Gustav Landauer (7 April 1870 –2 May 1919) was one of the leading theorists on anarchism in Germany in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of social anarchism and an avowed pacifist. He was briefly Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic. Landauer is also known for his study of metaphysics and religion, and his translations of William Shakespeare's works into German.