PzG ~ Reproduction Bund Regalia, Badges, and Pins of Americas 1930's German American Bund
German American Bund (AV)
Purpose, Organization, and Historical Facts
The German American Bund (AV) was America's largest most well known nationalist organization in the 1930s. It was also the least understood, most maligned and scape-goated by distorted media coverage.
The purpose and goals of the AV was to promote friendship and trade between Germany and the USA and the adoption of those portions of National Socialism that it was felt would aid in the economic recovery of the USA, preservation of Germanic culture in the America through history, language, and folk art for both members and the general public, and family oriented social activities and gatherings at Bund meeting halls and summer camps as the family was considered the basic Bund unit.
German American Bund membership nationwide was between 50 and 60 thousand, with three times that many auxiliary members. The Bund security force (OD Ordnungsdienst- order division) consisted of between 5 and 6 thousand men nationwide. Early Chicago also had a unit of American SS. About 100 local units were located in 47 different states. The Bund ran approximately 2 dozen youth summer camps across the country for family and youth activities. Nordland in New Jersey was the largest with 204 acres.
PzG's German-American Bund page is presented in Honor of Opal Soltau, Bund member and true to her ideals - RIP 2008.
From scattered NS groups such as the ANSL (American National Socialist League 1923) came the Teutonia Club. The Teutonia was the first official NS organization in the USA, starting Oct. 12, 1924 and growing to about 600 members in 5 different units. From Teutonia came Freunde Des Neue Deutschland (FDND) Friends of the New Germany. FDND existed from 1933 to 1936 with a coast to coast membership of about 6000. FDND was reorganized in March of 1936 to become The German American Bund (1936-1941), with Fritz Kuhn as leader.
The Bund included apart from the OD*, a wives organization, a youth group for boys (Jugenschaft) and for girls the (Madenschaft) further divided by age. The Bund also owned various companies through which it published material and maintained economic solvency. These included AV publishing, AV Development, The German American Business League, a veterans group, (Frontkampferschaft), the consumers co op, and sympathizers auxiliary. The national membership approached 100,000 (including the auxiliary members), in some 100 units and 22 - 24 youth camps.
The OD had been formed as an adjunct to Teutonia in the 1920s. Josef Schuster former leader of Munich SA troop #5 and a participant in The failed Putsch of 1923 was its founder. Returning to Germany in 1936, he and Peter Gisibl of Teutonia days formed Kameradschaft USA for former American comrades who returned permanently to Germany.
German American Bund Items to Add to Your WW2 Collections
Bund: German American Bund - Pin
Details: Approximate size 1-1/4 inches x 3/4 inches with stick pin back.
$12.00 +s/h
Bund: NSDAP Nazi Party Ortsgruppe in Brooklyn, New York U.S.A.
Details: Approximate size 1-1/4 inches x 3/4 inches with stick pin back.
$12.00 +s/h
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