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, Director World View Foundations

There they were banners of Adolf Hitler and George Washington along-side the American flag.

This was not a modern day “Neo-Nazi or Skin Head Rally of a few dozen on a street corner, but a Rally by members

of the German-American Bund on the night of February 20, 1939 at Madison Square Garden. Some 20,000

attended. 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.

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

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 at . In prior summers, families from all over New York State

arrived at Penn Station to take the 8:00 a.m. “Camp Siegfried Special” to Yaphank, Long Island to participate in

week-long Bund activities.

The German-American Bund printed Brochures of Camp Siegfried, a Summer Camp, operated by the Bund, which

promised German-American patriots, “You will meet people who think like you do”. Local residents from Yaphank,

Jamesport, Aquebogue, and Riverhead visited Camp Siegfried to join in the festive atmosphere, either walking or

driving down “Hitler Street” to salute both American and National Socialist flags.

Both these artificially opposing symbols, in today’s Hollywood driven culture, were celebrated on the eve of

World War II. 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.

Bund Membership Advertisement

The 1930’s, like today, provided a golden opportunity for Nationalist and Ethno-Nationalist movements in the

United States, whether “left” or “right” of the politically. A prime example, in addition to the Bund is Huey Long

who combined populism with a concept of quasi-authoritarian rule in Louisiana. Father Charles E. Coughlin

broadcast an extremely popular national radio program which blended orthodox religion, economics and quasi-

Nationalist/Fascist politics combined with anti-Semitism. William Dudley Silver Legion was a true American

Fascist Movement with strong Christian influence, Paley ran for President in 1936 as the nominee of the “Christian

Party”.

The ever worsening economic conditions in the 1930’s Great Depression and lack of solution 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.

The Bund’s broad array of local activities demonstrate the appeal of National Socialism among European-Americans in the United States, and this expression of National Socialism blended with American politics to create a unique, not confused, form of American National Socialism was the Bund’s greatest success and has been underappreciated in history. As the Bund explained in a telegram by its then leader Fritz Kuhn from Buffalo, New York to Germany in 1936: “The representatives of the German-American Volksbund . . . see in the overpowering decision of the German Volk an expression of the unity between Government and Volk in which we recognize the most sublime form of true democracy.”

Kuhn’s 1936 statement may seem as a contradiction for the 2013 reader, it however was NOT a contradiction in the minds of many German-Americans before the war. 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. 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. None of the U.S. Government “Bund” Reports, Documents or “Bund” work commissioned by the U.S. Government can be cited in any serious and objective work on the Bund, other than as an example of the bias encountered by the German-American Bund and as an example of anti-ethno-nationalist policy by the U.S. Government as early as the 1930’s. The U.S. Government’s Bund Reports and commissioned researchers purposely failed to examine the

German-American Bund’s local activism and local appeal. The U.S Government went to great lengths to erase the German-American Bund’s local, national, and global interests and broad based support The official U.S. Government propaganda from 1940 on has been, that German-American Bund members were just “Nazi supporters and not patriotic Americans” Some Bund Members were indeed self-identified “National Socialist” in their worldview, but all were patriotic German-Americans and the vast majority born in the U.S. whose families were in the country for decades. It must be understood about such groups, like the Bund in the 1930’s, that for the rank-and-file, they were patriotic for both Germany and the United States. This is identical to the Hispanic member of MecHa in the USA in 2013. The German-American Bund’s activity was a way to mesh patriotism of the two countries even if some elements of the ideologies conflicted. 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: The German-American Bund was first organized in earnest in 1924 as the “Free Society of Teutonia” by Fritz Gissibl after moving to Chicago, Illinois. Fritz Gissibl was a National Socialist Party member. In 1926, the name was changed to the “National Socialistic Society of Teutonia”, and according to United States Government documents, “upwards of half of the members in 1926 were affiliated and associated with the Adolf Hitler Party” The “National Socialistic Society of Teutonia”, grew rapidly throughout the Midwestern United States and in 1932 changed its name again to the “Friends of the Hitler Movement”. After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933, the name was changed again to “Friends of the New Germany- FONG”. Fritz Gissibl returned to Germany in 1934 where he was appointed State Secretary of Propaganda Ministry for Southern Germany. 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. 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. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1934. Kuhn first worked for the Ford Motor Company as a chemist until he left Ford to be the leader of the German-American Bund on a full time basis

which included serving as editor of its weekly publication, “Weckruf und Beobachter” (“Wakening call and Observer”) which was based in Brooklyn. In December, 1939, at the height of the Bund’s growth and success, the Federal Government targeted Kuhn.

Bund Leader, Fritz Kuhn 1896-1951

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” and “remain worthy of our Germanic blood, our German fatherland, and our German brothers and sisters.” At the same time, the Bund Constitution also explained “the swastika, our fighting symbol, had already become the sign of recognition of Aryan nationalism” in many other countries. In addition, “the greeting of the outstretched right arm and hand, which means the same thing, is used by all these movements.” 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. 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. This The German-American Bund’s transnational ideology united people not just in major cities, but towns in Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. A key to the Bund’s success was its administrative organization, the Bund divided the United States in the three Gau (Districts): Gau Ost (East), Gau West, and Gau Midwest. Combined. The three Gau had 69 Ortsgruppen, with 40 of them being in Gau Ost (17 in New York), 10 in Gau West and 19 in Gau Midwest.

Bund Gauleiter- West-Hermann Schwinn-Los Angeles Each Gau had its own 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.

Fritz Kuhn speaks at Hindenburg Park/Los Angeles “German House”-Los Angeles

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.” In San Diego, California, five replicated lamps on the terrace of the Cafe del Rey Moro in the House of Hospitality in Balboa Park, a building built for the 1915 Pan-American Exposition, caused controversy when it was discovered that the original lamps had been donated by the local San Diego German-American club, a Bund affiliate, for a 1935 Exposition. This generous donation by Bund members became controversial when decades later in June 1998 observers discovered that they contained swastikas. The ADL was immediately notified and threatened legal action. The ADL took the position that “the swastikas were emblems of the German Nazi party and they had been intended as such when they were donated”. Interestingly, a lamp that fabricators used as a model to make the five lamps had survived on the terrace in full view for 60 years, including all during World War II when U.S. Navy nurses occupied the House of Hospitality. Rather than removing the lamps and the swastikas as demanded by the ADL from the design, city officials decided to retain the swastikas out of what they said was a desire to remain historically accurate. After the lamps had been replicated, they were installed so that the swastikas face the wall. The concealment being ineffectual, as the lamps were soon “vandalized”, thus the San Diego Parks Department directed that the swastikas be covered with metal plates. 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.

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

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.

German-American Bund Parade-New York German-American Bund-Chicago

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.

Arizona State Route Marker U.S. 45th Div. Patch Court House Window Gate-Albuquerque, NM

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 famous 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 at Hindenburg Park

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.

Bund Activities-Camp Bergwald

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.”

Bund Members at Camp Siegfried

The German-American Bund blended well into everyday American life in many other ways. The Bund sold alcohol at its camps, which in turn provided good profit. In fact, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents, one witness “had seen nothing there that appeared at all impressive to him. They did appear to consume great quantities of beer and do a lot of marching and wearing of uniforms.” Unlike consuming beer, marching did not simply take place within the confines of the property. German-American Bund marches and rallies were organized throughout the United States, from Long Island, New York to Detroit, Michigan, to Los Angeles, California. The local people who were allegedly interviewed by the FBI supposedly had mixed feelings about “Bund Member conduct”. “Supposed Neighbors” complained of “men and women wearing shorts and “abbreviated” bathing suits on highways, trespassing on private property, stealing flowers, and growing produce.” Interestingly, buried in FBI documents and reports actual and named owners property owners said they “had no particular trouble with the Bund named individuals and actual adjoining property owners said that “most of the talk against campers originates with the newspapers.” 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. The Bund developed their summer Camps throughout their well-developed Regions. There were three German-American Bund Camps in New Jersey in Bloomingdale, in Griggstown, and the largest, Camp Nordland in Andover. Camp Nordland opened on July 18, 1937. Local residents were very supportive. Camp Norland’s opening festivities drew 10,000 German-Americans to small town of Andover, population 479 at the time. These out-of-towners patronized local businesses, they were however encouraged to only buy from Aryan owned shops. The Andover Fire Department even raffled off a car at the opening ceremonies of the camp, selling over 1,500 tickets. This flood of economic influx resulting from Bund activity led to tremendous local support the Bund. The Bund demonstrated that well organized Ethno-Nationalism could be a tremendous economic force. Interestingly, when Camp Bergwald was opened in Blomindale, the Ku Klux Klan showed up and protested the Bund as being a “Socialist” organization. The Bund also developed Camp Hindenburg in Grafton, Wisconsin, Deutschhorst Country Club, in Sellersville, PA.

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.

US Children reciting the Pledge in School, Circa 1930’s

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.”

Bund Celebration after return of Sudetenland to Germany

After the 1938 transfer of the Sudetenland by Treaty to Germany and the subsequent annexation of Czechoslovakia. The U.S. government began taking a closer look at possible domestic “Nazi activity” according to U.S. government documents. In a letter from the FBI’s New York office on May 23, 1938, it specifically mentioned “the continued existence of Camp Siegfried at Yaphank, Long Island” owned by the German-American Settlement League Inc., which “was created to take over the property and assumed the mortgages and paid off by the man in whose name the property had originally been carried.” The letter also detailed the presence of 150 to 300 children at the camp who “used to wear a uniform like that of the Hitler Youth in Germany” even though one Bund member was quoted in the letter saying the children “would be too young to understand about National Socialism and similar subjects.” Rather, the children were “told to be good citizens of this country but never forget their German blood.” 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. Today, looking at the swastika flying proudly next to the American flag is too much for some, but not for those who truly understand real history and culture and have the courage and conviction to not succumb to Hollywood and Orwellian indoctrination. Many “Americans” chose to remember the build up to and World War II as a clear division of good versus evil. This is not true. Many American Hero’s such as Charles Lindberg had sympathizes identical to the German-American Bund. The Jew dominated New York Times made sure to note in its article memorializing the death the death of Fritz Kuhn in Munich – a year after his death: NY Times 2/1/52-Fritz Kuhn, once the arrogant, noisy leader of the pro-Hitler German-American Bund, died here more than a year ago -- a poor and obscure chemist, unheralded and unsung.

The Bund’s Camp Siegfried became Siegfried Park after the Bund lost control of the property to the German Settlement League, all of the former Bund Camps are now ruins and have been reclaimed by nature, and the roads (such as Hitler Street) all changed. As for the people, the Bund members who could PROVE their loyalty to the United States moved on with their lives. Bund members and leaders, like Fritz Kuhn, who were deported to Germany after the war, said they “would go back to the United States in a minute if I could”. Others, like Rudolf Franz Funk, the “Bund was an American organization” and could not say that the youth organization was “more German than American.” Funk attended Camp Siegfried for four summers and wanted the United States to win the war, Germany to lose, but still refused to fight in the military. In a split vote during his repatriation hearing on Ellis Island, two panelists voted in favor of repatriation citing “adherence to National Socialism” and one dissented. The dissenter said, “I think he has the potentialities of a good citizen.” This split decision demonstrated the uniqueness of the Bund in the minds of many people in America.

Entrance today to the grounds of what was “Camp Siegfried”

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.

Bund Poster-Circa, 1938 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)

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