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.
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German Nazi party (NSDAP) member Heinz Spanknöbel merged two older organizations in the United States, 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.[1]
In December 1935 Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess ordered all German citizens leave the Friends of New Germany (FOTNG), while also recalling all the group's leaders to Germany.[2] In March 1936, the German American Bund (AV) was established as a follow-up organisation for the FOTNG in Buffalo, New York.[2][3] 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.[4] 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.[2][5][6] 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 unions and boycotts against German goods.[2][7] 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.[8]
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.[2] 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.[2] 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.[2] This was done both to appease the U.S and to distance Germany from the Bund, which was increasingly a cause of embarrassment with its rhetoric and actions.[2]
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.
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.[9] 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.[9] Each Gau had its own Gauleiter and staff to direct the Bund operations in the region in accordance with the Führerprinzip.[9]