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Rudolf Rocker became a socialist in his youth joining the Social Democratic Party but was expelled in 1890 for his support of the left wing group Die Jungen. His political views would soon move towards anarchism.
Observing the second congress of the Second International in Brussels in 1891, Rocker began contributing to the anarchist press in 1892 and left Germany the same year to escape police harassment, settling in Britain in 1895.
In 1918 Rocker was deported from Britain to the Netherlands and eventually returned to Germany. He became a major figure in the German and international anarcho-syndicalist movement, helping to organize the International Congress in Berlin in 1922 leading to the formation of the International Workers Association. Rocker was opposed to anarchist support for the Bolshevik Revolution after 1917 and led the libertarian socialist opposition to the growing Nazi movement in Germany.
In 1933 Rocker left Germany again to escape persecution by the new Nazi regime. Settling in the United States, he continued to work as a speaker and writer, directing his efforts against the twin evils of Fascism and Communism. He spent the last 20 years of his life as a leading figure in the Mohegan community at Crompond, New York, and was the best-known anarchist in the country until his death.