{{Short description|Chilean lawyer, philosopher and writer (born 1981) }} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}} {{family name hatnote|Kaiser|Barents-Von Hohenhagen|lang=Spanish}} {{Infobox academic | name = Axel Kaiser | image = Axel Kaiser (2024) (cropped).png | alt = Kaiser in 2016 | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1981|7|4}} | birth_place = Santiago, Chile | resting_place = | occupation = Author<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.libertaddigital.com/opinion/ideas/la-madre-de-todas-las-batallas-1276239453.html |title=La madre de todas las batallas |work=Libertad Digital |language=Spanish |first=Axel |last=Kaiser |date=11 October 2011 |accessdate = 13 April 2020}}</ref> | alma_mater = Universidad Diego Portales <small>(LL.B.)</small><br />University of Heidelberg <small>(LL.M. in Investments, Trade and Arbitration)</small><br />University of Heidelberg <small>(M.A. in American studies)</small><br />University of Heidelberg <small>(Ph.D. in American studies)</small> | thesis_title = The American Philosophical Foundations of the Chilean Free Market Revolution. | thesis_url = https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/17892/ | thesis_year = 2014 | school_tradition = Austrian School | doctoral_advisor = Katja Patzel-Mattern, Martin Thunert y Detlef Junker | notableworks = | discipline = Political sciences<br />Philosophy | spouse = | work_institution = Universidad del Desarrollo<br />University of the Andes<br />Adolfo Ibáñez University<br />Stanford University | website = }} '''Axel Kaiser''' (born 4 July 1981) is a Chilean writer, lawyer and political scientist known for his work on free-market economics. Kaiser is a member of the Mont Pelerin Society and has published articles in ''Forbes'' and other publications.<ref>{{Cite book|first1=Roland|last1=Benedikter|first2=Katja|last2=Siepmann|first3=Miguel|last3=Zlosilo|chapter=The Fiscal Dimension: Greater Fairness at the Price of a Slowing Economy? The Ideological Debate Behind Bachelet's Envisaged Tax Reform|title=Chile in Transition. Prospects and Challenges for Latin America's Forerunner of Development|date= 2015|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-17951-3|isbn=978-3-319-17951-3|publisher=Springer International Publishing|editor= Roland Benedikter, Katja Siepmann |page=137}}</ref> He is also the author of several books, including ''The Tyranny of Equality'' and ''The Populist Deception''.
== Biography == Axel Kaiser was born to Hans Christian Kaiser Wagner and Rosmarie Barents Haensgen, a German-Chilean family.<ref name=genealog>{{Cite web|title=K {{!}} Inmigrantes Alemanes al Sur de Chile|url=https://www.genealog.cl/Alemanes/K.html#KAISER|access-date=23 December 2021|website=www.genealog.cl}}</ref>
His paternal grandparents were Rosemarie Wagner Schilling, a fourth-generation German-Chilean, and her husband, the German immigrant Friedrich Ernst Kaiser Richter,<ref name=genealog/> who defined politically as a Social Democrat, arrived in Chile as a refugee from Württemberg in 1936,<ref name=Interferencia/> escaping National Socialist Germany<ref>{{cite web|access-date=17 February 2025 |language=es |publisher=El Mercurio |title=Los influyentes y polémicos hermanos Kaiser |url=https://www.litoralpress.cl/sitio/Prensa_Texto?LPKey=OSZGYYFTH5HV3IS625BGKS7BVOYYZDKIMKQVI5OWDPNKRZVBEAJQ |website=LitoralPress}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> after Adolf Hitler's rise to power and before World War II, having foreseen its outbreak.<ref name="elpaís">{{cite web |author1=Antonia Laborde |title=El fenómeno Kaiser, el presidenciable que corrió los márgenes de la extrema derecha chilena |url=https://elpais.com/chile/2025-02-16/el-fenomeno-kaiser-el-presidenciable-que-corrio-los-margenes-de-la-extrema-derecha-chilena.html |publisher=El País |access-date=17 February 2025 |language=es |date=16 February 2025}}</ref>
He married his wife in April 1939<ref name=genealog/> and settled in Villarrica in Southern Chile, where he was eventually elected as the 9th mayor of the city, serving between May 1956 and October 1957.<ref name=Interferencia>{{cite web|access-date=17 February 2025 |language=es |publisher=Interferencia |title=El universo de los hermanos Kaiser: la historia de la familia que busca llegar a La Moneda |url=https://interferencia.cl/articulos/el-universo-de-los-hermanos-kaiser-la-historia-de-la-familia-que-busca-llegar-la-moneda}}<!-- auto-translated from Spanish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> His father was active in the National Party, serving as a youth leader.<ref name=Interferencia/>
He is the brother of Vanessa Kaiser, former scholar at the Universidad Autónoma de Chile and director of the libertarian think tank ''Centro de Estudios Libertarios'' and former councilor of Las Condes, he is also brother of Johannes Kaiser, a right-wing politician, former member of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, founder of the National Libertarian Party<ref>{{Cite web|last=Claro|first=Hernán|date=17 September 2019|title=Johannes Kaiser, el youtuber que pagó parte del polémico inserto en El Mercurio|url=https://www.eldinamo.cl/nacional/2019/09/17/johannes-kaiser-el-youtuber-que-pago-parte-del-polemico-inserto-en-el-mercurio/|url-status=live|access-date=5 July 2021|website=El Dínamo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190920204216/https://www.eldinamo.cl/nacional/2019/09/17/johannes-kaiser-el-youtuber-que-pago-parte-del-polemico-inserto-en-el-mercurio/ |archive-date=20 September 2019 }}</ref> bz Leif Kaiser, chairman of the Chilean National Rifle Association, along with three other less prominent siblings.<ref name=Interferencia/>
He spent his childhood and adolescence in Villarrica with his brothers.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=5 July 2023|date=23 November 2021|first=El Mercurio|language=Spanish|last=S.A.P|title=Quién es Johannes Kaiser, el diputado electo de Republicanos que generó polémica por video sobre voto femenino|url=https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2021/11/23/1039204/alex-kaiser-quien-es-diputado.html|website=Emol}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref>{{Citation |title=DEBATE: Axel Kaiser Vs Eugenia Mancilla en Barometro – pinguino.com (Minute 0:53) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biDbq1PVMNY |access-date=5 July 2023}}</ref> While living in the Chilean capital, he earned a Bachelor of Laws at Universidad Diego Portales. He qualified as a lawyer on 7 August 2007.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Poder Judicial – Transparencia. RUT 14.121.758-5. |url=https://www.pjud.cl/transparencia/busqueda-de-abogados |access-date=5 July 2023 |website=www.pjud.cl}}</ref>
In 2009, Kaiser won a Fulbright Program scholarship<ref>{{cite web|title=FULBRIGHT-CONICYT scholarships results. June 2009.|url=https://www.conicyt.cl/becas-conicyt/files/2012/08/articles-28504_resultados.pdf}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> and travelled to Germany to pursue two master's degrees (Master of Arts in International Law, mention Investments, Trade and Arbitration and another in American Studies)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Axel Kaiser |url=https://www.archbridgeinstitute.org/staff/axel-kaiser/ |access-date=5 July 2023 |website=Archbridge Institute}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Alumni – Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) |url=https://www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de/ma/mas-alumni.html |access-date=5 July 2023 |website=www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de}}</ref> and a PhD in American Studies in Heidelberg University, with the thesis ''The American Philosophical Foundations of the Chilean Free Market Revolution''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kaiser |first=Axel |title=Doctoral Thesis |url=https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/17892/1/AK%20miriam%20definitiva%204.pdf}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Ph.D. - Graduates – Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA) |url=https://www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de/phd/graduates.html |access-date=5 July 2023 |website=www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de}}</ref>
Back in Chile, he was a full professor at Universidad del Desarrollo and the Universidad de los Andes, where he taught a course on Latin American Politics. A 2017 poll by ''La Segunda'' ranked him among the most admired public intellectuals in Chile.<ref>{{cite news |date=25 May 2016 |title=Académico de la FAE, Alberto Mayol, fue escogido entre los intelectuales públicos más admirados |trans-title=FAE academic, Alberto Mayol, was chosen among the most admired public intellectuals |url=https://fae.usach.cl/fae/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3787%3A2016-05-25-16-12-46&catid=13%3Anoticias-fae&Itemid=3 |accessdate=13 April 2020 |department=Facultad de Administración y Economía |publisher=Universidad de Santiago |language=es}}</ref>
Actress Susana Hidalgo alleged Kaiser used a copyright of hers without gaining permission by using one of her images of the 2019–2020 Chilean protests in the promotional posters of his talks in Mexico in February 2020.<ref name="mostraimagen2020">{{Cite web|url=https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/sin-editar/2020/03/03/las-criticas-contra-axel-kaiser-por-utilizar-foto-icono-del-estallido-contraviniendo-los-derechos-de-autor/|title=Las críticas contra Axel Kaiser por utilizar foto ícono del estallido contraviniendo los derechos de autor|date=3 March 2020|access-date=25 March 2021|website=El Mostrador|last=|first=|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200304164609/https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/sin-editar/2020/03/03/las-criticas-contra-axel-kaiser-por-utilizar-foto-icono-del-estallido-contraviniendo-los-derechos-de-autor/ |archive-date=4 March 2020 }}</ref>
== Books == * ''El Chile que Viene'' (2007) * ''La Fatal Ignorancia'' (2009) * ''La Miseria del Intervencionismo'' (2012) * ''La Tiranía de la Igualdad'' (2015)<ref>{{Cite web |first=Rodríguez Braun |last=Carlos |date=10 March 2017 |url=https://elcultural.com/La-tirania-de-la-igualdad-Por-que-el-igualitarismo-es-inmoral-y-socava-el-progreso-de-nuestra-sociedad |title=La tiranía de la igualdad. Por qué el igualitarismo es inmoral y socava el progreso de nuestra sociedad |language=Spanish |accessdate=7 April 2020}}</ref> * ''El Engaño Populista'' (2016), co-author with Gloria Álvarez * ''El Papa y el Capitalismo'' (2018) * ''La Neoinquisición'' (2020) * ''The Street Economist: Fifteen economic lessons every citizen should know (El Economista Callejero)'' (2021) * ''El odio a los ricos'' (2023), co-author with Rainer Zitelmann * ''Parásitos mentales: Siete ideas progresistas que infectan nuestro pensamiento y sociedad'' (2024), {{ISBN|978-956-9948-60-2}}
=== Novels === * ''El libro de Asgalard'' (Ediciones Minotauro, 2023), {{ISBN|978-956-9957-26-0}}
== See also == * Fundación para el Progreso * El Líbero
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Axel}} Category:1981 births Category:Academic staff of the University for Development Category:Chilean anti-communists Category:Chilean columnists Category:Chilean libertarians Category:National Libertarian Party politicians Category:Chilean non-fiction writers Category:Chilean political commentators Category:Diego Portales University alumni Category:Heidelberg University alumni Axel Category:Living people Category:Mass media people from Santiago, Chile