The Kameradschaftsbund (KB) was a Völkisch organization, founded in 1920s Czechoslovakia. It was a meeting ground of

Sudeten German German Bohemians (german: Deutschböhmen und Deutschmährer, i.e. German Bohemians and German Moravians), later known as Sudeten Germans, were ethnic Germans living in the Czech lands of the Bohemian Crown, which later became an integral part ...

intellectuals, preparing them for taking up leadership roles in a possible future independent Sudetenland. Walther Heinrich and Heinz Rutha were founders of the movement, and drew heavily on the theories of

Othmar Spann Othmar Spann (1 October 1878 – 8 July 1950) was a conservative Austrian philosopher, sociologist and economist whose radical anti-liberal and anti-socialist views, based on early 19th century Romantic ideas expressed by Adam Müller et al. ...

. At the end of the 1920s, the movement became also political active; one of the strategies used was the infiltration of the '' Turnverband'', by Konrad Henlein, one of the earliest KB members. Many ''Kameradschaftsbund'' members would later obtain top positions in the ''

Sudetendeutsche Partei The Sudeten German Party (german: Sudetendeutsche Partei, SdP, cs, Sudetoněmecká strana) was created by Konrad Henlein under the name ''Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront'' ("Front of the Sudeten German Homeland") on 1 October 1933, some months afte ...

'' (SdP), under them Karl Hermann Frank and Walter Brand. After Rutha was charged with homosexual activity in 1937 (he later committed suicide), the KB gradually lost its influence on the SdP; Heinrich was sent to a concentration camp in 1938, and the SdP itself had to openly embrace Nazism, German National Socialism.

References

* Haag, John. 'Knights of the Spirit': The Kameradschaftsbund. in Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jul., 1973), pp. 133–153. Organizations based in Czechoslovakia 1920s establishments in Czechoslovakia Organizations established in the 1920s {{Czechoslovakia-stub