Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund

Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund
LeaderAlfred Roth
Foundation1919 (1919)
Dissolved1924 (1924)
HeadquartersDuisburg
Hamburg
IdeologyAntisemitism
Völkisch nationalism
Authoritarianism
Political positionFar-right
SloganWir sind die Herren der Welt!
(We are the masters of the world!)
Major actionsAntisemitic propaganda
Political assassination
StatusBanned
Sizec.150,000–180,000 (1922)

The Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (German Nationalist Protection and Defiance Federation) was the largest and the most active antisemitic federation in Germany after the First World War.[1] It formed a significant part of the Völkisch movement during the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), whose democratic parliamentary system it unilaterally rejected. Its publishing arm issued books that greatly influenced the opinions of Nazi Party leaders such as Heinrich Himmler.[2] The organisation was banned in 1922 following the enactment of the Law for the Protection of the Republic and it faded away, with many of its members eventually joining the Nazi Party.[3]

Origin and organisation

The Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund was originally called the Deutscher Schutz- und Trutzbund when it was founded by members of the Pan-German League (Alldeutscher Verband) in February 1919 at a meeting in Bamberg for the purpose of "fighting" Judaism. Alfred Roth became its public chairman, with Konstantin von Gebsattel, appointed on 1 October 1919 by Ernst von Hertzberg Lottin, acting as its secret (geheime) or underground leader. Its advisory board included Ernst Anton Franz von Bodelschwingh, Theodor Fritsch, August Gebhard, Paul Lucius, Julius Friedrich Lehmann, Georg von Stössel and Ferdinand Werner. Its meeting place was originally in Duisburg, in Alfred Roth's house, but was later moved to Hamburg, where it joined several other similar organizations. It merged with the Reichshammerbund and about a month later with the Deutschvölkischer Bund, the organization that had succeeded the Deutschvölkische Partei.[4]

The federation underwent a rapid growth in membership and, by the summer of 1922, it likely had between 150,000 and 180,000 members. It had a presence in every German state with over 600 local chapters organised into 20 Gaue (regions) in Germany, Austria and Danzig.[5]

Manifesto

The organisation's manifesto was Wenn ich der Kaiser wär ("If I Were the Kaiser"), which was written by Pan-German League president Heinrich Claß, in which he expressed identitarian and nationalist views. His slogan was "Germany for the Germans".[6] Julius Friedrich Lehmann, a Munich publisher, helped promote the organisation's ideas, and in October 1918, Claß called for a coup d'etat. The organisation agitated against the Weimar Republic.[5]

Symbols

The organisation used as its symbols a blue cornflower and a swastika. According to the British author Peter Padfield its motto was "Wir sind die Herren der Welt!" ("We are the masters of the world!").[2] However, not a single German source can be found that confirms the motto, which in fact is a verse from the song "Der mächtigste König im Luftrevier" ("The mightiest king in the skies"). According to the German historian Ulrich Sieg, the organization's motto was Deutschland den Deutschen ("Germany for the Germans").[7]

Excerpt of constitution

Here is an excerpt from its constitution:

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.[8] : 15 

Decline and dissolution

Following the assassination of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau in June 1922, the federation, some of whose members were implicated in the murder, was banned in most federal states of the republic, following the enactment of Law for the Protection of the Republic of 23 July 1922. Appeals of the bans were rejected, the federation never recovered its former strength and dissolved in 1924, with a significant number of members defecting to the Nazi Party and other antisemitic and Völkisch groups.[5]

Notable members

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ Beurteilung des Reichskommissars für Überwachung der öffentlichen Ordnung in einem Schreiben an den Staatsgerichtshof zum Schutze der Republik, 20 November 1922, quoted from Lohalm 1970, pg. 11.
  2. ^ a b Padfield, Peter. Himmler: Reichsführer SS. New York: Henry Holt, 1990. p. 107
  3. ^ Kershaw, Ian. Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris. New York: Norton (1998)
  4. ^ Werner Jochmann: Nationalsozialismus und Revolution : Ursprung und Geschichte der NSDAP in Hamburg 1922 - 1933. Dokumente. Europäische Verlagsanstalt, Hamburg 1963, pg. 25.
  5. ^ a b c "Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund (DVSTB), 1919-1924/35 – Historisches Lexikon Bayerns".
  6. ^ Ulrich Sieg, Deutschlands Prophet. Paul de Lagarde und die Ursprünge des modernen Antisemitismus, München 2007, pg. 327.
  7. ^ Sieg highlights another motto: Deutschland den Deutschen ("Germany for the Germans"). See Sieg, Ulrich (2007). Deutschlands Prophet: Paul de Lagarde und die Ursprünge des modernen Antisemitismus [Germany's Pprophet: Paul de Lagarde and the origins of modern anti-semitism] (in German). Hanser. p. 327. ISBN 978-3-446-20842-1. Retrieved 2011-10-26. Im Oktober 1918 forderte Lehmann eninen Staatsstreich, wenig spaeter unterstuetzte er den rechstradikalen Deutsch-Voelkischen Schutz- and Trutzbund. Dessen Losung lautete 'Deutschland den Deutschen" [...]. [Translation: In October 1918 Lehman advocated a coup d'etat, a little later he supported the right-wing radical Deutsch-Voelkischen Schutz- and Trutzbund, which used the motto 'Germany for the Germans'...]
  8. ^ a b c Waite, p 206, quoting Alfred Roth, Aus der Kampfzeit

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
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