THE GERMAN-AMERICAN BUND A model for American Ethno-Nationalism & American National Socialism

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THE GERMAN-AMERICAN BUND A model for American Ethno-Nationalism & American National Socialism

........the difference between the 1930's Movement and 2013 is the character and conviction of the Movements in the 1930's as opposed to what we see and hear in 2013.

By: Rodney Martin, DirectorWorld View Foundations

Bund Poster--1939 Madison Square Garden Rally

... To date, the German-American Bund Rally in Madison Square Garden is the largest and most successful Ethno-Nationalist Event in U.S. History. To members of the German-American Bund there was no contradiction between the ideals of the founding fathers of America and the National Socialist system which had been elected by the people in Germany in 1933.
CLICK TO HEAR EXCERPTS OF THE RALLY

German-American Bund Rally-Madison Square Garden February 20, 1939

German-American Bund Flag

The German-American Bund had successfully built its own "National Community" in the United States, much the envy and opposition of groups including Jews, Communists and even the Ku Klux Klan which showed up to protest the opening of the German-American Bund Camp
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Bund Activity-Camp Hindenburg-Circa 1938

The German-American Bund's use of images of Hitler and Washington together, along with the swastika, demonstrated BOTH, support for National Socialist Germany in the United States as well as a unique blend of German, National Socialist and American ideology rather than a foreign import. The success of the German-American Bund demonstrated that if properly presented and properly messaged, National Socialism would be embraced by large segments of the American (White) populace.
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The ever worsening economic conditions in the 1930's Great Depression and lack of solutions by the Roosevelt Administration created an environment ripe for Nationalism, as it should today in 2013, the difference between the 1930's Movement and 2013 is the character and conviction of the Movements in the 1930's as opposed to what we see and hear in 2013. The German-American Bund and its ethno-nationalism provided a voice for hundreds of thousands in America who lacked a voice.

The Bund also provided much needed "comradary" and a sense of cultural fulfillment. The German-American Bund was another side to the "melting pot" theory. The Bund demonstrated how two different traditions converged in the United States with German-American families demonstrating this to their local communities, and to the Nation. The Bund's ideas went further; they also united other Nationalist Groups, such as uniting other groups, such as uniting German groups on Long Island and holding rallies and co-cultural events with Italian groups under the American flag. Before long, the Bund had Chapters and held events and public displays all over the United States, from New York to parades in downtown Los Angeles. The German-American Bund's efforts grew and the political and cultural terrain served as grounds for different "European-American" groups to "melt" their ideology together.
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The purpose and goals of the German-American Bund consisted of the following:
Friendship and trade between Germany and the USA. 

The adoption of those portions of National Socialism that it was felt would aid in the economic recovery of the USA.
Preservation of Germanic culture in the USA through history, language, and folk art for both members and the general public.
Family oriented social activities and gatherings at Bund meeting halls and summer camps. The family was considered the basic Bund unit.

Bund members & Flags at Los Angeles Area Bund gathering

There has been very little in depth research into the Bund, especially from an objective point of view. The Bund was targeted in 1941 by the FBI, its assets seized, it's leaders placed in American Concentration Camps, then deported after the War and the Bund forever relegated in "official" U.S. Reports and documents as "Nazis" and "Nazi sympathizers" A majority of sources for books written about the Bund by "Mainstream/Agenda" Authors and Historians have been post war U.S. Government research publications, such as National Socialism, produced by the United States Department of State which labeled the German-American Bund as a "Nazi's foreign organizations" rather than an American Ethno-Nationalist organization. Rogge's The Official German Report, produced for the Department of Justice in 1946, labeled the Bund as an "extremist" organization, much like we what the ADL and SPLC does to Ethno-Nationalist Organizations today. Finally, the House of Representatives held hearings and investigations into suspected "foreign agents" and saboteurs, and conveniently included the Bund.

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The official U.S. Government propaganda from 1940 on has been, that German-American Bund members were just "Nazi supporters and not patriotic Americans"

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The national context embraced during National Socialist Germany and by the German-American Bund that sought to unite the "volk.", was equally attractive to large segments of non-German Americans. Likewise, the global dimension of National Socialism that transcended borders was gaining cultural support and there is a local dimension that plays out in neighborhoods and everyday life. Jewish Multiculturalism and Cultural Marxism have waged war on these concepts since 1945.

The local concept of National Socialism in a democratic society, which was mastered by the German-American Bund threatened the ruling elite and is useful in understanding how local issues manifest in national and global politics and culture. The German-American Bund was on the way to "meshing Ethno-Nationalism, National Socialism, and American principals. The Bund failed only because of the onset of the war and the assault by the FBI. The Bund's combining of ethno-nationalism and national socialism with American principles is a model for success for 2013 with its three-tiered model, local, national, and global.

THE BUND AND ITS DEVLOPMENT:

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In 1936, the organization underwent its final name change and became the German-American Bund lasting until 1941 when it was targeted by the FBI immediately after Pearl Harbor, its assets seized and its leaders jailed and detained for crimes on the basis of their German ancestry or associations.

Bund Leader, Fritz Kuhn 1896-1951

Fritz Julius Kuhn, the German-American Bund's leader, i.e. after Fritz Gissibl, was born in Germany and moved to the United States in 1927. 

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CLICK HERE-A SPEECH BY FRITZ KUHN

Kuhn was charged, found guilty and sentenced in federal court to two-and-a half to five years for grand larceny and forgery after raising money for attorney fees in Nassau County, New York. The Federal Government alleged Kuhn used the money for his personal use, including his mistress. The trial, prosecuted by non-other than Thomas E. Dewey, the future Governor of New York and future two Time Presidential looser, to FDR and Truman. Bund members argued the case against Kuhn was designed to embarrass Kuhn. Interestingly, many Bund members were already being investigated by several other various government organizations as well, much like the IRS scandal of 2013. Fritz Kuhn and several Bund members had their citizenship revoked, spend the War years in American Concentration Camps and were deported to Germany after the end of World War II where they eventually passed away.

SUCCESSFUL ETHNO-NATIONALISM

The Bund successfully blended German and American patriotism. In 1937, the Bund ratified its Constitution in New York. The Bund declared that its members would "uphold and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States"

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It should be noted that in schools all over the United States, the Pledge of Allegiance was done by American children with the "outstretched right arm and hand", thus the Bund was not importing the "Nazi" salute by any means.

Bund-Chicago, Circa, 1938

The Bund had a racialist foundation to unite "similar", emphasis on similar, people, including Germans AND Americans. Fritz Kuhn testified before the Committee of Un-American Activities and stated that the main requirement to join was one must be "Aryan," which he explained as "a member of the white race." The membership numbers, Kuhn testified under oath, at that time was 20,000 Aryan members and maybe "4 or 5 times 20,000" in sympathizers, thus Bund had between 20,000 and 120,000 active supporters across the United States depending on their organizational status. The Bund also strongly opposed the declared Jewish Boycott of Germany.

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Bund Gauleiter- West-Hermann_Schwinn-Los Angeles

Gauleiter and staff to direct the Bund operations in the respective region. The Bund had local Chapters all over the United States. The Bund's Los Angeles Chapter was extremely active. In all, the Bund was established in 47 of the 48 U.S. States at the time, Hawaii and Alaska were not yet States. This author's Grandmother was an active member of the Los Angeles area German-American Bund.

Bund Rally-Los Angeles, California

The Bund was extremely successful on the small/local scale due to its appeal to the patriotism of German-Americans. On February 22, 1940, the Bund hosted the "George Washington Birthday Exercises" to celebrate Washington's birth AND German culture in New York City. After the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, the Bund's leaders all spoke about the group's purpose followed by the German-American Bund's song "For Liberty and Truth We Fight."

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The Bund program offered the following principles: "To do honor to and defend the Constitution, flag, and institutions of the United States." This was subsequently followed by a promise to "combat all anti-Germanism, as reflected in the libelous slanderous attacks in the political, religious, cultural, economic, and civic fields" as well as "oppose by all lawful means all international or internal subversive phenomena, tending to undermine or overthrow the National Republic of these United States or the Christian Civilization upon which it is built". This echoed the previous year's speeches on February 20, 1939 at the Bund's famous Madison Square Garden Rally.

Bund Program-1939 Madison Square Garden Rally

With American Flags and banners of Adolf Hitler and George Washington hung on the same stage, J. Wheeler-Hill, Bund National Secretary, told the audience and reporters, "Be united! Be Americans . . . In one word, be a nation, be Americans, and be true to yourselves." G.W. Kunze told the audience that to prevent further decay of the country, the focus should "start with our churches" because "everlasting tolerance and liberalism in the face of the absolutely intolerant forces of Jewish Bolshevism means giving up our Christian institutions and our nation." The uniquely local focus of the German-American Bund centered on creating a National Community that developed a German-American spirit, where networks of committed people joined forces, to support this blend of National Socialism and American values.

The Bund on Parade-NOTE: the Flags

"German House"-Los Angeles

The Bund's neighborhood program echoed a longtime strategy of the Bund. When Fritz Kuhn became the National leader of the Bund in 1936, he quickly focused on local interests. Sending out Bund commands from its original headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, Kuhn then worked for Ford in Detroit.
Kuhn told members, "In national as in local politics our considerations of the political situation are based on two viewpoints. The purely American standpoint, as American citizens, and the standpoint as an organization bound to the (German) folk which (organization) is to engage in political activity favorable to the German fatherland." In order to create a strong local community of like-minded people, the Bund set out to bridge German traditions with American culture by targeting youth. The group wanted to teach German Culture to the next generation Americans. In the Bund's 1937 issue of Fighting Germanness ("Kämpfendes Deutschtum"), the cover featured Kuhn meeting Adolf Hitler with a swastika AND American flag. It must be noted for the 2013 reader, that the swastika was widely used in the United States in those days. U.S. Army used swastikas, swastikas adorned Highway Signs , and were used on public buildings.

Az State Highway Marker

U.S. Army 45th Infantry Patch

Federal Court House-Albuquerque, NM-Window Mesh

The volume started with an excerpt from Colin Ross' Our America ("Unser Amerika"), which claims that those with German blood will lead the United States into a new era. The issue contained collections of poetry, songs, and articles about local activity around the United States. The articles discussed celebrations of German-American history, Bund members on the streets of New York City and highlighted youth activity at Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, Long Island.

THE BUND SUMMER CAMPS & ORCHESTRATED OPPOSITION: 

  Camp Siegfried, the most famoud Bund Camp, was owned and operated by the German Settlement League whose president, Ernst Mueller, was a leading Bund member. With the tremendous growth of the Bund, the camp was used for Bund youth to learn about camping, hunting, shooting, and eugenics. For Camp was used for other activities as well, adults and local residents used the Camp to discuss politics and local events. More importantly the Camp Siegfried served for the celebration and dissemination of Bund ideology. Bund Youth were taught a wide range of subjects from philosophy and history to German language. Trips to Germany were organized, including the 1936 Olympics where Kuhn and others met Hitler.

Bund Youth "Standing Guard"-Camp Bergwald

The Bund Camp(s) soon began to receive "official harassment". A local investigation of Bund activities at Camp Nordland, a Bund Camp in New Jersey by the local sheriff, Sheriff Denton Quick, concluded that the Bund youths' "books and even their teachers had been furnished by Adolf Hitler." The Bund's pamphlets, newspapers, and magazines ALL came from Bund headquarters. One Bund brochure, "What Price the Federal Reserve", was an effective criticism of the Federal Reserve which was mass distributed to the American populace. The Bund Headquarters was now located in Brooklyn after Fritz Kuhn left Ford, another "investigation by the local County District Attorney" Charles Downing, Sussex County, N.J stated, that according to unnamed witnesses, Bund Youth Uniforms were ‘smuggled into this country and brought to the camp from Germany by exchange students'. According to United States government documents of the time, "members of this youth division attended summer camps where they received doctrinal and physical training closely following the Nazi method in Germany." Women, on the other hand, "were associated in the Frauenschaft division, and devoted their efforts to the welfare of the Bund and its philosophy."


The camp(s) served to instruct men, women and youth in the ways of the "fatherland" and teach practical as well as political knowledge to its members. No "investigation" or "report" on any of the activities at the Bund Camps or the Camps themselves concluded that anything remotely illegal was taking place. 

The "Official Harassment" orchestrated and coordinated by Jewish media, local, state and federal officials against the German-American Bund was the precursor of how these enemies of Ethno-Nationalism and Truth would attack such groups in the future. There would be coordinated attacks in the media, the use of false witnesses, endless frivolous investigations and prosecutions, and the commission of "damaging reports" all aimed at attacking the organization's reputation in an effort to drive away membership.

The German-American Bund's interests meshed with everyday American life in expected and unexpected ways. Outdoor training was important to the Bund, which included exercising individual Second Amendment Rights with gun training. The Bund organized clubs and affiliated with the National Rifle Association (NRA). On the floor of the House of Representatives, Jewish Congressman Samuel Dickstein (D-NY) said, in part: "the National Rifle Association of Washington D.C., is being used and abused by the members of the German-American Bund. This rifle association, which had at one time sent representatives to the Bund in 1938 to solicit members, was recently exposed in the press when it was found out that this association had sold rifles to the members of the Christian Front, of which 14 members are now on trial." The NRA, and many other NRA-friendly Congressmen, immediately disputed the validity of those claims. In a letter to Marvin Miller, who researched the German-American Bund, the NRA wrote several decades later that it was true that Bund rifle clubs were "affiliated with the National Rifle Association" and received "assistance from the Office of the Director of Civilian Marksmanship in the form of rifles and ammunition."

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Bund Flag Salute(s)

Bund Parade-Lindenhurst, NJ

Others, notably Gustave Neuss, Yaphank's Jewish Justice of the Peace, condemned the Bund's "Nazism" and rumored ties to Nazi intelligence services. This led to a public battle of words with the Bund pledging their support to Republican political candidates. The German-American Bund, criticism was orchestrated by the Jewish Press, anti-Germans and a hostile Government. The fact is the Bund meshed very well with local residents and joined a wide cross section of gun enthusiasts, beer drinkers, campers, and political activists, this threatened the FDR Regime and the power elite.

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Bund Camp Site Planning-Circa 1930s

‘THE LOYALITY OATH CASE" & OFFICIAL HARRASSMENT:

The German-American Bund was often targeted by local governments for its views, positions and support for Adolf Hitler. One of the most notable cases was New York v. Mueller, et al., which took place in July, 1938, after the German-Austrian Anschluss. The case took place in Riverhead, NY against six German-American Bund leaders. New York State coordinated with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Attorney General Cummings, and Jewish Congressman Dickstein, who had long targeted the Bund on behalf of the World Jewish Congress. New York State argued that the Bund had a secret oath which pledged loyalty to the "Nazis and Hitler". The state's star witness said he was given the oath, but under cross-examination the star witness was unable to provide any specifics regarding who gave the oath, his position or name any witnesses to his taking of the alleged oath. The allegation was a fraud and brought fraudulently by New York State in concert with the Federal Government.


To refute the claims alleged by New York State, the German-American Bund's defense called Martin Wunderlich, a Bund member who was a shipping clerk from New York City, Wunderlich denied ever taking any such an oath. Wunderlich went on to tell the court he as well as everyone else at Camp Siegfried pledged their allegiance to the American flag. Wunderlich said, "I salute the American flag as a member and proud member of the White Race", the court record reflects that Wunderlich then stood up and raised right arm.

Then the New York prosecutors then asked Wunderlich, "is that is the American salute?"
Wunderlich replied, "it will be." As stated earlier, American students were indeed using that salute every morning in schools all over the United States when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag, so Wunderlinch's answer should have been yes. In true form, New York news outlets, like the Schenectady Gazette, focused on Wunderlich's salute, reporting he "predicted that the Nazi salute of Hitler's Germany would replace the American form of saluting the flag" conveniently ignoring the use of the salute in American schools. The New York Press went on and "said he believed there would be a national socialist party formed in the United States on Hitler lines", which he did not.

U.S. Children, in an American School, salute the American Flag-Cica,1939

Other Bund defense witnesses spoke of the American flag being synonymous with Christian principles, which was reported in the press as "anti-Semitic, while other defense witnesses warned that America was at risk by "Jewish Communism, a true statement looking at what became of America. According to a court stenographer and a family member of a juror, it was Wunderlich's actions that doomed the Bund's case. The jury found the six leaders of the Bund guilty in two minutes.

The conviction was however thrown out on appeal. The Bund's appeal argued that the trial court ignored the facts presented, which showed the witness who claimed to take the oath could NOT have taken an oath the day he claimed as court records showed he was elsewhere. The appellate judge dismissed the case saying if even if the oath was required, "you can't convict them because they may seem to be strange people."

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Local, state and federal government agencies were fixated on the German-American Bund's for its perceived ties to "Nazi Germany", and looked ONLY at the Bund's Hitler banners and ignored its George Washington banner and American Flags.

DAS AS DAS ENDE 

When the United States and National Socialist Germany were formally at war on December 11, 1941, the Bund had already issued a statement in its newsletter to its members that saying "military service is not justified, in as far it concerns Bund members and American Germans, for in the Selective Service Law the citizenship rights of Bund members and the defenders of Germandom are unconstitutionally served!" This statement is often misconstrued and misstated by Bund opponents as a treasonous statement. Many Bund members who refused to fight or failed to comply with the Selective Service were targeted, such as Bruno Clemens Knupfer, were arrested for "engaging in a conspiracy to violate the Selective Service Act". Knupfer was a native born German who received U.S. citizenship in 1930 and lived in Brooklyn, New York. He was eventually held on Ellis Island where he was brought in front of a Hearing Board. Like many Americans of German and Japanese descent, the Board had the power to have him "removed and repatriated to the country of his nationality as soon as arrangements for his transportation could be made." In Knupfer's petition to the court, he wrote, "I registered for the draft and aware of my duty as a citizen at all times was willing to bear arms for and defend the United States." He further explained, "I believed that I am being detained solely because at one time I had opinions and beliefs with which others disagree." Feeling defeated, he "offered to surrender . . . citizenship," but "denied the allegations" believing "cooperation would be considered and help . . . later." Knufper's fate was the same as many others who associated with the Bund and similar groups, and his citizenship were revoked. For their association with the German-American Bund that praised their ethnicity as well as honoring American patriots, they lost their citizenship.

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Camp Bergwald-1939- Main Building

The German-American Bund was not a "Nazi" Organization, as the U.S. Government attempted to label it and it was not just a German organization. The Bund was a true American Ethno-Nationalist organization with deep-seeded local roots and enjoyed broad support. While the Bund emphasized German-American culture, the Bund was racialist in a very positive sense and promoted an American model of National Socialism that had appeal and was on the rise. The Bund successfully blending into local life for twenty years until the start of war. There is no doubt, the Bund were loyal Americans, they were the first truly organized and effective Ethno-Nationalists and the system which was controlled by foreign interests crushed them, but it needed the war to do it. The Bund thrived and grew despite constant attacks and harassment by local, state and federal government, hostile press and hostile government reports, and it survived the imprisonment of its Leader, and won the New York "Loyalty Case" on appeal. No organization can do this absent broad "grass-roots" support.

The U.S. Government used the war to finally bring unconstitutional powers in war time, unavailable in peace time, to bear on the Bund.

The German-American Bund is an example of positive American Ethno-Nationalism & American National Socialism.

Sources:"They too were Americans", Scott Freeland
"Americas Nazis: A Democratic Dilemma a History of the German American Bund", Susan Canedy
United States National Archives:
United States v. Carl Bregler, et. al
New York v. Mueller, et al
German-American Bund Documents
U.S. State Dept. Report- National Socialism
FBI Records of the German-American Bund & German-American Federation
The Official German Report: Nazi Penetration, 1924-1942
1937 Constitution of the German American Bund
"What Price the Federal Reserve"-a Bund Publication
"Awake and Act"-a Bund Publication
"Free America"-The Bund Speeches at the 1939 Madison Square Garden Rally
Personal recollections of Ruth Schmidt-Martin, Los Angeles Bund Member (Author's Grandmother)

BUND VIDEO FOOTAGE

NOTE: This video provides excellent footage of Bund activities in the Los Angeles area in the 1930's.  However, the viewer must discout the anti-Bund/anti-German/anti-National Socialist propagandistic narration which is completly inaccurate.  The video is provided for its footage only.  Its should be noted that no one is handing materials back to Bund members and the Bund Events are very positive and the people are all very supportive.

NOTE: this is excellent footahe of Bund activities at Camp Bergwald in New Jersey.  This is original home movie type footage.  There is no sound.  This footage provides excellent insight as to the activities and comradery which took place at the Bund Camps and within the Bund itself.  This type of Etno-Kinship has been deemed "politically and socially incorrect by today's Cultutral Marxists.
CLICK HERE FOR THE CAMP BERGWALD VIDEO FOOTAGE