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Arguably, the zenith of the Bund's activities was the rally at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] in [[New York City]] on February 20, 1939. Some 20,000 people attended and heard Kuhn criticize [[Presidents of the United States|President]] [[Franklin D Roosevelt|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.
Arguably, the zenith of the Bund's activities was the rally at [[Madison Square Garden (1925)|Madison Square Garden]] in [[New York City]] on February 20, 1939. Some 20,000 people attended and heard Kuhn criticize [[Presidents of the United States|President]] [[Franklin D Roosevelt|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 [[audit|tax investigation]] determined that Kuhn had [[embezzlement|embezzled]] money from the Bund. As the Bund operated on the principle that the leader's powers were absolute, they did not seek to have him prosecuted. However, New York City's [[district attorney]] prosecuted him in an attempt to cripple the Bund.
In 1939, a New York [[audit|tax investigation]] determined that Kuhn had [[embezzlement|embezzled]] money from the Bund. As the Bund operated on the principle ''[[fuhrerprinzip]]'', that the leader's powers were absolute, they did not seek to have him prosecuted. 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.<ref>{{cite book
|title=Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: A MultiDisciplinary Encyclopedia. G - N, volume 2 |last=Adams |first=Thomas |year=2005 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=1-85109-628-0 |page=631 |pages= |url=http://books.google.ca/books?id=8uxfTF4Lm-kC&pg=PA631&lpg=PA631&dq=denaturalized+americans#v=onepage&q&f=false |accessdate=January 11, 2011}}</ref> New Bund leaders replaced Kuhn, most notably [[Gerhard Kunze]], but only for brief periods.


New Bund leaders replaced Kuhn, most notably [[Gerhard Kunze]], but only for brief stints. U.S. Congressman [[Martin Dies, Jr.|Martin Dies]] and his [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] (HUAC) were very active in denying any Nazi-sympathetic organization the ability to operate freely during [[World War II]].
U.S. Congressman [[Martin Dies, Jr.|Martin Dies]] and his [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] were very active in denying any Nazi-sympathetic organization the ability to operate freely during [[World War II]]. During the War, after his release from State prison, Kuhn was re-arrested as an [[enemy agent]], and [[Internment|interned]] by the federal government. His citizenship was canceled on June 1, 1943,<ref name=EvenIndep>{{cite news |
title=Fritz Kuhn, Former Bund Chief, Ordered Back to Germany
|newspaper=The Evening Independent
|date=September 7, 1945
|url=http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=L48LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GVUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5799,1832986&dq=fritz+kuhn&hl=en}}</ref> and on his release in 1945, he was sent to [[Ellis Island]] and [[deportation|deported]] to [[Germany]].<ref name=EvenIndep/>


The Bund was one of several [[German-American]] heritage groups, but one of only a few to express National Socialist ideals. As a result, many considered the group [[anti-American]]. 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.
The Bund was one of several [[German-American]] heritage groups, but one of only a few to express National Socialist ideals. As a result, many considered the group [[anti-American]]. 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.

Revision as of 04:26, 31 August 2013

German American Bund parade on East 86th St., New York City, October 30, 1939
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The German American Bund, or German American Federation (German: Amerikadeutscher Bund; Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, AV), was an American Nazi organization established in the 1930s. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany.

Friends of New Germany

In May 1933, Nazi Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess gave German immigrant and German Nazi Party member Heinz Spanknöbel authority to form an American Nazi organization.[1] Shortly thereafter, with help from the German consul in New York City, Spanknöbel created the Friends of New Germany[1] by merging two older organizations in the United States, 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.[1]

The organization led by Spanknöbel was openly pro-Nazi, and engaged in activities such as storming the German language New Yorker Staats-Zeitung with the demand that Nazi-sympathetic articles be published, and the infiltration of other non-political German-American organizations. One of the Friends early initiatives was to counter, with propaganda, a Jewish boycott of businesses in the heavily German neighborhood of Yorkville, Manhattan.

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 foreigner agent.[1]

At the same time, Congressman Samuel Dickstein 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. Throughout the rest of 1934, the Committee conducted hearings, bringing before it most of the major figures in the US fascist movement.[2] Dickstein's investigation concluded that the Friends represented a branch of German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in America.[3]

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.[1] In December 1935, Rudolf Hess ordered all German citizens to leave the Friends of New Germany and recalled to Germany all its leaders.[1]

Bund activities

In March 1936, the German American Bund was established as a follow-up organization for the FOTNG in Buffalo, New York.[1][4] The Bund elected a German-born American citizen Fritz Julius Kuhn as its leader (bundesführer).[5] Kuhn was a veteran of the Bavarian infantry during World War I and an Alter Kämpfer (old fighter) of the Nazi Party, who in 1934 was granted American citizenship. Kuhn was initially effective as a leader and was able to unite the organization and expand its membership but came to be seen simply as an incompetent swindler and liar.[1]

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.[6] 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.[6] Each Gau had its own Gauleiter and staff to direct the Bund operations in the region in accordance with the führerprinzip.[6]

The Bund established a number of training camps, including Camp Nordland in Sussex County, New Jersey, Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, New York, Camp Hindenburg in Grafton, Wisconsin, Deutschhorst Country Club in Sellersville, PA,[7] Camp Bergwald in Bloomingdale, NJ[1][8][9][10][7] and Camp Highland in New York state. The Bund held rallies with Nazi insignia and procedures such as the Hitler salute and attacked the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jewish groups, Communism, "Moscow-directed" trade unions and American boycotts of German goods.[1][11] The organization claimed to show its loyalty to America by displaying the flag of the United States at Bund meetings, and declared that George Washington was "the first Fascist" who did not believe democracy would work.[12]

Kuhn and a few other Bundmen traveled to Berlin to attend the 1936 Summer Olympics. During the trip he visited the Reich Chancellery, where his picture was taken with Hitler.[1] This act did not constitute an official Nazi approval for Kuhn's organization: German Ambassador to the United States Hans Heinrich Dieckhoff expressed his disapproval and concern over the group to Berlin, causing distrust between the Bund and the Nazi regime.[1] The organization received no financial or verbal support from Germany, and on 1 March 1938 the Nazi government declared that no Reichsdeutsche [German nationals] could be a member of the Bund, and that no Nazi emblems were to be used by the organization.[1] 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.[1]

Zenith and decline

German American Bund rally poster at Madison Square Garden, February 20, 1939
Flag of the German American Bund

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 money from the Bund. As the Bund operated on the principle fuhrerprinzip, that the leader's powers were absolute, they did not seek to have him prosecuted. 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.[13] New Bund leaders replaced Kuhn, most notably Gerhard Kunze, but only for brief periods.

U.S. Congressman Martin Dies and his House Committee on Un-American Activities were very active in denying any Nazi-sympathetic organization the ability to operate freely during World War II. During the War, after his release from State prison, Kuhn was re-arrested as an enemy agent, and interned by the federal government. His citizenship was canceled on June 1, 1943,[14] and on his release in 1945, he was sent to Ellis Island and deported to Germany.[14]

The Bund was one of several German-American heritage groups, but one of only a few to express National Socialist ideals. As a result, many considered the group anti-American. 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.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Jim Bredemus. "American Bund - The Failure of American Nazism: The German-American Bund's Attempt to Create an American "Fifth Column"". TRACES. Retrieved 2 March 2011.
  2. ^ Chip Berlet, Matthew Nemiroff Lyons (2000). Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-1-57230-562-5.
  3. ^ Shaffer, Ryan (Volume 21, Issue 2, Spring 2010). "Long Island Nazis: A Local Synthesis of Transnational Politics". Journal of Long Island History. Retrieved 2010-11-19. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "Fritz Kuhn Death in 1951 Revealed. Lawyer Says Former Leader of German-American Bund Succumbed in [[Munich]]". Associated Press in New York Times. February 2, 1953. Retrieved 2008-07-20. Fritz Kuhn, once the arrogant, noisy leader of the pro-Hitler German-American Bund, died here more than a year ago -- a poor and obscure chemist, unheralded and unsung. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  5. ^ Cyprian Blamires (2006). World fascism: a historical encyclopedia, Volume 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 270. ISBN 0-8223-0772-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ a b c Cornelia Wilhelms (1998). Bewegung oder Verein?: nationalsozialistische Volkspolitik in dem USA. Franz Steiner Verlag. p. 167. ISBN 3-515-06805-8. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ a b "German-American Bund". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  8. ^ "German films about Camp Bergwald, the Bund Camp on Federal Hill, Riverdale, NJ". Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Branch (NWDNM), National Archives. Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  9. ^ Jackson, Kenneth T. The Encyclopedia of New York City. The New York Historical Society, Yale University Press, 1995, 462.
  10. ^ David Mark Chalmers (1987). Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan. ISBN 1-57607-940-6. When Arthur Bell, your Grand Giant, and Mr. Smythe asked us about using Camp Nordlund for this patriotic meeting, we decided to let them have it because of {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. ^ Patricia Kollander (2005). "I must be a part of this war": a German American's fight against Hitler and Nazism. Fordham Univ Press. p. 37. ISBN 0-8232-2528-3. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ "Nazis Hail George Washington as First Fascist". Life. 1938-03-07. p. 17. Retrieved November 25, 2011.
  13. ^ Adams, Thomas (2005). Germany and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History: A MultiDisciplinary Encyclopedia. G - N, volume 2. ABC-CLIO. p. 631. ISBN 1-85109-628-0. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
  14. ^ a b "Fritz Kuhn, Former Bund Chief, Ordered Back to Germany". The Evening Independent. September 7, 1945.

Further reading

  • Allen, Joe, "'It Can't Happen Here?': Confronting the Fascist Threat in the US in the Late 1930s," International Socialist Review, Part One: whole no. 85 (Sept.-Oct. 2012), pp. 26-35; Part Two: whole no. 87 (Jan.-Feb. 2013), pp. 19-28.
  • Bell, Leland V. In Hitler's Shadow; The Anatomy of American Nazism, 1973
  • Canedy, Susan. Americas Nazis: A Democratic Dilemma a History of the German American Bund Markgraf Pubns Group, 1990
  • Diamond, Sander. The Nazi Movement in the United States: 1924-1941. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1974.
  • Jenkins, Philip. Hoods and Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania, 1925-1950 University of North Carolina Press, 1997
  • MacDonnell, Francis. Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front Oxford University Press, 1995
  • Miller, Marvin D. Wunderlich's Salute: The Interrelationship of the German-American Bund, Camp Siegfried, Yaphank, Long Island, and the Young Siegfrieds and Their Relationship with American and Nazi Institutions Malamud-Rose Publishers, November 1983(1st Edition)
  • Norwood, Stephen H. "Marauding Youth and the Christian Front: Antisemitic Violence in Boston and New York during World War II" American Jewish History, Vol. 91, 2003
  • Schneider, James C. Should America Go to War? The Debate over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939-1941 University of North Carolina Press, 1989
  • St. George, Maximiliam and Dennis, Lawrence. A Trial on Trial: The Great Sedition Trial of 1944 National Civil Rights Committee, 1946
  • Strong, Donald S. Organized Anti-Semitism in America: The Rise of Group Prejudice during the Decade 1930-40 1941
  • Van Ells, Mark D. "Americans for Hitler", America in WWII 3:2 (August 2007), pp. 44–49.

External links

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