German American Bund: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:28, 10 April 2006

Revision as of 06:49, 25 April 2006

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Formed from the merger of two [[1920s]] organizations, the ''[[National Socialist German Workers Party]]'' (NSDAP) and the ''Free Society of Teutonia'' were small groups with only a few hundred members. NSDAP member [[Heinz Sponknobel]] eventually consolidated the two groups into the ''Friends of New Germany.''

Soon after their formation, the Friends came under attack from two fronts. The first was a [[Jewish]] boycott of German goods in the heavily German neighborhood of [[Yorkville, Manhattan|Yorkville]] on the [[Upper East Side]] of [[New York City]]. The second problem for the American Nazis came from Jewish [[United States House of Representatives|Congressman]] [[Samuel Dickstein (congressman)|Samuel Dickstein]]- ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[New York|N.Y.]]), who headed an investigation against them.

The Friends tried to counter this boycott using [[propaganda]] and [[intimidation]]. An internal battle was fought for control of the Friends and in [[1934]], and Sponknobel was ousted from the leadership. At the same time, the Dickstein investigation concluded that the Friends supported a branch of [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[Nazi Party]] in America.