Ben classes

Bernhardt "Ben" Klassen , also Bernhard Klassen ( Ukrainian : Бернар Классен; * 7 February ^July / 20 February 1918 ^greg. In Molotschna ; † 6/7 August 1993 in Sarasota ) was a right-wing American author and Christian fundamentalist leader of Ukrainian-German descent. Klassen founded the Church of the Creator and with it the Creativity movement. This religion is based on his book Nature's Eternal Religion from 1973.

For a short time, Klassen was a politician in Florida for the Republican Party and a supporter of the election campaign of the racist George Wallace . In addition to his religious, political and ideological activities, he worked as an electrical engineer and was the inventor of the wall-mounted can opener.

Early life

Klassen was born on February 20, 1918 in the German Mennonite colony Rudnerweide (in today's Rozivka in Zaporozhye Oblast , Ukraine ) as the son of Bernhard and Susanna Klassen (née Penner). He had two sisters and two brothers. Klassen nearly died of typhus by the age of nine months . His family suffered from famine in the early 1920s. Klassen was first exposed to religion between the ages of three and four. At the age of five years his family moved to Mexico in another Mennonite colony, when he was six, the family moved to Herschel , Saskatchewan ( Canada ). He studied at the German-English Rosthern Junior College , where he received a degree in Arts and Science and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering.

independence

As an adult, Klassen started a Los Angeles real estate company as a partner of Ben Burke. He later separated from this and founded the Silver Spring Land Company. In 1952 Klassen sold his stake and withdrew. On March 26, 1956, Klassen filed a patent relating to a wall-mounted can opener which he named "Canolectric". He founded Klassen Enterprises, Inc. He withdrew from the business in 1962 because of strong pressure from competing companies.

Political career

Klassen served as a member of the Broward County , Florida House of Representatives in Florida's House of Representatives from November 1966 to March 1967. He represented a direction there that spoke out against overcoming racial segregation ( desegregation ) and in favor of a libertarian attitude. He ran for election to the Florida Senate in 1967, but failed. In 1967 he was vice president of an organization in Florida that supported the presidential campaign of the racist George Wallace. Klassen was a member of the right-wing John Birch Society . Because of the - in his opinion too tolerant - attitude of the John Birch Society towards Jews , he left this organization. In November 1970, Klassen founded the Nationalist White Party with Austin Davis . The basis of the party was a racist, Christian program that propagated the superiority of the white race. The party's logo was a W with a crown hovering over it. Years later this would become the Creativity Religion's logo.

Church of the Creator

In 1973, Klassen founded the Church of the Creator (COTC) and published his work Nature's Eternal Religion . The followers of the religion called themselves creators and the practiced religion called creativity . In 1982 Klassen established his church headquarters in Otto, North Carolina . There he also founded a school for boys. In a summer program, numerous sporting activities and target practice were offered there.

Klassen was Pontifex Maximus of the Church until January 25, 1993. On that day he appointed Dr. Rick McCarty as his successor.

Racial holy was

Ben Klassen was the first to define the term Racial Holy War ( RaHoWa ), which can be translated as "Holy Race War" or "Holy War of the Races". He also referred to black people as “ niggers ” in public sermons . He also used this swear word in his writings. This also led to rejection by other white nationalists, who publicly adopted more moderate tones. Klassen wrote on this topic:

“Furthermore, in looking up the word in Webster's dictionary I found the term 'nigger' very descriptive: 'a vulgar, offensive term of hostility and contempt for the black man'. I can't think of anything that defines better and more accurately what our position… should be… If we are going to be for racial integrity and racial purity… we must take a hostile position toward the nigger. We must give him nothing but contempt. "

“Furthermore, under 'nigger' in Webster's Dictionary, one sees a very telling description: 'a vulgar, insulting expression of hostility and contempt for black people'. I can't think of anything that describes better and more precisely what our attitude should be. If we are to pursue racial purity, we have to take a hostile attitude towards the nigger. We mustn't show him anything other than contempt. "

- Ben Klassen : Nature's Eternal Religion

In his 1987 book Rahowa - This Planet Is All Ours , he claims that the Jews invented Christianity to weaken white people. The first duty is to crush the Jewish Behemoth .

Private

He was married to Henrie Etta Klassen (née McWilliams) and both had a daughter named Kim Anita Klassen.

death

Klassen suffered from the decline of his church and the death of his wife and chose suicide . He swallowed an overdose of sleeping pills and died in Sarasota on the night of August 6-7, 1993. Klassen was buried on his property in North Carolina. Today this area is designated as the Ben Klassen Memorial Park .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/FileStores/Web/HouseContent/Approved/Public%20Guide/Uploads/Documents/house_counties_final.pdf
2. ↑ ^{a b} http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EbkcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iHsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4369,6707331&dq=ben+klassen+florida+legislature+1966&hl
3. ↑ Ben Klassen: Nature's Eternal Religion , p. 31 .
4. ↑ Chester L Quarles: The Ku Klux Klan and Related American Racialist and Antisemitic Organizations: A History and Analysis . McFarland, 1999, ISBN 978-0-7864-0647-0 , p. 141.