Date of Graduation

1968

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

Committee Chair

V.J. Traynelis

Committee Member

A. Winston

Committee Member

J.L Hall

Committee Member

C. G. McCarty

Committee Member

C.W. Muth

Abstract

Organized in March 1936 at a convention in Buffalo, New York, the Nazi-inspired German American Bund began its short and stormy existence by seeking to unite the entire German American community under its direction. The Bund had been preceded by numerous Nazi splinter groups and an organization known as the Friends of the New Germany. The chief distinction between the Bund and its predecessors was the requirement that only American citizens could hold leadership positions in the organization. The Bund also tried to be more circumspect in its relations with Nazi agencies in Germany.

In its effort to unite the German American community the Bund preached Nazi doctrines, especially the idea that Germans everywhere formed part of a unique racial community and owed their first allegiance to the Third Reich. A virulent anti-Semitism remained a constant in Bund ideology, and its hate campaigns directed at President Roosevelt and other American public figures at times approached obscene ravings.

The leadership principle invested the national leader or Bundesfuehrer with absolute powers and formed the basic organizational pattern of the Bund. In addition, the national leader controlled numerous subsidiaries such as camps, a prospective citizens' league, a youth division, a newspaper, and an economic organization which promoted German made products. The Bund was divided into eastern, midwestern and western departments but its greatest source of strength came from northeastern urban centers. At the height of its power, in 1938, the Bund’s membership probably numbered 8500.

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