Frederick William Kaltenbach
Encyclopedia
Frederick Wilhelm Kaltenbach (March 29, 1895 – c. October, 1945) was a American of German origin who broadcast Nazi propaganda
from Germany during World War II
.
, Iowa
, and was raised in Waterloo
, Iowa. His father was John Kaltenbach who had immigrated to the United States from Germany four years before and who was naturalized in 1896.
After graduating from East High School, Waterloo, Kaltenbach and his brother Gustav went on a cycling tour of Germany and were there when World War I
broke out in August 1914. They were detained on suspicion of espionage until December 1914 when they were released. Despite this experience, Kaltenbach became an admirer of Germany and its people.
On his return Kaltenbach enrolled in Grinnell College
in Grinnell
, Iowa, and studied there for three years.
In June 1918, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Coastal Artillery
. Kaltenbach was honorably discharged from the U. S. Army in April 1919.
He resumed his education at Iowa State Teachers College earning a Bachelor's degree in 1920. Kaltenbach worked for the next seven years as an appraiser before becoming a teacher. His first teaching post was in Manchester, Iowa
. In 1931 he was offered a position at Dubuque's Senior High School teaching business law, economics, and debate. In the early 1930s he earned a Master's Degree
in History from the University of Chicago
.
from his employment to pursue his Doctorate
. While in Germany he became an ardent follower of the Nazi movement.
On his return to the United States, Kaltenbach resumed teaching in Dubuque. In 1935 he started a club for boys based on the Hitler Youth
movement, The Militant Order of Spartan Knights. It held secret initiation rituals and the boys wore brown military-style uniforms. Due to the concern of parents, Kaltenbach’s teaching contract was terminated in June 1936.
Kaltenbach then left for Germany where he worked as a free-lance writer and translator and on occasion for the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft
, German State Radio.
In February 1939 he married a German national, Dorothea Peters, and they honeymooned in the United States. There he took every opportunity to speak in favor of the Nazi cause but after a hostile confrontation at a lecture he gave at the Russell-Lamson Hotel in Waterloo in May 1939, he hastily returned to Germany.
From 1940 to 1941 Kaltenbach broadcast ’Letters to Iowa’ to the United States directed at the American Midwest
. His programs consisted of anti-Roosevelt, anti-British and pro-isolationism
propaganda disguised in the form of fictional letters back home.
He cultivated a simple and homey style and was one of several English-speaking propagandists for Germany that were referred to by the nickname, ‘Lord Hee Haw’. He opened each program with ‘Greetings to my old friend, Harry in Iowa’, and delivered his propaganda messages in the form of advice.
Kaltenbach’s objectives were to prevent President Franklin D. Roosevelt
’s re-election to a third term of office, to block the pro-interventionist faction in the U.S. and to stop the enactment of the Lend-Lease Bill
. He sought to convince Americans that supporting Britain was a lost cause and that taking sides could only embroil the United States in a ruinous and unnecessary war with Germany.
When the United States entered the war against Germany on December 11th, 1941 Kaltenbach’s broadcasts then aimed at undermining U. S. morale and the national will to prosecute a protracted war with Germany.
Kaltenbach also broadcast with another American collaborator, Max Koischwitz
as Jim of 'Jim and Johnny', a humorous dialogue program in which the title characters traded propaganda-laden wisecracks.
in 1943, the frequency of his radio broadcasts diminished and his position as the leading American broadcaster was taken by two fellow collaborators, Mildred Gillars and Douglas Chandler
.
From 1944, Kaltenbach’s health declined as he began to suffer from heart problems
and asthma
. He also became disenchanted with Hitler and Nazism, often refusing to broadcast and going on strike
, sometimes for months at a time. This alienated his fellow American collaborators and resulted in confrontation, especially with the British collaborator William Joyce
.
Towards the end of the war, Kaltenbach attempted to ingratiate himself with anti-Nazi elements and religious elements associated with Pastor Martin Niemoller
.
He could still be heard intermittently in North America and by American forces in Europe up to early 1945.
, Jane Anderson
, Edward Delaney
, Constance Drexel
, Robert Henry Best, Douglas Chandler
and Ezra Pound
was indicted in absentia
by a District of Columbia grand jury
on charges of treason
.
Nazi propaganda
Propaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the NSDAP in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
from Germany during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Biography
Frederick Kaltenbach was born in DubuqueDubuque, Iowa
Dubuque is a city in and the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. In 2010 its population was 57,637, making it the ninth-largest city in the state and the county's population was 93,653....
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, and was raised in Waterloo
Waterloo, Iowa
Waterloo is a city in and the county seat of Black Hawk County, Iowa, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census the population decreased by 0.5% to 68,406. Waterloo is part of the Waterloo – Cedar Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is the more populous of the two...
, Iowa. His father was John Kaltenbach who had immigrated to the United States from Germany four years before and who was naturalized in 1896.
After graduating from East High School, Waterloo, Kaltenbach and his brother Gustav went on a cycling tour of Germany and were there when World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
broke out in August 1914. They were detained on suspicion of espionage until December 1914 when they were released. Despite this experience, Kaltenbach became an admirer of Germany and its people.
On his return Kaltenbach enrolled in Grinnell College
Grinnell College
Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, U.S. known for its strong tradition of social activism. It was founded in 1846, when a group of pioneer New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College....
in Grinnell
Grinnell, Iowa
Grinnell is a city in Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,218 at the 2010 census. Grinnell was named after Josiah Bushnell Grinnell and is the home of Grinnell College.- History :...
, Iowa, and studied there for three years.
In June 1918, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Coastal Artillery
Coastal artillery
Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications....
. Kaltenbach was honorably discharged from the U. S. Army in April 1919.
He resumed his education at Iowa State Teachers College earning a Bachelor's degree in 1920. Kaltenbach worked for the next seven years as an appraiser before becoming a teacher. His first teaching post was in Manchester, Iowa
Manchester, Iowa
Manchester is a city in Delaware County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,257 at the 2000 census. As of the 2005 population estimates, Manchester's population was 5,052...
. In 1931 he was offered a position at Dubuque's Senior High School teaching business law, economics, and debate. In the early 1930s he earned a Master's Degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in History from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
.
Introduction to Nazism
In 1933, Kaltenbach won a scholarship at the University of Berlin and took a two-year leave of absenceLeave of absence
Leave of absence is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job, while maintaining the status of employee...
from his employment to pursue his Doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
. While in Germany he became an ardent follower of the Nazi movement.
On his return to the United States, Kaltenbach resumed teaching in Dubuque. In 1935 he started a club for boys based on the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
movement, The Militant Order of Spartan Knights. It held secret initiation rituals and the boys wore brown military-style uniforms. Due to the concern of parents, Kaltenbach’s teaching contract was terminated in June 1936.
Kaltenbach then left for Germany where he worked as a free-lance writer and translator and on occasion for the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft
Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft
The Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft , which can be loosely translated as the State Broadcasting Company, was a national network of German regional public broadcasting companies active from 1925 until 1945...
, German State Radio.
In February 1939 he married a German national, Dorothea Peters, and they honeymooned in the United States. There he took every opportunity to speak in favor of the Nazi cause but after a hostile confrontation at a lecture he gave at the Russell-Lamson Hotel in Waterloo in May 1939, he hastily returned to Germany.
Propaganda for Nazi Germany
Back in Germany, Kaltenbach became a full-time broadcaster for the RRG's U.S.A. Zone reading news bulletins.From 1940 to 1941 Kaltenbach broadcast ’Letters to Iowa’ to the United States directed at the American Midwest
Midwestern United States
The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....
. His programs consisted of anti-Roosevelt, anti-British and pro-isolationism
Isolationism
Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...
propaganda disguised in the form of fictional letters back home.
He cultivated a simple and homey style and was one of several English-speaking propagandists for Germany that were referred to by the nickname, ‘Lord Hee Haw’. He opened each program with ‘Greetings to my old friend, Harry in Iowa’, and delivered his propaganda messages in the form of advice.
Kaltenbach’s objectives were to prevent President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
’s re-election to a third term of office, to block the pro-interventionist faction in the U.S. and to stop the enactment of the Lend-Lease Bill
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
. He sought to convince Americans that supporting Britain was a lost cause and that taking sides could only embroil the United States in a ruinous and unnecessary war with Germany.
When the United States entered the war against Germany on December 11th, 1941 Kaltenbach’s broadcasts then aimed at undermining U. S. morale and the national will to prosecute a protracted war with Germany.
Kaltenbach also broadcast with another American collaborator, Max Koischwitz
Max Otto Koischwitz
Max Oscar Otto Koischwitz was a naturalized American of German origin who directed and broadcast Nazi propaganda during World War II.-Biography:...
as Jim of 'Jim and Johnny', a humorous dialogue program in which the title characters traded propaganda-laden wisecracks.
Disillusion with Nazism
In the months following Kaltenbach’s U.S. indictment for treasonTreason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
in 1943, the frequency of his radio broadcasts diminished and his position as the leading American broadcaster was taken by two fellow collaborators, Mildred Gillars and Douglas Chandler
Douglas Chandler
Douglas Chandler was an American broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during World War II. He was convicted of treason in 1947 and sentenced to life imprisonment.-Biography:Chandler was an officer in the U.S...
.
From 1944, Kaltenbach’s health declined as he began to suffer from heart problems
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
and asthma
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
. He also became disenchanted with Hitler and Nazism, often refusing to broadcast and going on strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
, sometimes for months at a time. This alienated his fellow American collaborators and resulted in confrontation, especially with the British collaborator William Joyce
William Joyce
William Joyce , nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw, was an Irish-American fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster to the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He was hanged for treason by the British as a result of his wartime activities, even though he had renounced his British nationality...
.
Towards the end of the war, Kaltenbach attempted to ingratiate himself with anti-Nazi elements and religious elements associated with Pastor Martin Niemoller
Martin Niemöller
Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller was a German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor. He is best known as the author of the poem "First they came…"....
.
He could still be heard intermittently in North America and by American forces in Europe up to early 1945.
Charges of treason
On July 26, 1943 Kaltenbach along with Max Otto KoischwitzMax Otto Koischwitz
Max Oscar Otto Koischwitz was a naturalized American of German origin who directed and broadcast Nazi propaganda during World War II.-Biography:...
, Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson – The Georgia Peach
Jane Anderson was an American broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during World War II. She was indicted on charges of treason in 1943 but after the war the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.-Biography:...
, Edward Delaney
Edward Leo Delaney
Edward Leo Delaney was an American broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during World War II...
, Constance Drexel
Constance Drexel
Constance Drexel , a naturalized United States citizen, and groundbreaking feature writer for U.S. newspapers, was indicted for treason in World War II for radio broadcasts from Berlin that extolled Nazi virtues...
, Robert Henry Best, Douglas Chandler
Douglas Chandler
Douglas Chandler was an American broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during World War II. He was convicted of treason in 1947 and sentenced to life imprisonment.-Biography:Chandler was an officer in the U.S...
and Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
was indicted in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...
by a District of Columbia grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
on charges of treason
Treason
In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
.