| Abstract: | In April 1936, Fritz Julius Kuhn was proclaimed Bundesfuehrer of the newly formed German American Bund. Acknowledging his leadership grant to some 1,500 gathered to witness this event, Kuhn thundered invectives against Jews, blacks, communists, and what he perceived to be a general racial mongrelization pervading the nation. Outfitted in the uniform of the third Reich, Kuhn went on to endorse the establishment of youth camps and stormtroop legions. He was wildly applauded. This particular event occurred in New York, and has generally been viewed as part and parcel of the radical upsurge that characterized Depression America. The German American Bund, however, was not born of economic turbulence or political dissatisfaction. To be precise, the German American Bund was not a child of America's Great Depression. Rather, it was a true expression of German National Socialism, born in America of German American parentage. This study is a chronicle of the German American Bund: its beginnings, its aims and purposes, its rise and fall. It is a history of a self-proclaimed National Socialist group, and, as such, illustrates an era of American and German history as well. This work is an attempt to place the German American Bund in its rightful spot in history--as a true Nazi movement in America. |
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