German Spruce Association

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The Deutsche Fichte-Bund ( Deutscher Fichte-Bund eV ) with its headquarters in Hamburg was founded on January 29, 1914 as the “Reichsbund für Deutschtumsarbeit”. He is to be counted among the nationalistic - folkish camp. The name was given to Johann Gottlieb Fichte .

During National Socialism , the Fichte-Bund was active in distributing foreign propaganda and was subordinate to the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda .

Club structure and goals

The cited source does not provide any information on the association's statutes, composition of the board and financing.

In a leaflet published in Danish, Heinrich Kessemeier is stated as the president and Jungfernstieg 30 in Hamburg is the seat of the association.

According to a Danish memorandum from the Nuremberg trial against the main war criminals , during the Third Reich the German Fichte Association was directly subordinate to the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda and tried to systematically influence public opinion abroad in the National Socialist sense. In this memorandum, the following are cited as goals of the Fichte-Bund for the period after 1933:

  • "Promotion of mutual understanding through the free publication of information about the new Germany" and
  • "Protecting culture and civilization by spreading the truth about the destructive forces in the world". 

These euphemistic formulations stand for the smuggling of propaganda and anti-Semitic hate speech.

Activity up to the time of National Socialism

The source, a work report from 1940, shows that the association distributed over 18,276,000 of its own pamphlets between 1919 and 1932, i.e. the time of the Weimar Republic . The subjects of these leaflets are:

Activity from the seizure of power to the end of the war

Between 1933 and 1940, the association published 54,295,000 of its own pamphlets in 16 languages. As topics are listed in the source

  • Education abroad about the "new Germany"
  • The new lie of agitation and horror
  • The incitement to war and boycott
  • Bolshevism
  • Jewish masterminds

The association financed the Dutch monthly “Das Nebelhorn” ( De Misthorn ). In addition, in 1940 the association sent "2,278,241 pieces of propaganda material" made available by the Foreign Office (Section D IV). In addition to brochures, this also included books, records and unabridged leaders' speeches. In addition, the association printed 6,201,000 of its own leaflets. In addition, 49,300 daily newspapers and 25,900 kg of material were channeled abroad via main distribution points in Hamburg, Vienna , Prague and Biarritz .

For this purpose, the German Fichte Association used its distribution system that had been tried and tested before the war. In various river and sea ports, the propaganda material was secretly handed over to ship captains, ship officers and customs border guards, who made it abroad and delivered it to shop stewards. The source lists a total of 693 transports, mostly German ships, for 1940, which brought propaganda material to the countries bordering the Baltic Sea, to Spain and to occupied France.

classification

The German Fichte-Bund was listed in 1946 under the heading “Other Organizations under National Socialist Influence” or “Other National Socialist Organizations”, whose senior staff, according to the Control Council directive, “should be carefully examined because of the positions they hold”.

The propaganda effect of the leaflets that the Fichte-Bund distributed in Germany and abroad has not yet been scientifically researched. Because of the anti-Semitic caricatures and their inflammatory content, reputable antiquarian bookshops only sell the leaflets of the German Spruce Association for scientific research purposes.

swell

  • Work report of the German Fichte-Bund eV (headquarters in Hamburg) from January 1, 1940 to December 31 of the same year. Typed, Hamburg State Library Y / 12892

literature

  • Holger Skor: "Bridges over the Rhine". France under the perception and propaganda of the Third Reich, 1933–1939 . Klartext Verlag, Essen 2011, ISBN 978-3-8375-0563-4 , Chapter IV ( Der Deutsche Fichte-Bund - unwanted parallel propaganda ).

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Date 1916 according to Meyers Lexikon, Leipzig 1938 / in the cover letter in the annual gift for the 25th anniversary, January 29, 1914 is named Hitler's liberated Sudetenland (accessed on April 30, 2008).
  2. ↑ Iris Wigger: The "Black Shame on the Rhine". Racial discrimination between gender, class, nation and race. Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot, Münster 2007, p. 218, note 24. ISBN 978-3-89691-651-8 .
  3. ^ "Official Memorandum of the Danish Government" = Document 901-RF, printed in volume 38 (document volume) of the IMT on p. 600ff (quotation from p. 606) ISBN 3-7735-2527-3 / quoted on the 49th day of the hearing (2nd Feb. 1946) IMT Volume 6, page 551f ISBN 3-7735-2503-6 (there transmission error 1940 instead of 1914).
  4. ↑ Control Council Directive No. 24 of January 12, 1946 (removal of National Socialists and persons who are hostile to the efforts of the Allies from offices and positions of responsibility) or Control Council Directive No. 38 of October 12, 1946: (Arrest and punishment of war criminals, National Socialists and militarists and internment, control and surveillance of potentially dangerous Germans).