Werner Stiefel, RIP

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.