This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000312486 Reproduction Date:
The German American Bund, or German American Federation ([1] The Bund was to consist only of American citizens of German descent.[2] Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.
In May 1933, Nazi Gau-USA and the Free Society of Teutonia, which were both small groups with only a few hundred members each. The Friends of New Germany was based in New York but had a strong presence in Chicago.[3] Members wore a uniform, a white shirt and black trousers for men with a black hat festooned with a red symbol. Women members wore a white blouse and a black skirt.[4]
The organization led by Spanknöbel was openly pro-Nazi, and engaged in activities such as storming the propaganda, the Jewish boycott of German goods which started in March 1933.
In an internal battle for control of the Friends, Spanknöbel was ousted as leader and subsequently deported in October 1933 because he had failed to register as a foreign agent.[3]
At the same time, Congressman Samuel Dickstein, a later Soviet spy was Chairman of the Committee on Naturalization and Immigration, where he became aware of the substantial number of foreigners legally and illegally entering and residing in the country, and the growing anti-Semitism along with vast amounts of anti-Semitic literature being distributed in the country. This led him to investigate independently the activities of Nazi and other fascist groups. This led to the formation of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities. Throughout the rest of 1934, the Committee conducted hearings, bringing before it most of the major figures in the US fascist movement.[5] Dickstein's investigation concluded that the Friends represented a branch of German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in America.[6][7]
The organization existed into the mid-1930s, although it always remained small, with a membership of between 5,000–10,000, consisting mostly of German citizens living in America and German emigrants who only recently had become citizens.[3] In December 1935, Rudolf Hess ordered all German citizens to leave the Friends of New Germany and recalled to Germany all its leaders.[3]
In March 1936, the German American Bund was established as a follow-up organization for the FOTNG in [3]
The administrative structure of the Bund mimicked the regional administrative subdivision of the Nazi Party. The United States was divided into three Gaue: Gau Ost (East), Gau West and Gau Midwest.[10] Together the three Gaue comprised 69 Ortsgruppen (local groups): 40 in Gau Ost (17 in New York), 10 in Gau West and 19 in Gau Midwest.[10] Each Gau had its own Gauleiter and staff to direct the Bund operations in the region in accordance with the führerprinzip.[10]
The Bund established a number of training camps, including [16]
Kuhn and a few other Bundmen traveled to Berlin to attend the [3] This was done both to appease the U.S. and to distance Germany from the Bund, which was increasingly a cause of embarrassment with its rhetoric and actions.[3]
Arguably, the zenith of the Bund's activities was the rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City on February 20, 1939. Some 20,000 people attended and heard Kuhn criticize President Roosevelt by repeatedly referring to him as "Frank D. Rosenfeld", calling his New Deal the "Jew Deal" and denouncing what he believed to be Bolshevik-Jewish American leadership. Most shocking to American sensibilities was the outbreak of violence between protesters and Bund storm troopers.
In 1939, a New York tax investigation determined that Kuhn had embezzled $14,000 from the Bund. The Bund did not seek to have Kuhn prosecuted, operating on the principle (Führerprinzip), that the leader had absolute power. However, New York City's district attorney prosecuted him in an attempt to cripple the Bund. On December 5, 1939, Kuhn was sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison for tax evasion and embezzlement.[17]
New Bund leaders replaced Kuhn, most notably Gerhard Kunze, but only for brief periods. A year after the outbreak of World War II, Congress enacted a peacetime military draft in September 1940. The Bund counseled members of draft age to evade conscription, a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine. Gerhard Kunze fled to Mexico in November 1941.[4]
U.S. Congressman World War II. In the last week of December 1942, led by journalist Dorothy Thompson, fifty leading German-Americans (including baseball icon Babe Ruth) signed a "Christmas Declaration by men and women of German ancestry" condemning Nazism, which appeared in ten major American daily newspapers.
Walter Kappe (b. 1904) arrived in the United States in 1925 and worked in a farm implement factory in Ernst Peter Burger landed on a beach near Amagansett, Long Island, New York on a U-boat. A similar group landed on Ponte Vedra Beach, near Jacksonville, Florida on June 17, 1942.[18][19] The units were caught and several executed and others imprisoned. Kappe is believed to have survived the war.
While Kuhn was in prison, his citizenship was canceled on June 1, 1943.[20] Upon his release after 43 months in State prison, Kuhn was re-arrested on June 21, 1943 as an enemy alien and interned by the federal government at a camp in Crystal City, Texas. After the war, Kuhn was interned at Ellis Island and deported to Germany on September 15, 1945.[20] He died on December 14, 1951, in Munich, Germany.
Notes
Further reading
World War I, World War II, Benito Mussolini, Liberalism, Capitalism
World War II, Adolf Hitler, Soviet Union, The Holocaust, Germany
Einsatzgruppen, World War II, Sobibór extermination camp, Treblinka extermination camp, Nazi Germany
Fascism, Nazism, World War II, Antisemitism, Adolf Hitler
World War II, Joseph Stalin, United Nations, Genocide, Slovakia
Nazism, Fascism, World War II, The Holocaust, Neo-Nazism
Nazism, World War II, Fascism, The Holocaust, Neo-Nazism
World War II, Adolf Hitler, Nazism, The Holocaust, Fascism
Adolf Hitler, World War II, Heinrich Himmler, Nazi Germany, The Holocaust