German-American Bund
Encyclopedia
The German American Bund or German American Federation (German: Amerikadeutscher Bund, also Amerikadeutscher Volksbund) was an American
Nazi organization established in the 1930s. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany
.
merged two older organizations, Gau-USA, and the Free Society of Teutonia
, which were both small groups with only a few hundred members each, into Friends of New Germany
. One of its early initiatives was to counter, with propaganda
, a Jewish boycott
of businesses in the heavily German neighborhood of Yorkville, Manhattan
. Simultaneously, an internal battle was fought for control of the Friends in 1934; Spanknöbel was ultimately ousted from leadership. At the same time, the Dickstein
investigation concluded that the Friends supported a branch of German dictator Adolf Hitler
's Nazi Party in America.
Rudolf Hess
ordered all German citizens leave the FOTNG, while also recalling all the group's leaders to Germany. In March 1936, the German American Bund (AV) was established as a follow-up organisation for the FOTNG in Buffalo, New York
. It elected a German-born American citizen Fritz Julius Kuhn, a veteran of the Bavarian infantry
during World War I
and an Alter Kämpfer
of the NSDAP, as the leader (Bundesführer
) of the group. At this time, the Bund established three training camps, Camp Nordland
in Sussex County, New Jersey
, Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, New York
and Camp Hindenburg in Grafton, Wisconsin
. The Bund held rallies with Nazi insignia
and procedures such as the Hitler salute
, and attacked the Roosevelt administration
, Jewish influences, Communism
, "Moscow-directed" trade union
s and boycott
s against German goods. 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.
Kuhn and a few other Bundmen traveled to Berlin to attend the 1936 Summer Olympics
. During the trip Kuhn visited the Reich Chancellery
, where he had his picture taken with Hitler. This act did not consitute 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. The organization received no financial or verbal support from Germany, and on 1 March 1938 the Nazi government declared that no Reichsdeutsche could be a member of the Bund, and that no Nazi emblems were to be used by the organization. This was done both to appease the U.S and to distance Germany from the Bund, which was increasingly a cause of embarrassement with its rhetoric and actions.
Arguably, the zenith of the Bund's history occurred on President's Day, February 20, 1939 at Madison Square Garden
in New York City
. Some 20,000 people attended and heard Kuhn criticize President Franklin D. Roosevelt
by repeatedly referring to him as “Frank D. Rosenfeld”, calling his New Deal
the "Jew Deal", and stating his belief of Bolshevik
-Jewish American leadership. Most shocking to American sensibilities was the outbreak of violence between protesters and Bund storm troopers.
The Bund was one of several German-American heritage groups; however, it was one of the 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 Babe Ruth
signed a "Christmas Declaration by men and women of German ancestry" condemning Nazism, which appeared in ten major American daily newspapers. In 1939, a New York tax investigation
determined Kuhn had embezzled
money from the Bund. The Bund operated on the theory that the leader's powers were absolute, and therefore did not seek prosecution. However, in an attempt to cripple the Bund, the New York district attorney
prosecuted Kuhn. New Bund leaders would replace Kuhn, most notably with Wilhelm Kunze, but these were only brief stints. Martin Dies
and the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) were very active in denying any Nazi-sympathetic organization the ability to freely operate during World War II
.
and staff to direct the Bund operations in the region in accordance with the Führerprinzip
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Nazi organization established in the 1930s. Its main goal was to promote a favorable view of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
.
Friends of New Germany
NSDAP member Heinz SpanknöbelHeinz Spanknobel
Heinz Spanknobel was a German immigrant to America who led the pro-Nazi Friends of New Germany.Given authority by Rudolf Hess, in May 1933, to create an American Nazi organization, Spanknobel founded the "Friends of New Germany"...
merged two older organizations, Gau-USA, and the Free Society of Teutonia
Free Society of Teutonia
The Free Society of Teutonia was a German American organisation that was associated with a strong support for Nazism.The FST was formed in 1924 by four German immigrants, including Nazi Party members Fritz and Peter Gissibl, based in Chicago...
, which were both small groups with only a few hundred members each, into Friends of New Germany
Friends of New Germany
Friends of New Germany was an organization founded in 1933 in support of the Nazi party in the United States.In May 1933, the Nazi Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess, authorized a German citizen living in the United States, Heinz Spanknobel, to form a Nazi American organization. The result was the creation...
. One of its early initiatives was to counter, with propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, a Jewish boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
of businesses in the heavily German neighborhood of Yorkville, Manhattan
Yorkville, Manhattan
Yorkville is a neighborhood in the greater Upper East Side, in the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. Yorkville's boundaries include: the East River on the east, 96th Street on the north, Third Avenue on the west and 72nd Street to the south. However, its southern boundary is a subject of...
. Simultaneously, an internal battle was fought for control of the Friends in 1934; Spanknöbel was ultimately ousted from leadership. At the same time, the Dickstein
Samuel Dickstein (congressman)
Samuel Dickstein was a Democratic Congressional Representative from New York and a New York State Supreme Court Justice. He played a key role in establishing the committee that would become the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which he used to attack fascists, including Nazi...
investigation concluded that the Friends supported a branch of German dictator Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's Nazi Party in America.
Activities
In December 1935 Deputy FührerDeputy Führer
Deputy Führer was the title for the deputy head of the Nazi Party, which was held by Rudolf Hess until his flight to the United Kingdom in 1941. After this event, Adolf Hitler abolished the office and replaced it with the office of Party Chancellery, which was given to Martin Bormann....
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
ordered all German citizens leave the FOTNG, while also recalling all the group's leaders to Germany. In March 1936, the German American Bund (AV) was established as a follow-up organisation for the FOTNG in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. It elected a German-born American citizen Fritz Julius Kuhn, a veteran of the Bavarian infantry
Bavarian army
The Bavarian Army was the army of the Electorate and then Kingdom of Bavaria. It existed from 1682 as the standing army of Bavaria until the merger of the military sovereignty of Bavaria into that of the German State in 1919...
during 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...
and an Alter Kämpfer
Alter Kämpfer
Alter Kämpfer is a term referring to the earliest members of the Nazi Party, i.e. those who joined it before the Reichstag elections of September 1930, with many belonging to the Party as early as its first foundation in 1919–1923...
of the NSDAP, as the leader (Bundesführer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
) of the group. At this time, the Bund established three training camps, Camp Nordland
Camp Nordlund
Camp Nordlund was a resort owned by the German American Bund near Andover, New Jersey.-History:On August 18, 1940 Alton Milford Young and Arthur Hornbui Bell of the Ku Klux Klan in New Jersey held a joint meeting with the German-American Bund at Camp Nordlund....
in Sussex County, New Jersey
Sussex County, New Jersey
The County of Sussex is the northernmost county in the State of New Jersey. It is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 Federal decennial census, 149,265 persons resided in Sussex County...
, Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, New York
Yaphank, New York
Yaphank is a census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 5,025 at the 2000 census.Yaphank is a community in the south part of the Town of Brookhaven...
and Camp Hindenburg in Grafton, Wisconsin
Grafton, Wisconsin
Grafton is a village in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 10,312 at the 2000 census. The village is adjacent to the Town of Grafton and the City of Cedarburg.-History:...
. The Bund held rallies with Nazi insignia
Nazi symbolism
The twentieth century German Nazi Party was notable for its extensive use of graphic symbolism, most notably the Hakenkreuz , which it used as its principal symbol, and, in the form of the swastika flag, became the state flag of Nazi Germany....
and procedures such as the Hitler salute
Hitler salute
The Nazi salute, or Hitler salute , was a gesture of greeting in Nazi Germany usually accompanied by saying, Heil Hitler! ["Hail Hitler!"], Heil, mein Führer ["Hail, my leader!"], or Sieg Heil! ["Hail victory!"]...
, and attacked the Roosevelt administration
Roosevelt Administration
There have been two Presidents of the United States with the surname "Roosevelt":*Theodore Roosevelt Administration, the 26th President of the United States, 1901 - 1909*Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration, the 32nd President of the United States, 1933 - 1945...
, Jewish influences, Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
, "Moscow-directed" trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s and boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
s against German goods. The organization claimed to show its loyalty to America by displaying the flag of the United States
Flag of the United States
The national flag of the United States of America consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars alternating with rows...
at Bund meetings, and declared that George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
was "the first Fascist" who did not believe democracy would work.
Kuhn and a few other Bundmen traveled to Berlin to attend the 1936 Summer Olympics
1936 Summer Olympics
The 1936 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was held in 1936 in Berlin, Germany. Berlin won the bid to host the Games over Barcelona, Spain on April 26, 1931, at the 29th IOC Session in Barcelona...
. During the trip Kuhn visited the Reich Chancellery
Reich Chancellery
The Reich Chancellery was the traditional name of the office of the Chancellor of Germany in the period of the German Reich from 1871 to 1945...
, where he had his picture taken with Hitler. This act did not consitute 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. The organization received no financial or verbal support from Germany, and on 1 March 1938 the Nazi government declared that no Reichsdeutsche could be a member of the Bund, and that no Nazi emblems were to be used by the organization. This was done both to appease the U.S and to distance Germany from the Bund, which was increasingly a cause of embarrassement with its rhetoric and actions.
Zenith
Madison Square Garden (1925)
Madison Square Garden was an indoor arena in New York City, the third of that name. It was built in 1925 and closed in 1968, and was located on Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets in Manhattan on the site of the city's trolley car barns. It was the first Garden that was not located near...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Some 20,000 people attended and heard Kuhn criticize 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...
by repeatedly referring to him as “Frank D. Rosenfeld”, calling his New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
the "Jew Deal", and stating his belief of Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
-Jewish American leadership. Most shocking to American sensibilities was the outbreak of violence between protesters and Bund storm troopers.
The Bund was one of several German-American heritage groups; however, it was one of the 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
Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Thompson was an American journalist and radio broadcaster, who in 1939 was recognized by Time magazine as the second most influential women in America next to Eleanor Roosevelt...
, fifty leading German-Americans including Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
signed a "Christmas Declaration by men and women of German ancestry" condemning Nazism, which appeared in ten major American daily newspapers. In 1939, a New York tax investigation
Audit
The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...
determined Kuhn had embezzled
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted....
money from the Bund. The Bund operated on the theory that the leader's powers were absolute, and therefore did not seek prosecution. However, in an attempt to cripple the Bund, the New York district attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
prosecuted Kuhn. New Bund leaders would replace Kuhn, most notably with Wilhelm Kunze, but these were only brief stints. Martin Dies
Martin Dies, Jr.
Martin Dies, Jr. was a Texas politician and a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. His father, Martin Dies, was also a member of the United States House of Representatives.-Biography:...
and the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) were very active in denying any Nazi-sympathetic organization the ability to freely operate 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...
.
Administrative division
Mimicking the regional administrative subdivision of the Nazi Party, the Bund divided the United States in the three Gaue: Gau Ost (East), Gau West, and Gau Midwest. Together the three Gaue had 69 Ortsgruppen, with 40 of them being in Gau Ost (17 in New York), 10 in Gau West and 19 in Gau Midwest. Each Gau had its own GauleiterGauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
and staff to direct the Bund operations in the region in accordance with the Führerprinzip
Führerprinzip
The Führerprinzip , German for "leader principle", prescribes the fundamental basis of political authority in the governmental structures of the Third Reich...
.
See also
- Friends of New GermanyFriends of New GermanyFriends of New Germany was an organization founded in 1933 in support of the Nazi party in the United States.In May 1933, the Nazi Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess, authorized a German citizen living in the United States, Heinz Spanknobel, to form a Nazi American organization. The result was the creation...
- Free Society of TeutoniaFree Society of TeutoniaThe Free Society of Teutonia was a German American organisation that was associated with a strong support for Nazism.The FST was formed in 1924 by four German immigrants, including Nazi Party members Fritz and Peter Gissibl, based in Chicago...
- Silver Legion of AmericaSilver Legion of AmericaThe Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an American fascist organization founded by William Dudley Pelley on January 30, 1933, coincidentally, the same day Adolf Hitler, whom Pelley admired, seized power in Germany....
- Neo-Nazi groups of the United States
- Erich TraubErich TraubErich Traub was a German veterinarian and scientist/virologist who specialized in foot-and-mouth disease, Rinderpest and Newcastle disease. Traub was a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps , a Nazi motorist corps, from 1938–1942...
- Fascist League of North AmericaFascist League of North AmericaThe Fascist League of North America was an umbrella group for fascist Italian-American organizations founded in 1924. With the rise of fascism in Italy, grassroots Fasci clubs started to form in Italian-American communities in the United States. Despite hostility from the Italian diplomatic...
Further reading
- Leland V. Bell In Hitler's Shadow; The Anatomy of American Nazism, 1973
- Susan Canedy; Americas Nazis: A Democratic Dilemma a History of the German American Bund Markgraf Pubns Group, 1990
- Philip Jenkins; Hoods and Shirts: The Extreme Right in Pennsylvania, 1925-1950 University of North Carolina Press, 1997
- Francis MacDonnell; Insidious Foes: The Axis Fifth Column and the American Home Front Oxford University Press, 1995
- Marvin D. Miller; 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)
- Stephen H. Norwood; "Marauding Youth and the Christian Front: Antisemitic Violence in Boston and New York during World War II" American Jewish History, Vol. 91, 2003
- James C. Schneider; Should America Go to War? The Debate over Foreign Policy in Chicago, 1939-1941 University of North Carolina Press, 1989
- Maximilian St.-George and Lawrence Dennis; A Trial on Trial: The Great Sedition Trial of 1944 National Civil Rights Committee, 1946, defendants' point of view
- Donald S. Strong; Organized Anti-Semitism in America: The Rise of Group Prejudice during the Decade 1930-40 1941
- Mark D. Van Ells, "Americans for Hitler," America in WW2 3:2 (August 2007), pp. 44–49.
- Diamond, Sander. The Nazi Movement in the United States: 1924-1941. Ithaca: Cornell University, 1974.
External links
- Collection of articles in the Mid-Island Mail related to Bund activity in Yaphank, New York(1935-1941) (Longwood Public Library)
- Free America - A transcript of speeches made at the Bund's Madison Square Garden rally, 20 Feb. 1939
- Mp3 of National Leader Fritz Julius Kuhn address at the Madison Square Garden rally
- What Price the Federal Reserve? illustrated anti-semitic pamphlet issued by the Bund
- German-American Bund.org
- U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum article on German-American Bund
- Film footage of the Bund