Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund

Delegation of the NSDAP (Nazi party) during the German Nationalists protection and Trutzbund organized German Day at Coburg, 1922.

The Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund (English: German Nationalist Protection and Defiance Federation) was the largest, most active, and most influential anti-Semitic federation in Germany after the first World War, and one of the largest and most important organization of the German völkisch movement during the Weimar Republic, whose democratic-parliamentary system it unilaterally rejected. Its publishing arm put out some of the books that greatly influenced the opinions of those who later organized the Nazi Party, such as Heinrich Himmler, and after it folded many of its members eventually joined the Nazis. The bund's symbols were a blue cornflower and a swastika, and according to Peter Padfield its motto was "Wir sind die Herren der Welt!" ("We are the masters of the world!"). Not a single German source can be found which confirms this motto, which in fact is a verse from the song "Der mächtigste König im Luftrevier" (i.e. The mightiest king in the skies.) According to Ulrich Sieg the motto was Deutschland den Deutschen ("Germany for the Germans").

Origin

The Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund was originally called the Deutscher Schutz und Trutzbund when it was founded in February 1919 in Bamberg for the purpose of "fighting" Judaism, during a meeting of the Alldeutscher Verband ("All-German League"). The director of Deutschen Schutz und Trutzbund was Alfred Roth, and its secret chairman was Konstantin von Gebsattel, appointed on 1 October 1919 by Ernst von Hertzberg Lottin. Their Advisory Board included, among others, Ernst Anton Franz von Bodelschwingh, August Gebhard, Paul Lucius, Ferdinand Werner, Julius Friedrich Lehmann, and Georg von Stössel. Their meeting place was originally in Duisburg, at Alfred Roth's house, but was later moved to Hamburg where it joined the amalgamation of several such other organizations. It merged with the Reichshammerbund, and then, about one month later, merged with the Deutschvölkischen Bund, the organization that succeeded the Deutschvölkische Party.

Manifesto

The manifesto of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund was Wenn ich der Kaiser wär, written by Heinrich Claß, in which he expressed identitarian, nationalist views. His slogan was: "Germany for the Germans." Julius Friedrich Lehmann, a Munich publisher, helped promote their ideas, and in October 1918, Claß called for a coup d'etat. The organization agitated against the Weimar Republic; by 1923 it had just under 180,000 members.

Constitution

An excerpt from the constitution of the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund':

The Bund fights for the moral rebirth of the German people . . . It considers the pernicious and destructive influence of Jewry to be the main cause of the defeat and the removal of this influence to be necessary for the political and economic recovery of Germany, and for the salvation of German culture.

Notable Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund members

• Herbert Albrecht
• Karl Astel
• Werner Best
• Ernst Boepple
• Philipp Bouhler
• Leonardo Conti
• Heinrich Deubel
• Artur Dinter
• Dietrich Eckart
• Otto Hellmuth
• Hans Helwig
• Reinhard Heydrich, co-architect of the holocaust
• Karl Kaufmann
• J. F. Lehmann
• Martin Mutschmann
• Bernhard Rust
• Franz Walter Stahlecker
• Julius Streicher

See also

• Freikorps

References

Bibliography

• Roth, Alfred. Aus der Kampfzeit des Deutschvölkischen Schutz-und-Trutzbundes. Hamburg, 1939
• Waite, Robert G L. Vanguard of Nazism. 1969, W W Norton and Company

External links

• Article from the Historical Dictionary of Bavaria website