Teutonia Association

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Members of Teutonia’s “Ordnungsdienst” posing in May 1931 for the cover of the German National Socialist publication “Illustrierter Beobachter.” Teutonia’s flag is on the left; it was the first American NS banner.

Teutonia Association also known variously as the Teutonia Clubs, Teutonia Society, Free Society of Teutonia, Free Union Teutonia, Independent Society of Teutonia and National Socialistic Society of Teutonia, (in German as Nationalsozialistische Vereinigung Teutonia)[1] was the first National Socialist-oriented organization to appear in the United States.

History

The group was organized on 12 October 1924[2] in Chicago by four German immigrants.[3] The group's office was located at 2142 Barry Avenue.[4]Three of those German immigrants were brothers Peter, Andrew, and Fritz Gissibl. Fritz Gissibl was with Hitler during the Munich Putsch.[5] Later the organization was also referred to as the National Socialist Society Teutonia, [6] the National Socialist Labor Party of Germany in America,[7] and Friends of the Hitler Movement.[8]

By 1932, the group had branches in five American cities with a membership around 500.[9] The group’s leader was Fritz Gissibl. The Friends of New Germany essentially replaced the Teutonia Association in 1933 which was disbanded the previous year.[10]

From the time of its inception as the “Teutonia Society” the object of the organization was the promulgation of the German National Socialist World Concept. Originally, this object was served by efforts to assist Hitler in his rise to power in Germany. Members were urged to join the N.S.D.A.P., and membership dues for the Party were paid through Teutonia, Friends of the Hitler Movement, and the Friends of New Germany and remitted to Germany. During this period receipts and dues stamps were issued by the Bund Leader. As early as April 5, 1923, a collection to aid Hitler financially was taken up among the members. The receipt of this money was acknowledged by a personal letter from Adolf Hitler. Following this incident all members were required to give at least one week’s salary a year to further his cause. In appreciation of its efforts the “Fuehrer” sent an inscribed and autographed copy of Mein Kampf “respectfully dedicated to the Chicago Teutonia.”[11]

One of the leaders of the Teutonia Society was Walter Kappe. Importantly, some historians have wrongly stated that Kappe founded the Teutonia organization in Chicago or Detroit. This an easy mistake to make because they did not receive much press attention until the publication Teutonia was begun in Chicago. Yet the investigation documents show that the organization itself had already been created in Cleveland.

Kappe (b. 1904) arrived in the United States in 1925 and worked in a farm implement factory in Kankakee, Illinois. Later he moved to Chicago and began to write for German language newspapers. Kappe was fluent in English and later became the press secretary for the German American Bund. He founded their paper Deutscher Weckruf und Beobachter (literally translated, "German Wake-Up Call and Observer") and its predecessor Deutsche Zeitung. Deutsche Zeitung was first published in Yorkville, Manhattan in August 1933, and published through 1934 as a weekly. The Deutsche Weckruf und Beobachter began publishing in 1935 and continued as a weekly through 1938.[12] [13] The paper Vorposten was also issue in association with Teutonia.

Local leaders

See also

Further reading

  • Prof. Sander A. Diamond: The Nazi Movement in the United States. 1924–1941. Cornell University Press, Ithaca (NY) 1974
  • Martin Kerr: The History of American National Socialism, 2017

References

  1. ↑ The Great Brown Scare: The Amerika Deutscher Bund in the Thirties and the Hounding of Fritz Julius Kuhn
  2. ↑ UNITED STATES v. BAECKER et al
  3. ↑ The American Axis, by Max Wallace, page 132
  4. ↑ The Deutschtum of Nazi Germany and the United States by Arthur L. Smith, page 62
  5. ↑ Under Cover, by John Roy Carlson, page 111
  6. ↑ UNITED STATES v. BAECKER et al. March 25, 1944
  7. ↑ “Pro-Nazi Sentiment in the United States March, 1933-March, 1934”, by Neil R. McMillen, originally published in the Southern Quarterly (October 1963) reprinted in America, American Jews, and the Holocaust, By Jeffrey S. Gurock, page 319
  8. ↑ The American Axis, by Max Wallace, page 133
  9. ↑ Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund, by Arnie Bernstein, page 23]
  10. ↑ House Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States (1943) Page 60]
  11. ↑ UNITED STATES v. BAECKER et al.
  12. ↑ Shadow Enemies: Hitler's Secret Terrorist Plot Against the United States, by Alex Abella, Scott Gordon, page 61
  13. ↑ Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German-American Bund, by Arnie Bernstein, page 35
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