Ben Klassen
| Ben Klassen | |
|---|---|
| File:Ben Klassen.png | |
| Religion | Creativity |
| Personal | |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | February 20, 1918 Rudnerweide, Ukraine |
| Died | August 6, 1993 (aged 75) Otto, North Carolina, United States |
| Resting place | Otto, North Carolina, United States 35°03′36″N 83°23′16″W / 35.0600921°N 83.3876547°W |
| Senior posting | |
| Title | Pontifex Maximus |
| Period in office | 1973-1993 |
| Predecessor | None (Established religion) |
| Successor | Richard McCarty |
| Religious career | |
| Works | See bibliography |
Bernhard Klassen (February 20, 1918 — August 6, 1993), better known as Ben Klassen, was the founder, and Pontifex Maximus (High Priest) of the Church of the Creator, also known as the Creativity worldview. Klassen derived his ideals from Social Darwinism, Nietzscheanism and had sympathies for National Socialism. He attempted to systematize these concepts into a coherent natural philosophy, or a contemporary pagan worldview to the benefit of the Europeans. Klassen was Germanic in ancestry, born to a Mennonite family in the Ukraine before moving to the Americas as a child.
Klassen was a staunch critic of Christianity, urging Europeans to abandon it and blaming it's original rise on a Jewish plot to internally demoralise the Roman Empire. Contrary to the new Germanic Heathens, however, he did not advocate a return of the old gods (or any sky "spook" as he describes it). Rather he advocated an essentially atheist materialist philosophy, informed by a racial socialism and eugenics; his ideals were the high cultures of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece. He was also notable for advocating a form of the vegetarian diet, specifically Fruitarian in basis.
Early life
Klassen's family were originally Dutch Mennonites, who for a time lived in Prussia and then in 1804 moved out to the Ukraine.[note 1] Klassen himself was born to Bernhard Kornelius Klassen and Susanna Penner in Rudnerwiede, part of a historical German-speaking Mennonite colony, close to the Crimea, then part of the Ukrainian People's Republic; the area would later become part of the Zaporizhia Oblast during the 1930s. Jakob Jakovlevitch Klassen, likely a close relative (possibly a cousin of his father), was the Executive Secretary of the Chortitza Mennonite Settlement and he was murdered in 1919 by anarcho-communist terrorists beholden to Nestor Makhno.[1]
His family moved to Mexico when he was six years old and lived at a Mennonite colony, but soon relocated to Canada, in Herschel Saskatchewan.[2] He attended the German-English Academy (now Rosthern Junior College). At age twenty, he first read Mein Kampf in German and understood the powerful message Hitler was sending to the White race.[3]
In his personal life he was married to Henrie Etta McWilliams and had a daughter. Klassen was a school teacher, inventor, electrical engineer, real estate agent, land developer, politician, author, religious guru, and racial activist. In 1949, he founded the community of Silver Springs Nevada (see: "Against the Evil Tide" pages 174-188). In 1957, he patented the first electrically operated can opener.
Political activism
In 1962 Klassen and his family were living in Florida where he was a member of the John Birch Society. During this time he was briefly a state representative in the Florida legislature. In 1968 he worked for George Wallace's presidential campaign and became Florida state chairman of the American Independent Party (AIP). In 1969 he resigned from both the John Birch Society[4] and the AIP and formed the Nationalist White Party. In 1973 he founded the Church Of The Creator (COTC). Klassen coined the term Racial Holy War (RaHoWa) within the pro-White movement, and was the author of several books. His religious creed (Creativity) has spread worldwide, and continues to flourish in predominantly White countries.
Works
- Nature's Eternal Religion (1973)
- White Man's Bible (1981)
- Salubrious Living (1983)
- Expanding Creativity (1985)
- Building a Whiter, Brighter World (1986)
- RaHoWa - This Planet is All Ours (1987)
- The Klassen Letters Vol. 1 1969-1976 (1988)
- The Klassen Letters Vol. 2 1976-1981 (1989)
- Little White Book (1991)
- A Revolution of Values Through Religion (1991)
- Against the Evil Tide (1991)
- Trials, Tribulations, Triumphs (1993)
- On the Brink of Bloody Racial War (1993)
See also
- Lineage of American Nationalist organizations and individuals
- Nationalist White Party
- Revilo P. Oliver
Notes
- ↑ Rumours of Klassen having "Jewish" ancestry can be dismissed. These originate from a disinformation campaign launched by Hollywood Nazi, Harold Covington as part of his personal rivalry with Klassen. An extensive, externally verifiable genealogy for Klassen featured in Against the Evil Tide: An Autobiography. Some of the Hebrew-derived first names can be explained by the fact that Radical Protestants are frankly weird and place a strong emphasis on the Old Testament. The disinformation became spread on the internet through an (apparently) Christian Identity website Judicial-Inc.biz and copied from there uncritically onto the JewWatch website.
References
- ↑ Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online (6 January 2013). "Klassen, Jakob Jakovlevitch (1856-1919)".
- ↑ Early childhood and life of Ben Klassen
- ↑ Early life of Ben Klassen
- ↑ Ben Klassen's resignation letter addressed to the John Birch Society
External links
- Ben Klassen: Against The Evil Tide, An Autobiography
- The Klassen Letters Volume One Klassen's correspondence with various individuals from 1969 - 1976
- The Klassen Letters Volume Two Klassen's correspondence with various individuals from 1976 - 1981
- Silver Springs, Nevada Town founded by Klassen
- Klassen's electric can opener (pdf)
- Rahowa- This planet is all ours
