Camp General von Steuben
Camp "General von Steuben" was a proposed German American Bund youth camp near Southbury, Connecticut. On 1 October 1937, a Stamford resident, German American Wolfgang Jung, purchased 178 acres of land in the community’s Kettletown district. The camp was to be named after Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, a hero of the American Revolution, and work in tandem with similar Bund Youth Movement camps in Yaphank, Long Island, and Andover, New Jersey, to provide gathering places for members in the Bronx, Westchester, and all of Connecticut. According to the Hartford Courant, plans called for construction of a youth hostel, “five or six acre swimming pool,” and facilities capable of supporting 1,100 people. Designers also planned to alter a nearby abandoned road for use by the New Haven Railroad. Local anti-German residents protested the move and the camp, named was never developed.
- Before the eagerly anticipated town meeting, local residents and law enforcement agents moved to slow progress at the camp site. On Sunday, December 5, 1937, Gustav Kron and Richark Koehler (two Bundists from New York) began clearing brush at the site when a wave of policemen stormed the camp and arrested the two men for violating Connecticut blue laws by working on the Sabbath. (The two men were eventually released on a $75 bond). On December 14th, after town officials moved their meeting to the South Britain Congregational Church because of the massive local turnout, the legislature approved new zoning laws that designated the land in Kettletown as appropriate for farming and residential use only—making the operation of any camp in Kettletown subject to a $250 fine. Though some questioned the constitutionality of the measure, it passed by a vote of 142-91. With their message clearly conveyed, the town dropped its charges against Korn and Koehler at their December 27th trial. Soon after, the Bund announced that their Kettletown camp was not “central enough” in location to serve their needs.[1]
