German American Bund

Section II.  The Bund’s Ideology, Membership and Americanization

A.     Kampfendes Deutschtum- the anti-Communist and anti-Semitic Ideology of the Bund

Throughout its existence, a consistent leitmotiv of the German American Bund was a vehement anti-Communism.  Congruous with the National Socialist Weltanschauung was the Bund’s belief that communism was an alien doctrine purported by Jews, and it was the most serious problem facing both America and the world.[1]  AWAKE AND ACT! professed that “Communism is anti-social and the enemy of civilization, aiming at the absolute destruction of all economic, social and national achievement…This fight against Communism is the business not only of Germany but of the entire world”[2]  Thus, the Bund’s uncompromising struggle against communism in the U.S. was not only an American patriotic endeavor, but a struggle fought for the benefit of all nations. 

As in Nazi Germany, the Bund’s anti-Communist crusade was integrally connected to its anti-Semitism.[3] Bundists argued, “It cannot be denied that the Jews in every country have seized the leadership of the Marxian movement and that many of our misguided race-fellows have allowed themselves to become willing tools in the hands of these alien leaders.”[4] The Jews, Bundists contended, held enormous sway in America as exemplified by the FDR administration and the New Deal who became key targets of the Bund’s vitriol.  The Bund contended that the FDR administration was full of Jews and was it leading America in a dangerous leftist direction.  Like many other right-wing extremists, the Bund believed that a Communist revolution in America was imminent, and they portrayed themselves as the uncompromising and heroic vanguard against Marxism. They adopted the notion of Kampfendes Deutschtum (fighting German-ness) and asserted that they alone took an effective and aggressive offensive against Jews and Communists in America.  Just as Hitler had crushed the communist menace in Germany, the Bund would spearhead the same crusade in America.[5]  The Bund surmised that because of their steadfast anti-Communist crusade, America would eventually turn to her German element to defend the country against the Communist threat, and Kuhn boasted, “So long as there’s a swastika, there’ll be no hammer and sickle in this country.” [6]  

Inevitably Bundists made the analogy between the “Jewish problem” in America and the “Jewish problem” in Germany. To the Bund, the Jews were an alien race with an oriental ideology that threatened to destroy German and American culture.[7]  Bundists asserted that ever since the founding of the U.S., the nation’s institutions and values were preponderantly Anglo-Saxon and Nordic.  The Jews were not only simply incompatible with American life and culture, but they were a threat to it as well.[8] 

Bundists asserted that Jews subverted and resisted American heritage and undermined the nation’s Christian foundations as they surreptitiously gained control over all the important power centers in America.  The Bund consistently railed against Jewish domination of government, labor unions, the professions, the press and Hollywood.  Bund publications proclaimed, “The Jews complain that they are unpopular.  They have always nursed the same ambition to force their tastes and ideals upon their host nation, no matter under what government they lived…they are disliked, not because they are Jews…because they are inassimilable.”[9]  

Bund editors espoused the virtues of Hitler and the Nazis who were the only nation successfully fighting this Jewish-Bolshevik menace.  In Germany, Jewish communists had staged a revolution which was ultimately quelled by the patriotic Friekorps, the former German soldiers who later became the backbone of the Nazi storm troopers.  Just as Hitler had successfully fought the communist threat, when the same day came to America, the Bund proclaimed that they would be ready to fight the communist revolution.  They urged other Americans to join their crusade.  Bundists warned that a Jewish-communist overthrow of the American government was rapidly approaching and that only a united front of Aryan-America could stop them.  Jews controlled key positions in state and federal government and most importantly, they controlled all mass media wherein they refused to report the truth about the oppressive nature of the Soviet Union.  Jewish writers and the Hollywood film industry produced a wealth of popular entertainment that exploited morbid sex themes and subverted the values of Aryan America.  Because Jews had so successfully indoctrinated school children with their propaganda, the Bund sought to “revise” America history to point out the “true” subversive nature of the Jews throughout the nation’s history.  Traditional American Jewish heroes like Haym Solomon who played important role in financing the American Revolution became, according to the Bund, a “patriotic cheat” who lent money to Americans at usurious rates for his own greed.  The Bund also attempted to demonstrate that anti-Semitism was deeply ingrained in the ideas of the Founding Fathers.  It reprinted and distributed Ben Franklin’s anti-Semitic pamphlet warning of the dangers of the Jews.[10] 

            Bundists genuinely believed that America stood at the brink of a Jewish controlled Communist revolution.  The United States therefore needed to follow the example of Germany and rid America of the Jewish-Bolshevik threat once and for all.  The Bund asserted that it led by example and was ready to fight if necessary to save America.  It demonstrated its patriotism by awakening America to the subversive Communist threat.  In June, 1938, Kuhn testified before the State Legislative Inquiry in the Supreme Court building that “All the Jews are enemies of the United States.”[11]  He further postulated that Jews were the masterminds behind the communist leaders in America like Earl Browder and that both the Republican and Democratic parties were controlled by the European Rothschilds through fellow prominent Jewish financiers like Kuhn, Loeb and Co.  Further, Kuhn insisted that America’s anti-German boycott was dictated to Samuel Untermyer from Moscow.[12] The Bund proclaimed that “Sixty percent of the American public shown in Who’s Who are Jews.   But it wasn’t the Jews who built up this country.  They came later when there was something to grab.”  Kuhn alleged that “It is true that this is becoming a nation of Jews…Let there then be the hope that somewhere in America the man will come who will lead us out of this, who will do for America what Adolf Hitler has done for Germany through the National Socialist philosophy.  Who will bring about salvation at the last hour?”[13] The Bund’s answer to this last question was simple; the German American Bund would be the salvation of the nation. 

Amidst allegations that the Bund planned to attempt a coup to seize control of the United States, Kuhn replied, “We are not plotting a revolution, but we are going to be prepared to wrest control from the Communist Jews when they start their revolution.  We will save America for white Americans.”[14] Bund took pains to remind Americans of the magnificent services German Americans rendered to their adopted country throughout American history, and they pledged to carry that tradition forward.  After all, there were twenty five million Germans in America to only four million Jews.  Yet the Jews filled more public offices and dominated more influence because of their superior coordination and effort. 

For Bundists, unity was their only hope.  A new German-American/Aryan unified front could reverse the roll of Jewish domination and save America.  Thus, as early as 1936, the Bund began inviting other anti-Semitic organizations to speak at their rallies and gatherings.  On December 4, 1936, a large Bund meeting in Chicago brought together representatives of Italian, German, Polish, Ukrainian and Russian-American organizations who each spoke of America’s need to fight against Jewish Bolshevism.  In February 1937, at a rally at the Hippodrome with an attendance of 4,000, representatives from Russian and Italian organizations joined the Bund and made speeches denouncing Communism, Bolshevism, the Loyalist government of Spain, and the anti-Nazi boycott in America.[15] Kuhn, the keynote speaker, described the Bund as “the militant organ of the German element of the United States.”[16]  He invited American citizens of other nationalities, but with common goals, to “expose publicly the activities of international communism and to make America conscious of the dangers that threaten her.”[17]

The Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter, the Bund’s newspaper, became the organization’s most persistent and important vehicle of propaganda. [18]   Their Awake and Act! pamphlet proclaimed, “Our most important weapon, however, is our newspaper.  It is our broadcaster and must be given wider circulation.  One and all must lend a hand to extend its field of influence in order to make known our mission and enlist new members.”[19] The Bund newspaper unceasingly railed against Communists in America and pledged the Bund’s patriotism.  It featured favorable stories of the New Germany and fought against anti-German propaganda in USA.[20]

The Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter made calls to the non-German American public and attempted to win over the favor of Americans through its anti-communist demagoguery.[21]  The Bund newspaper made no effort toward objective news reporting and often simply reprinted German newspaper articles or Nazi propaganda in its global news section.  Because the American press was supposedly controlled by Jews who deliberately refused to report on the dangers of communism in America and throughout the world, the Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter purportedly provided an alternative to the biased mainstream press. [22]  The newspaper provided generous coverage of events in Germany and was replete with articles defending Hitler and glorifying the achievements of National Socialism. In a relatively futile attempt to win over non-German converts to its cause, the front pages of the Deutcher Weckruf und Beobachter often contained messages such as: 

To English-speaking readers we would say: Do not get the idea that this paper is solely devoted to the reporting of the German scene. Week after week we print articles (in English as well as German) concerning the unpatriotic and subversive work of the Reds in our own America…This is then, not an organ of narrow interests, but a JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS.  To keep pace with the world situation- read the DEUTSCHER WECKRUF UND BEOBACHTER.[23]

 

Even if the Bund’s publications were largely ineffective in winning over non-German converts to their cause, its tactic of utilizing its anti-Communist and anti-Semitic crusade to legitimize its American-ness never faltered.  Anti-Semitism, integrally linked to communism, remained a consistent characteristic of Bund rhetoric.  It was perhaps the one cardinal value that Bundists tenaciously adhered to and refused to compromise throughout its existence.  In many ways, it was the lifeblood of the movement which remained unwavering despite the evolution of the Bund’s ideology.