George Kettmann

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George Kettmann as a war correspondent in Karelia, 1943.

George Wilhelm Kettmann (Amsterdam, 12 December 1898 - Roosendaal, 10 February 1970) was a Dutch poet, writer, journalist and publisher. Between 1933 en 1941 hij was editor in chief of Volk en Vaderland (People and Fatherland), the weekly journal of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands, the movement of Anton Mussert. From 1932 till 1945 he was the owner of the best known National Socialist publishing house in the Netherlands: De Amsterdamsche Keurkamer, where in 1939 he published the Dutch translation of Hitlers Mein Kampf.

On 2 August 1932 he joined the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands. Only just before, on 21 July, he had started his own publishing house: De Amsterdamsche Keurkamer. His aim as a publisher is to help spread National Socialism as a cultural phenomenon. In the years before WW2 he edited Volk en Vaderland, wrote and published prose, poetry and essays and he led his publishing house, thus showing an enormous energy. Over the years his relation with Anton Mussert deteriorated, as Kettmann accused Mussert from not being able to grasp the real, revolutionary, aspect of National Socialism. This led ultimately to his joining the Nederlandsche SS on 7 March 1942. In september 1942 Mussert expelled Kettmann from the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands; Kettmann was being considered too radical a National Socialist. Eventually Kettmann became a war correspondent at the Eastern Front.

After the war Kettmann fled to Belgium, where he was arrested in 1948. Back in the Netherlands, he was being accused of:

joining the German armed forces,
aiding the enemy, National Socialism and antisemitism,
having written and published articles and poems gloryfying National Socialism and antisemitism.

He was condemned to a prison sentence of 10 years. After his release in 1955 he refrains from any political activity. He published some volumes of poetry, in which he demonstrates not having lost his National Socialist ideology.

Ideologically between 1931 and 1970 he evolved from a Italian-style fascist (1931-1933) to a Dutch National Socialist (1933-1940), then to a Germany depending National Socialist (1940-1942) and finally to a believer in the National Socialist SS ideology, desiring one great Germanic empire in Europe (1942-1945). His ideas from after the German defeat showed a returning to his ideas of the 1933-1940 period.

[edit] Selected Works

1928 - De glanzende draad der goden. Novel.
1930 - De vlam der steden. Coauthor: Ru le Cavelier. Novel.
1931 - Maan op het dak. Novel.
1933 - De oceaanvlucht van een olie-man. Novel.
1935 - De jonge leeuw, verzen. Poetry.
1936 - 'Om wille van het leven, kunst en gemeenschap. Essay.
1938 - Het erf aan zee. Poetry.
1940 - Om de nieuwe cultuur. Essay.
1942 - Jong groen om den helm. Poetry.
1943 - Bloed in de sneeuw. Poetry.
1944 - De verdrevene. Novel.
1956 - De ballade van de dode Viking. Poetry.
1957 - Manuel. Published under the name: Jan van de Wolk. Novel.
1962 - Zettericks van alle seizoenen. Published under the name: Jan van de Wolk. Poetry.
1969 - Man vrouw kind. Poetry.

[edit] References

(Dutch) Willem Huberts, Schrijver tussen daad en gedachte, leven en werken van George Kettmann Jr. (1898-1970), met een bibliografie. Stichting Bibliographia Neerlandica, 's-Gravenhage, 1987. ISBN 90-71313-08-5.
(Dutch) Frank van den Bogaard, 'George Wilhelm Kettmann (1898-1970)'. In: Frank van den Bogaard, Een stoottroep in de letteren, 'Groot Nederland', de SS en de Nederlandse literatuur (1942-1944). Stichting Bibliographia Neerlandica, 's-Gravenhage, 1987. ISBN 90-71313-07-7.
(Dutch) Willem Huberts. 'Kettmann'. In: Biografisch woordenboek van Nederland, deel 3. Onder eindredactie van dr. J. Charité. Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 's-Gravenhage, 1989, pp. 322-324. ISBN 90-5216-00-66.
(Dutch) Gerard Groeneveld, 'Kettmann in Karelië'. In: Gerard Groeneveld, Kriegsberichter, Nederlandse SS-oorlogsverslaggevers 1941-1945. Uitgeverij Vantilt, Nijmegen, 2004, pp. 305-317. ISBN 90-77503-09-9.