Max Oscar Otto Koischwitz (February 19, 1902 – August 31, 1944) was a naturalized American of German origin who directed and broadcast

Nazi propaganda The propaganda used by the German Nazi Party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's dictatorship of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 to 1945 was a crucial instrument for acquiring and maintaining power, and for the implementation o ...

against the United States during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Early life

Koischwitz was the son of a prominent physician, born into a family with a history of military service to

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

and Germany. In 1920, he completed his secondary education at one of the most famous Gymnasia in Berlin, the Collège Royal Français, and graduated from the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

in 1924. He immigrated to the United States that year. He then taught German at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and became a professor of German Literature at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Initially he took an anti-Nazi view of developments in Germany but as the 1930s progressed, he came to support Hitler and Nazism openly. However, Koischwitz took

U.S. citizenship Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constituti ...

Long Island City Long Island City (LIC) is a residential and commercial neighborhood on the extreme western tip of Queens, a borough in New York City. It is bordered by Astoria to the north; the East River to the west; New Calvary Cemetery in Sunnyside to the ...

on March 29, 1935.https://www.justice.gov/criminal/foia/records/ezra-pound-p4.pdf In the fall of 1939, Koischwitz was required by Hunter College to take leave of absence after he had put anti-Semitic material into his lectures. He immediately made plans to return to Germany and resigned his position in January 1940.

Propaganda for Nazi Germany

By spring 1940, Koischwitz was working as a program director in the U.S.A Zone at the

Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft The Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG; ''Reich Broadcasting Corporation'') was a national network of German regional public radio and television broadcasting companies active from 1925 until 1945. RRG's broadcasts were receivable in all parts o ...

, German State Radio. He broadcast talks to the U.S. under the pseudonyms of ‘Mister O.K.’ and ‘Doctor Anders’. His propaganda was directed to college students and German-American listeners who might be susceptible to

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. He spoke on literature, music, drama, philosophy and geopolitics, his broadcasts being

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

anti-British Anti-British sentiment is prejudice, persecution, discrimination, fear or hatred against the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government, British people, or the Culture of the United Kingdom, culture of the United Kingdom. Argen ...

, anti-

Roosevelt Roosevelt may refer to: *Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), 26th U.S. president * Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd U.S. president Businesses and organisations * Roosevelt Hotel (disambiguation) * Roosevelt & Son, a merchant bank * Rooseve ...

, Sinophobic, and

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

in tone. In Berlin, Koischwitz began a relationship with another American working for German state radio,

Mildred Gillars Mildred Elizabeth Gillars ( Sisk; November 29, 1900 – June 25, 1988) was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate Axis propaganda during World War II. Following her capture in post-war Berlin, she became the first woman t ...

, who would become widely known as ‘Axis Sally’. Koischwitz and Gillars became lovers and before long Koischwitz was working her into his political broadcasts. Together they formed a powerful propaganda duo. They began a joint series, the ''Home Sweet Home Hour'', aimed at the Allied forces in North Africa. Koischwitz also edited a magazine for American POWs, ''The Overseas Kid'', and in September 1943 he was made head of the USA Zone. From October 1943 he and Gillars toured POW camps in Germany, interviewing captured Americans and recording their messages for their families in the US. The interviews were then edited for broadcast as though the speakers were well-treated or sympathetic to the Nazi cause. After D-Day, June 6, 1944, US soldiers wounded and captured in France were also reported on. Koischwitz and Gillars worked for a time from

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as d ...

and Paris for this purpose, visiting hospitals and interviewing POWs. Koischwitz also wrote and produced propaganda sketches and plays with Gillars in the lead, the most notorious of which was the ''Vision Of Invasion'' broadcast on May 11, 1944, a few weeks before the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

invasion of

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, France. Koischwitz broadcast for almost the entire war, towards its end appealing for the United States to join Germany in fighting the approaching

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

Charges of treason

On July 26, 1943, Koischwitz, along with Fred W. Kaltenbach,

Jane Anderson Jane Anderson (born 1954 in California) is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and director. She wrote and directed the feature film ''The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio'' (2005), and wrote the Nicolas Cage film '' It Could Happen to ...

Edward Delaney Edward Delaney (1930–2009) was an Irish sculptor born in Claremorris in County Mayo in 1930. His best known works include the 1967 statue of Wolfe Tone and famine memorial at the northeastern corner of St Stephen's Green in Dublin and ...

Constance Drexel Constance Drexel (c. November 24, 1884 or c. November 28, 1894 (possible; disputed) – August 28, 1956), a naturalized United States citizen,John Carver Edwards, ''Berlin Calling: American Broadcasters in Service to the Third Reich'', Praeger ...

Robert Henry Best Robert Henry Best (April 16, 1896 – December 16, 1952) was an American foreign correspondent who covered events in Europe for American media outlets during the Interwar period. Later he became a Nazi supporter and well known broadcaster of Na ...

Douglas Chandler Douglas Chandler (May 26, 1889 – after 1970s) was an American broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during World War II. He was convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1947 but was released in 1963. Early life Born in Chicago Ill ...

and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

, was indicted ''in absentia'' by a District of Columbia grand jury on charges of

treason Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...

Death

Koischwitz did not stand trial as he died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

and

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

at Berlin's Spandau Hospital on August 31, 1944. The treason charges against him were formally withdrawn by the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

due to lack of evidence on October 27, 1947.

References

External links

Courtroom Battle of World War II (Part 1 of 3).
contains information on the careers and fates of some of the Nazi broadcasters and other collaborators.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koischwitz, Max Otto 1902 births 1944 deaths People from Jawor People from the Province of Silesia German emigrants to the United States Columbia University faculty Hunter College faculty American collaborators with Nazi Germany 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Nazi propagandists Tuberculosis deaths in Germany American anti-communists American fascists Treason in the United States People charged with treason