Ulrich Fleischhauer
Encyclopedia
Ulrich Fleischhauer was a leading antisemitic publisher of books and news articles reporting on an alleged Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory and supposed "nefarious plots" by clandestine Jewish interests to dominate the world.
His career was at first grounded in the Imperial German Army
where by 1918 Fleischhauer rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and regimental commander of a field artillery unit in Colmar
. After suffering serious wounds, Fleischhauer retired from military service and received a government pension, although he continued to serve for some time as chairman of the National Federation of German Officers (Nationalverbandes Deutscher Offiziere).
No longer in the army, Fleischhauer sought out something else to do full-time. The draw of the public policy arena attracted him. In the aftermath of the defeat of the German
and Austria-Hungarian empires, a number of new political parties emerged, many arguing for pan-Germanism
. Fleischhauer joined the German National People's Party
(Deutschnationale Volkspartei, or DNVP) and was a representative of the racist wing arguing for even more radical far right
policies. Intellectually, Fleischhauer was a disciple of Theodor Fritsch
and through their common Völkisch movement
circles he also developed friendships with a number of other revolutionary nationalists in secretive Aryan
organizations such as the Thule Society
. Fleischhauer was especially close to poet
and political activist Dietrich Eckart
, an early backer of Adolf Hitler
.
, Germany
that over time became increasingly powerful. Its rise in influence corresponded with the popular successes of National Socialism during the later Weimar
period, leading up to the establishment of the Third Reich.
Fleischhauer subsequently founded Welt-Dienst or Weltdienst (also known as World-Service, Service Mondial, etc.) on 1 December 1933. This served as an international antisemitic news agency
and journalistic service for numerous other publications. For a nominal fee, subscribers to Welt-Diensts twice monthly series of mimeographed information sheets received summaries of news stories and other developments worldwide which tended to discredit anyone and anything linked to Judaism
and Jewish Bolshevism
. The masthead of the British version of World-Service for 1 November 1937 is illustrative of these purposes and unequivocally stated: "These leaflets are intended to be passed on from hand to hand amongst Gentiles. The 'World-Service', which is issued in eight languages, is not published with a view of profits. Its principal aim is to enlighten ill-informed Gentiles irrespective of state or country to which they belong. These information sheets which deal with the machinations of the Jewish under-world form accordingly a necessary part of the intellectual armoury of every Gentile. The communication of the matters dealt with to the well-intentioned press is considered highly desirable. Those holding similar views to our own throughout the world, who recognize the fact that systematic work and research after truth cannot be carried on without pecuniary outlay, will of a surety decide to send us some small contribution as their means permit. This will enable us to carry out a considerable and effective extension of our work."
as a key defense organizer at the famed Berne Trial of distributors of the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
. This notorious antisemitic forgery
had already been largely discredited, but re-entered the headlines in June 1933 when a Swiss organisation known as the Nationale Front
began distributing it during a right wing demonstration. Then in 1934, Dr. Alfred Zander, a Swiss Nazi, further inflamed public opinion by publishing a series of articles accepting The Protocols description of a Jewish plot to take over the world as fact. Outraged, a group of leading Swiss Jews filed a lawsuit in the Amtsgericht (district court) of Bern on 29 October 1934 to ban continued publication and distribution of The Protocols as "indecent writings" under a Bernese statute prohibiting the distribution of "immoral, obscene or brutalizing" texts
The plaintiffs were represented by Georges Brunschvig
and Emil Raas. Vladimir Burtsev
, a Russian émigré, anti-Bolshevik and anti-Fascist who exposed numerous Okhrana agent provocateurs in the early 1900s, served as a witness for the plaintiffs at the Berne Trial. Subsequently, while in Paris Burtsev published a Russian-language book in 1938 based on his testimony called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A proven forgery.
Welt-Dienst entered the picture by spearheading efforts to secure other Russian émigré "experts" as part of the effort to defend the veracity of The Protocols. Defense testimony presented personally in court was limited, with Zander turning up as the only witness for the defendants. However, Fleischhauer helped coordinate efforts by other defense "experts" and himself provided media with extensive commentary and written material in support of the anti-Jewish defendants (Theodore Fischer and Silvio Schnell), with Bodung-Verlag issuing a comprehensive German-language version of his The real Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Expert's report.
Despite these exertions, on 19 May 1935, the court declared The Protocols to be forgeries, plagiarisms, and obscene literature. The Judge Walter Meyer, a Christian who had not heard of The Protocols prior to the trial, said in conclusion: "I hope the time will come when nobody will be able to understand how in 1935 nearly a dozen sane and responsible men were able for two weeks to mock the intellect of the Bern court discussing the authenticity of the so-called Protocols, the very Protocols that, harmful as they have been and will be, are nothing but laughable nonsense".
However, on November 1, 1937, the defendants appealed the verdict to the Obergericht (Cantonal Supreme Court) of Berne. A panel of three judges acquitted them, holding that The Protocols, while false, did not violate the statute at issue because they were used as a means of political propaganda. The presiding judge's opinion stated, for the record, that in his opinion the forgery of The Protocols was not in question and expressed regret that the law did not provide adequate protection for Jews from this sort of literature. The court also imposed the fees for both trials on the defendants. This decision gave grounds for later allegations that the appeal court "confirmed the authenticity of The Protocols", which is opposite to the facts—even though technically the pro-Nazi side won the case. To date, the definitive scholarly work on the trial is a 139-page monograph by Swiss artist Urs Lüthi. Other especially important scholarly work on the controversy continues to be published by researcher Michael Hagemeister
.
). Fleischhauer credited a conversation he had years earlier with Eckart with sparking the original idea. In April 1938 he wrote the NSDAP Hauptarchiv that "Dietrich Eckart then spoke to me alone, in a wine-cellar where we were sitting, about the subject which could today describe the Welt-Dienst. He said something to the effect: 'If our idea comes to power, the Jew will try again, as he's tried before with any State which attempts to solve the Jewish Problem, to starve us out. And if that's no use, then try to ruin us through wars and revolutions. Adolf must therefore have an international movement that can help him from the outside, just as the Stahlhelm
and other groups help the Party from the outside today.'"
Over time, a veritable international "who's who" of antisemitic collaborators and correspondents contributed to Welt-Dienst publications and in turn quoted from them, including Henry Coston
(France
), Louis Darquier (France
), Arnold Leese
(founder of the Imperial Fascist League
in Britain
), Ludwig Heiden ("Luis el-Hadj" - an SS official and journalist
who converted to Islam
and translated Hitler's Mein Kampf
into the Arabic language
), Ion Moţa
(or Motza, one of the leaders of the ultranationalist Iron Guard
from Romania
who fought on the fascist side as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War
), Juan Sampelayo (secretary of the Falange
Party's Jefatura Nacional de Prensa y Propaganda [Department of Exchange of the National Leadership of Press and Propaganda] in Spain
), as well as Boris Tödtli (Russia
and Switzerland
).
In the United States
, a number of organizations sympathetic to Nazi ideology
subscribed to the inexpensive English-language World-Service bulletins. For example, William Dudley Pelley
frequently printed World-Service articles in his Silver Legion of America
magazine, Liberation, advocating a "purge of Jews and Communists in Hollywood." Other American publications, including Father Charles Coughlin
's Social Justice, Robert Edward Edmondson
's American Vigilante Bulletins, and those issued by the Rev. Gerald Burton Winrod, were equally willing to push the World-Service line on the Jewish question
via word-for-word syndicated reproduction of "factual" news items appearing in their periodicals. When it suited his purposes, Fleischhauer was also happy to publish Jewish authors such as Marcus Eli Ravage
, a Romanian emigrant to the United States whose writings could easily be misinterpreted by antisemites without an understanding of his sarcasm and wit.
efforts by organizing the Pan-Aryan Anti-Jewish Union and a series of international antisemitic congresses to actively push for the suppression of Freemasonry, combat the alleged "Jewish conspiracy for world domination," and encourage the geopolitical depopulation of Jews from within Europe through mandatory resettlement
in southern Africa
as was envisioned by the Nazi-promoted Madagascar Plan
.
Typical of such inflated rhetoric
were the extremist views expressed by a Japanese representative to the Welt-Dienst congress hosted in 1938 by Fleischhauer. On behalf of Imperial Japan
, he stated that "Judeo-Masonry is forcing the Chinese to turn China
into a spearhead for an attack on Japan, and thereby forcing Japan to defend herself against this threat. Japan is at war not with China but with Freemasonry
, represented by General Chiang Kai-shek
, the successor of his master, the Freemason Sun Yat-Sen
."
' Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. After a shakeup in lines of authority, by 1938 the responsibility for international antisemitism was shifted to the Foreign Affairs Office of the Nazi Party (Aussenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP, shortened to APA). This was one of several agencies within the vast Amt Rosenberg (Rosenberg Bureau or Rosenberg Office), the collective term for the various agencies controlled by Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg
.
However, Fleischhauer's personal role at Welt-Dienst declined as Germany neared the start of World War II
. Researcher Carmen Callil
, whose excellent work on the topic is listed in the references section below, reports that Fleischhauer's political radicalism
was beginning to hurt the Third Reich's international image. By 1938, she writes, "Hitler was advised that Fleischhauer was placing Germany in embarrassing positions abroad, as he was the kind of ‘anti-Semite who pretends to see a threatening Jew behind every street corner of the world and who tries to deal with the matter in a psychosis of fear and secretiveness’."
In late July 1939, August Schirmer
, an Amt Rosenberg functionary who had headed the "American Section" of Welt-Dienst, took over publication of the periodical and its related operations. This change was connected with a relocation of Welt-Diensts editorial offices to Frankfurt am Main as part of a more formal reorganization of all anti-Jewish "research establishments" under Rosenberg's control, culminating in 1941 with the establishment of the Institut der NSDAP zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (Institute of the National Socialist German Workers Party for Research Into the Jewish Question). So, ironically, Fleischhauer was largely cut out of the publishing empire he founded. In fact, in 1941 he was living in the cellar of his home in Erfurt, running only a "tiny rump" version of the organizations he created as the focus of his life's work.
The Welt-Dienst organization on the other hand continued for a time to prosper. By its highpoint in August 1943 Welt-Dienst was published in 18 languages. At that time, Schirmer stepped down and was replaced by an individual named Kurt Richter, who in addition to being the new publisher was also director of an "International Institute for the Enlightenment of the Jewish Question
." As the war turned against Nazi Germany
, Welt-Dienst continued with diminished distribution until finally ending all publication operations early in 1945.
During the post-war occupation, Fleischhauer underwent denazification
in a series of American internment camps and hospitals where he was held from 1945–1946. Upon his release in 1947, Fleischhauer even issued a written statement in which he denied any Nazi or fanatical antisemitic views.
After this Fleischhauer retired from public life and lived quietly until his death in 1960.
NOTE: See the references below for further information. The text of this Wikipedia article is excerpted from Richard Alan Nelson's much more extensive as-yet unpublished research monograph, Propaganda seeds of hate emanating from the "Erfurt nursery": Impact of and opposition to the Nazi World-Service press agency of Ulrich Fleischhauer.
His career was at first grounded in the Imperial German Army
German Army (German Empire)
The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...
where by 1918 Fleischhauer rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and regimental commander of a field artillery unit in Colmar
Colmar
Colmar is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.It is the capital of the department. Colmar is also the seat of the highest jurisdiction in Alsace, the appellate court....
. After suffering serious wounds, Fleischhauer retired from military service and received a government pension, although he continued to serve for some time as chairman of the National Federation of German Officers (Nationalverbandes Deutscher Offiziere).
No longer in the army, Fleischhauer sought out something else to do full-time. The draw of the public policy arena attracted him. In the aftermath of the defeat of the German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
and Austria-Hungarian empires, a number of new political parties emerged, many arguing for pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify the German-speaking populations of Europe in a single nation-state known as Großdeutschland , where "German-speaking" was taken to include the Low German, Frisian and Dutch-speaking populations of the Low...
. Fleischhauer joined the German National People's Party
German National People's Party
The German National People's Party was a national conservative party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. Before the rise of the NSDAP it was the main nationalist party in Weimar Germany composed of nationalists, reactionary monarchists, völkisch, and antisemitic elements, and...
(Deutschnationale Volkspartei, or DNVP) and was a representative of the racist wing arguing for even more radical far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...
policies. Intellectually, Fleischhauer was a disciple of Theodor Fritsch
Theodor Fritsch
Theodor Fritsch, originally Emil Theodor Fritsche , was a German publisher and pundit. His anti-semitic writings did much to influence popular German opinion against Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
and through their common Völkisch movement
Völkisch movement
The volkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic"...
circles he also developed friendships with a number of other revolutionary nationalists in secretive Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
organizations such as the Thule Society
Thule Society
The Thule Society , originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum , was a German occultist and völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend...
. Fleischhauer was especially close to poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and political activist Dietrich Eckart
Dietrich Eckart
Dietrich Eckart was a German journalist and politician, together with Adolf Hitler one of the early key members of the Nazi Party and a participant of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch.-Biography:...
, an early backer of 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...
.
Entry into publishing
These connections and his racist convictions led Fleischhauer to create an anti-Jewish publishing firm called U. Bodung-Verlag in ErfurtErfurt
Erfurt is the capital city of Thuringia and the main city nearest to the geographical centre of Germany, located 100 km SW of Leipzig, 150 km N of Nuremberg and 180 km SE of Hannover. Erfurt Airport can be reached by plane via Munich. It lies in the southern part of the Thuringian...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
that over time became increasingly powerful. Its rise in influence corresponded with the popular successes of National Socialism during the later Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
period, leading up to the establishment of the Third Reich.
Fleischhauer subsequently founded Welt-Dienst or Weltdienst (also known as World-Service, Service Mondial, etc.) on 1 December 1933. This served as an international antisemitic news agency
News agency
A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to news organizations: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service.-History:The oldest news agency is Agence...
and journalistic service for numerous other publications. For a nominal fee, subscribers to Welt-Diensts twice monthly series of mimeographed information sheets received summaries of news stories and other developments worldwide which tended to discredit anyone and anything linked to Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
and Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...
. The masthead of the British version of World-Service for 1 November 1937 is illustrative of these purposes and unequivocally stated: "These leaflets are intended to be passed on from hand to hand amongst Gentiles. The 'World-Service', which is issued in eight languages, is not published with a view of profits. Its principal aim is to enlighten ill-informed Gentiles irrespective of state or country to which they belong. These information sheets which deal with the machinations of the Jewish under-world form accordingly a necessary part of the intellectual armoury of every Gentile. The communication of the matters dealt with to the well-intentioned press is considered highly desirable. Those holding similar views to our own throughout the world, who recognize the fact that systematic work and research after truth cannot be carried on without pecuniary outlay, will of a surety decide to send us some small contribution as their means permit. This will enable us to carry out a considerable and effective extension of our work."
Controversial Berne Trial expands Fleischhauer's influence
Fleischhauer's influence among fanatical anti-Semites grew in 1934-1935 following his participation in SwitzerlandSwitzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
as a key defense organizer at the famed Berne Trial of distributors of the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent, antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for achieving global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the twentieth century...
. This notorious antisemitic forgery
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...
had already been largely discredited, but re-entered the headlines in June 1933 when a Swiss organisation known as the Nationale Front
National Front (Switzerland)
The National Front was a far right political party in Switzerland that flourished during the 1930s.The party began life amongst a number of debating clubs at the University of Zurich, where anti-Semitism, Swiss nationalism and support for ideas similar to those later adopted in the racial policy of...
began distributing it during a right wing demonstration. Then in 1934, Dr. Alfred Zander, a Swiss Nazi, further inflamed public opinion by publishing a series of articles accepting The Protocols description of a Jewish plot to take over the world as fact. Outraged, a group of leading Swiss Jews filed a lawsuit in the Amtsgericht (district court) of Bern on 29 October 1934 to ban continued publication and distribution of The Protocols as "indecent writings" under a Bernese statute prohibiting the distribution of "immoral, obscene or brutalizing" texts
The plaintiffs were represented by Georges Brunschvig
Georges Brunschvig
Georges Brunschvig was a Swiss lawyer and president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities . Internationally, he is best known for representing the plaintiff in the 1934–35 "Berne Trial".-Berne Trial:...
and Emil Raas. Vladimir Burtsev
Vladimir Burtsev
Vladimir L'vovich Burtsev , was a revolutionary activist, scholar, publisher and editor of several Russian language periodicals. He became famous by exposing a great number of agents provocateurs, notably Yevno Azef in 1908...
, a Russian émigré, anti-Bolshevik and anti-Fascist who exposed numerous Okhrana agent provocateurs in the early 1900s, served as a witness for the plaintiffs at the Berne Trial. Subsequently, while in Paris Burtsev published a Russian-language book in 1938 based on his testimony called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: A proven forgery.
Welt-Dienst entered the picture by spearheading efforts to secure other Russian émigré "experts" as part of the effort to defend the veracity of The Protocols. Defense testimony presented personally in court was limited, with Zander turning up as the only witness for the defendants. However, Fleischhauer helped coordinate efforts by other defense "experts" and himself provided media with extensive commentary and written material in support of the anti-Jewish defendants (Theodore Fischer and Silvio Schnell), with Bodung-Verlag issuing a comprehensive German-language version of his The real Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. Expert's report.
Despite these exertions, on 19 May 1935, the court declared The Protocols to be forgeries, plagiarisms, and obscene literature. The Judge Walter Meyer, a Christian who had not heard of The Protocols prior to the trial, said in conclusion: "I hope the time will come when nobody will be able to understand how in 1935 nearly a dozen sane and responsible men were able for two weeks to mock the intellect of the Bern court discussing the authenticity of the so-called Protocols, the very Protocols that, harmful as they have been and will be, are nothing but laughable nonsense".
However, on November 1, 1937, the defendants appealed the verdict to the Obergericht (Cantonal Supreme Court) of Berne. A panel of three judges acquitted them, holding that The Protocols, while false, did not violate the statute at issue because they were used as a means of political propaganda. The presiding judge's opinion stated, for the record, that in his opinion the forgery of The Protocols was not in question and expressed regret that the law did not provide adequate protection for Jews from this sort of literature. The court also imposed the fees for both trials on the defendants. This decision gave grounds for later allegations that the appeal court "confirmed the authenticity of The Protocols", which is opposite to the facts—even though technically the pro-Nazi side won the case. To date, the definitive scholarly work on the trial is a 139-page monograph by Swiss artist Urs Lüthi. Other especially important scholarly work on the controversy continues to be published by researcher Michael Hagemeister
Michael Hagemeister
Michael Hagemeister is a contemporary German scholar, historian and slavist, and one of the world's foremost authorities on the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and on Sergei Nilus, who first published "The Protocols" in book form in 1905.Hagemeister was employed at the universities of...
.
Worldwide propaganda
The excitement engendered by his appearance at the trial was a boon to Fleischhauer. By the mid-1930s, the Welt-Dienst emerged as the largest antisemitic operation in the world, publishing works in many foreign languages, and the nearest fascist equivalent to the rival communist Third International (CominternComintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
). Fleischhauer credited a conversation he had years earlier with Eckart with sparking the original idea. In April 1938 he wrote the NSDAP Hauptarchiv that "Dietrich Eckart then spoke to me alone, in a wine-cellar where we were sitting, about the subject which could today describe the Welt-Dienst. He said something to the effect: 'If our idea comes to power, the Jew will try again, as he's tried before with any State which attempts to solve the Jewish Problem, to starve us out. And if that's no use, then try to ruin us through wars and revolutions. Adolf must therefore have an international movement that can help him from the outside, just as the Stahlhelm
Stahlhelm
Stahlhelm is German for "steel helmet". The Imperial German Army began to replace the traditional boiled-leather Pickelhaube with the Stahlhelm during World War I in 1916...
and other groups help the Party from the outside today.'"
Over time, a veritable international "who's who" of antisemitic collaborators and correspondents contributed to Welt-Dienst publications and in turn quoted from them, including Henry Coston
Henry Coston
Henry Coston was a French far right and anti-Semitic journalist, collaborationist and conspiracy theorist....
(France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
), Louis Darquier (France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
), Arnold Leese
Arnold Leese
Arnold Spencer Leese was a British veterinarian and fascist politician. He was born in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England and educated at Giggleswick School....
(founder of the Imperial Fascist League
Imperial Fascist League
The Imperial Fascist League was a British fascist political movement founded by Arnold Leese in 1929.-Origins:Leese had originally been a member of the British Fascists and indeed had been one of only two members ever to hold elected office for them...
in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
), Ludwig Heiden ("Luis el-Hadj" - an SS official and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
who converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
and translated Hitler's Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
into the Arabic language
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
), Ion Moţa
Ion Mota
Ion I. Moţa [or Motza] was the Romanian fascist deputy leader of the Iron Guard killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War.-Biography:...
(or Motza, one of the leaders of the ultranationalist Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
from Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
who fought on the fascist side as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
), Juan Sampelayo (secretary of the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
Party's Jefatura Nacional de Prensa y Propaganda [Department of Exchange of the National Leadership of Press and Propaganda] in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
), as well as Boris Tödtli (Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
).
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, a number of organizations sympathetic to Nazi ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
subscribed to the inexpensive English-language World-Service bulletins. For example, William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley
William Dudley Pelley was an American extremist and spiritualist who founded the Silver Legion in 1933, and ran for President in 1936 for the Christian Party.-Family:...
frequently printed World-Service articles in his Silver Legion of America
Silver Legion of America
The 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....
magazine, Liberation, advocating a "purge of Jews and Communists in Hollywood." Other American publications, including Father Charles Coughlin
Charles Coughlin
Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a controversial Roman Catholic priest at Royal Oak, Michigan's National Shrine of the Little Flower church. He was one of the first political leaders to use radio to reach a mass audience, as more than thirty million tuned to his weekly broadcasts during the...
's Social Justice, Robert Edward Edmondson
Robert Edward Edmondson
Robert Edward Edmondson was an anti-Jewish pamphleteer and a defendant in the Great Sedition Trial of 1944. He was an organizer of the Pan-Aryan Conference. Edmondson had roots that went back to the colonial days of Virginia and Maryland and was primarily of Scottish descent...
's American Vigilante Bulletins, and those issued by the Rev. Gerald Burton Winrod, were equally willing to push the World-Service line on the Jewish question
Jewish Question
The Jewish question encompasses the issues and resolutions surrounding the historically unequal civil, legal and national statuses between minority Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews, particularly in Europe. The first issues discussed and debated by societies, politicians and writers in western and...
via word-for-word syndicated reproduction of "factual" news items appearing in their periodicals. When it suited his purposes, Fleischhauer was also happy to publish Jewish authors such as Marcus Eli Ravage
Marcus Eli Ravage
Marcus Eli Ravage was an American immigrant writer and personal biographer of the Rothschilds family.-References:...
, a Romanian emigrant to the United States whose writings could easily be misinterpreted by antisemites without an understanding of his sarcasm and wit.
Host of international antisemitic congresses
During the 1930s, Fleischhauer further expanded his propagandaPropaganda
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....
efforts by organizing the Pan-Aryan Anti-Jewish Union and a series of international antisemitic congresses to actively push for the suppression of Freemasonry, combat the alleged "Jewish conspiracy for world domination," and encourage the geopolitical depopulation of Jews from within Europe through mandatory resettlement
Resettlement
Resettlement:*can refer to voluntary or involuntary human migration*can be a euphemism for forced migration*can be a euphemism for population transfer...
in southern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
as was envisioned by the Nazi-promoted Madagascar Plan
Madagascar Plan
The Madagascar Plan was a suggested policy of the Nazi government of Germany to relocate the Jewish population of Europe to the island of Madagascar.-Origins:The evacuation of European Jews to the island of Madagascar was not a new concept...
.
Typical of such inflated rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
were the extremist views expressed by a Japanese representative to the Welt-Dienst congress hosted in 1938 by Fleischhauer. On behalf of Imperial Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, he stated that "Judeo-Masonry is forcing the Chinese to turn China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
into a spearhead for an attack on Japan, and thereby forcing Japan to defend herself against this threat. Japan is at war not with China but with Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
, represented by General Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
, the successor of his master, the Freemason Sun Yat-Sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
."
Fleischhauer superseded at Welt-Dienst
For many years Fleischhauer and his activities at Welt-Dienst took place with the approval of the Nazi regime. As was the case with a number of similar organizations and their leaders, he received secret direct financing from the German government. From 1933 to 1937 this funding came from Joseph GoebbelsJoseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
' Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. After a shakeup in lines of authority, by 1938 the responsibility for international antisemitism was shifted to the Foreign Affairs Office of the Nazi Party (Aussenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP, shortened to APA). This was one of several agencies within the vast Amt Rosenberg (Rosenberg Bureau or Rosenberg Office), the collective term for the various agencies controlled by Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
.
However, Fleischhauer's personal role at Welt-Dienst declined as Germany neared the start of 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...
. Researcher Carmen Callil
Carmen Callil
Carmen Thérèse Callil is a publisher, writer and critic. She founded Virago Press in 1973.-Life:Callil was born in Melbourne Australia, but has lived in London since 1960. Her mother Lorraine Clare Allen, widowed in her early forties, raised four children of whom Carmen was the third...
, whose excellent work on the topic is listed in the references section below, reports that Fleischhauer's political radicalism
Political radicalism
The term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...
was beginning to hurt the Third Reich's international image. By 1938, she writes, "Hitler was advised that Fleischhauer was placing Germany in embarrassing positions abroad, as he was the kind of ‘anti-Semite who pretends to see a threatening Jew behind every street corner of the world and who tries to deal with the matter in a psychosis of fear and secretiveness’."
In late July 1939, August Schirmer
August Schirmer
August Schirmer was a German architect, engineer, elected member of the Reichstag, Central Office Manager in the Amt Rosenberg, and head from 1939-1943 of an anti-Jewish propaganda publication service and news agency called Welt-Dienst / World-Service / Service Mondial.-Life and work:Schirmer...
, an Amt Rosenberg functionary who had headed the "American Section" of Welt-Dienst, took over publication of the periodical and its related operations. This change was connected with a relocation of Welt-Diensts editorial offices to Frankfurt am Main as part of a more formal reorganization of all anti-Jewish "research establishments" under Rosenberg's control, culminating in 1941 with the establishment of the Institut der NSDAP zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (Institute of the National Socialist German Workers Party for Research Into the Jewish Question). So, ironically, Fleischhauer was largely cut out of the publishing empire he founded. In fact, in 1941 he was living in the cellar of his home in Erfurt, running only a "tiny rump" version of the organizations he created as the focus of his life's work.
The Welt-Dienst organization on the other hand continued for a time to prosper. By its highpoint in August 1943 Welt-Dienst was published in 18 languages. At that time, Schirmer stepped down and was replaced by an individual named Kurt Richter, who in addition to being the new publisher was also director of an "International Institute for the Enlightenment of the Jewish Question
Jewish Question
The Jewish question encompasses the issues and resolutions surrounding the historically unequal civil, legal and national statuses between minority Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews, particularly in Europe. The first issues discussed and debated by societies, politicians and writers in western and...
." As the war turned against 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...
, Welt-Dienst continued with diminished distribution until finally ending all publication operations early in 1945.
During the post-war occupation, Fleischhauer underwent denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
in a series of American internment camps and hospitals where he was held from 1945–1946. Upon his release in 1947, Fleischhauer even issued a written statement in which he denied any Nazi or fanatical antisemitic views.
After this Fleischhauer retired from public life and lived quietly until his death in 1960.
See also
- George E. DeatherageGeorge E. DeatherageGeorge E. Deatherage was an American political activist. A native of Virginia and an engineer by training, he authored several books on construction.He is best remembered for his political activities...
- Elizabeth DillingElizabeth DillingElizabeth Dilling Stokes was an American anti-communist and later antisemitic social activist, as well as an anti-war campaigner and writer in the 1930s and '40s. She stood trial for sedition in what is now called the Great Sedition Trial of 1944.The author of four political books, Dilling...
- Fascism worldwide#United States
- L. Fry
- Great Sedition Trial of 1944
- Joe McWilliamsJoe McWilliamsJoseph Elsberry "Joe" McWilliams was born to a poor pioneer family in the small town of Hitchcock, Oklahoma.In his earlier days McWilliams was well known for using an American-flag-draped covered Conestoga wagon for publicizing his rallies and speeches, as well as for drawing attention to his cause...
Chronology
- 1 December 1933 - 15 June 1939, World-Service (Erfurt: Bondung-Verlag) edited and headed by its founder, Ulrich Fleischhauer.
- beginning 1 July 1939 - 1 September 1943, World-Service (Frankfurt am Main: Welt-Dienst-Verlag) edited and headed by August Schirmer.
- from 15 September 1943 - January 1945 [end of publication], World-Service (Frankfurt am Main: Welt-Dienst-Verlag) under the direction of Kurt Richter.
NOTE: See the references below for further information. The text of this Wikipedia article is excerpted from Richard Alan Nelson's much more extensive as-yet unpublished research monograph, Propaganda seeds of hate emanating from the "Erfurt nursery": Impact of and opposition to the Nazi World-Service press agency of Ulrich Fleischhauer.
External links
- Collection of many links related to the Berne Process (German)
- Gerichts-Gutachten zum Berner Prozess. Die echten "Protokolle der Weisen von Zion" by Ulrich Fleischhauer at Archive.org German. Expert´s report authored by Fleischhauer for the Berne Process, defending the authenticity of the ProtocolsThe Protocols of the Elders of ZionThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fraudulent, antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for achieving global domination. It was first published in Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the twentieth century...