Fritz Julius Kuhn

Fritz Julius Kuhn
Fritz Kuhn 1938
Born	(1896-08-15)August 15, 1896 Germany
Died	December 14, 1951(1951-12-14) (aged 55) Munich
Known for	German American Bund
Parent(s)	Georg Kuhn Julia Justyna Beuth

Fritz Julius Kuhn (May 15, 1896 – December 14, 1951) was a Nazi, antisemite, and controversial leader of the German American Bund, prior to World War II. He was a naturalized citizen of the United States. He was a loyal supporter of the German government led by Adolf Hitler who had also appointed him to the leadership post.

Kuhn speaking at a "Bund"-camp-rally

Madison Square Garden rally 1939

Kuhn appearing on the street after leaving a courthouse in Webster, Massachusetts 1939

Decision board trial against Kuhn, Munich 1949

Biography

He was the son of Georg Kuhn and Julia Justyna Beuth in Germany. During World War I, Kuhn earned an Iron Cross as a German infantry lieutenant. After the war, he graduated from the University of Munich with a master's degree in chemical engineering. In the 1920s, Kuhn moved to Mexico. In 1928, he moved to the United States and, in 1934 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

After the Dickstein investigation concluded that the Friends of Germany organization supported a branch of German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party in America, Hitler advised all German nationals to withdraw from the organization. On March 19, 1936, Hitler placed Fritz Kuhn as the head of an organization effectively renamed as the German American Bund.

Kuhn enlisted thousands of Americans to join using what would be criticized as antisemitic, anticommunist, and pro-German propaganda. One of his first tasks was to plan a trip to Germany with 50 of his American followers. The purpose was to be in the presence of Hitler and to see in person true naziism at work.

At this time, Germany was preparing to host the 1936 Olympics. Kuhn anticipated a warm welcome from Hitler, but the encounter was a disappointment. This did not stop Kuhn from elaborating more propaganda to this followers once Kuhn returned to the states about how Hitler acknowledged him as the "American Führer".

February 20th, 1939, Kuhn held the largest and most publicized rally in the Bund's history at the Madison Square Garden. Twenty-thousand attended and witnessed a Nazi parade ceremony and a speech by Fritz Kuhn where he stated "The Bund is fighting shoulder to shoulder with patriotic Americans to protect America from a race that is not the American race, that is not even a white race ...The Jews are enemies of the United States." During his speech, a protester rushed the stage and had to be hauled off by security.

As his popularity grew, so did the tension against him. Not only Jewish-Americans, but also German-Americans who did not want to be associated with Nazis, protested against the Bund. These protests were occasionally violent, making the Bund front page news in America. In response to the outrage of Jewish war veterans, Congress passed a law requiring agents of foreign principals to register with the State Department in 1938.

This negative attention to the American Nazis was not in favor of Hitler, who wanted the Nazi Party in America to be strong, but stealthy. In order for his plan to take place in Europe, Hitler knew he needed the U.S. to stay neutral throughout the war. Any American resentment towards the Nazi Party was too dangerous. On the other hand, Fritz Kuhn was only looking to stir more attention from the media.

In 1939, seeking to cripple the Bund, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia had the city investigate the Bund's taxes. It found that Kuhn had embezzled over $14,000 from the Bund, spending part of that money on a mistress. District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey issued an indictment and won a conviction against Kuhn. Despite his criminal conviction for embezzlement, followers of the Bund continued to hold him in high regard, in line with the classical precepts of Fuhrerprinzip common to all Nazis. During World War II, Kuhn was arrested as an enemy agent, and held by the federal government at an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas. In 1945 he was released, sent to Ellis Island, and deported to Germany.

Death

He died on December 14, 1951, in Munich, Germany. The New York Times noted he died "a poor and obscure chemist, unheralded and unsung." After being deported, Kuhn wanted to move back to the United States.

2010 dispute

On March 11, 2010, Glenn Beck made comments on his TV show regarding social justice. Beck, in a warning to his audience against people like Kuhn, quoted Kuhn's 1939 speech where Kuhn called for a "socially just white gentile ruled United States" . Beck called for Christians to leave their churches if they heard preaching about social or economic justice, saying they were code words for Communism and Nazism. This prompted outrage from Christian bloggers such as the Rev. Jim Wallis, and new controversy over the legacy of Kuhn and his organization.

External links

• Fritz Julius Kuhn at IMDb
• www.germanamericanbund.org Modern website dedicated to Kuhn's Bund organization which claims it was unfairly "least understood, most maligned and scape-goated by distorted media coverage"
• Talking History Archive - Recording of Fritz Kuhn's speech at the German-American Bund Rally, New York City, Feb. 20, 1939