heath MacCallum, who worked with Stiefel on coming up with proper constitution for a new libertarian nation (or, in MacCallum's terminology, a master lease for a private proprietary nation), has written a detailed essay on the man and his efforts.

I wrote a bit about Stiefel's efforts in this 2004 feature on a current, less ambitious attempt to create not a new, free nation but merely a Free State--the Free State Project, targeting New Hampshire as a potential libertarian homeland.