The Free Society of Teutonia was one of the earliest
Nazi
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 ...
organizations in the United States. It was officially a
German American organization, but also publicly expressed a strong support for
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
and
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) i ...
in general.
History
It was formed in 1924 by four German immigrants, including brothers Fritz, Peter and Andrew Gissibl; both Fritz and Peter Gissibl were reportedly members of the
Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
.
[Erik V. Wolter, ''Loyalty on Trial: One American's Battle with the FBI''. (iUniverse, 2004) . p. 62] The organization was originally led by Fritz Gissibl, a non-citizen,
[IMDb Biography]
/ref> From a headquarters in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
, the society set about recruiting ethnic Germans who supported right-wing German nationalism.
The Teutonia Society functioned partly as a social club, with meetings frequently ending up in heavy beer drinking sessions. However its activities became increasingly dominated by extremist politics and modeled on those of the SA in Germany; as its membership increased, the society became more vocally antisemitic, anti-communist and opposed to the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
.
The group changed its name to the Nationalistic Society of Teutonia in 1926, at which point Peter Gissibl was advising members to also seek Nazi Party membership. The group gained a strong, if fairly small following, and was able to establish units in Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...
, St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
and Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.[United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...]
and who regularly collected money for the Nazis through the Society. A "thank you" letter from Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
to the Society would cause a stir during the Second World War
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 opposi ...
when the Gissibl brothers were brought to trial following an FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
investigation.
The group accepted Hitler as its titular leader and members adopted the Nazi salute
The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute (german: link=no, Hitlergruß, , Hitler greeting, ; also called by the Nazi Party , 'German greeting', ), or the ''Sieg Heil'' salute, is a gesture that was used as a greeting in Nazi Germany. Th ...
. The Society changed its name again in October 1932 to become the Friends of the Hitler Movement.
Under orders of German immigrant and German Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
member Heinz Spanknöbel
Heinrich "Heinz" Spanknöbel (27 November 1893 – 10 March 1947) was a German immigrant to America who formed, and for a short time led, the pro-Nazi Friends of New Germany as its ''Bundesleiter''.
Family
Heinz was born in Homberg, Germany t ...
, the Society was dissolved in March 1933. In May 1933, Nazi Deputy Führer
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...
Rudolf Hess gave Heinz Spanknöbel authority to form an American Nazi organization. Shortly thereafter, with help from the German consul in New York City, Spanknöbel created the Friends of New Germany
Friends of New Germany (Die Freunde des Neuen Deutschland), sometimes called Friends of the New Germany, was an organization founded in the United States by German immigrants to support Nazism and the Third Reich.
History
Nazis outside of Germa ...
by merging two older organizations in the United States, Gau-USA and the Free Society of Teutonia, which were both small groups with only a few hundred members each. The Friends of New Germany in turn formed the basis of the German American Bund
The German American Bund, or the German American Federation (german: Amerikadeutscher Bund; Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, AV), was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany (FoN ...
in 1936, the latter name being chosen to emphasise the group's American credentials after press criticism that the Society was unpatriotic.
One of the leaders of the Teutonia Society was Walter Kappe. 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
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is als ...
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
The German American Bund, or the German American Federation (german: Amerikadeutscher Bund; Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, AV), was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany (FoN ...
'' (literally translated, "German Wake-Up Call and Observer") and its predecessor ''Deutsche Zeitung
Deutsch or Deutsche may refer to:
*''Deutsch'' or ''(das) Deutsche'': the German language, in Germany and other places
*''Deutsche'': Germans, as a weak masculine, feminine or plural demonym
*Deutsch (word), originally referring to the Germanic ve ...
''. ''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.
In 1936, when the German American Bund was established, Kappe organized the AV Publishing Company and five other Bund corporations. Fritz Kuhn ousted Kappe from his position in the Bund seeing him as a dangerous rival. In 1937, Kappe returned to Germany, where he was attached to Abwehr II
The ''Abwehr'' ( German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the ''Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. ...
(the sabotage branch of German intelligence) where he obtained a Naval commission with the rank of lieutenant. He was designated by Adolf Hitler to launch a sabotage operation against America shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
. Known as Operation Pastorius
Operation Pastorius was a failed German intelligence plan for sabotage inside the United States during World War II. The operation was staged in June, 1942 and was to be directed against strategic American economic targets. The operation was n ...
, Kappe recruited men for the mission by reviewing records from the Ausland Institute Ausland may refer to:
*
*''Ausland'', a German word meaning ''outland'' or ''foreign lands''
**Torpedoboot Ausland
The ''Torpedoboot Ausland'' ("foreign torpedo boats") were small destroyers or large torpedo boats captured by Nazi Germany and inc ...
(German Foreign Institute) of those who were paid to return to Germany from America. He established a sabotage school on the outskirts of Berlin to train the new recruits. Once the sabotage network was established and transferred to America, Kappe planned to slip into the US with a new identity and direct operations. On June 13, 1942, Richard Quirin, George John Dasch, Heinrich Harm Heinck and Ernst Peter Burger
Ernst Peter Burger (September 1, 1906 – October 9, 1975) was a German-American who was a spy and saboteur for Germany during World War II. He was captured but escaped execution. He was deported to Germany in 1948.
Operation Pastorius
Born in ...
landed on a beach near Amagansett
Amagansett is a census-designated place that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the Town of East Hampton in Suffolk County, New York, United States, on the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2010 United States Census, t ...
, Long Island, New York on a U-boat
U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...
. A similar group landed on Ponte Vedra Beach
Ponte Vedra Beach is a wealthy unincorporated seaside community and suburb of Jacksonville, Florida in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located southeast of downtown Jacksonville and north of St. Augustine, it is part of the Jackso ...
, near Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...
on June 17, 1942.FBI - George John Dasch and the Nazi Saboteurs
However, Dasch betrayed the operation to the FBI, and no sabotage was carried out.
See also
*
German American Bund
The German American Bund, or the German American Federation (german: Amerikadeutscher Bund; Amerikadeutscher Volksbund, AV), was a German-American Nazi organization which was established in 1936 as a successor to the Friends of New Germany (FoN ...
*
Neo-Nazi groups of the United States
Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), attack ...
*
Silver Legion of America
The Silver Legion of America, commonly known as the Silver Shirts, was an underground American fascist and Nazi sympathizer organization founded by William Dudley Pelley and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina.
History
Pelley was a form ...
References
{{Authority control
German-American history
Nazi propaganda organizations
Organizations established in 1924
Fascism in the United States
1924 establishments in Illinois
German-American organizations
Anti-communist organizations in the United States