George Lincoln Rockwell

George Lincoln Rockwell, 1951

George Lincoln Rockwell (born March 9, 1918 in Bloomington , Illinois , † August 25, 1967 in Arlington , Virginia ) was the founder and " leader " of the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists and its successor, the American Nazi Party . He became known in the media under the name "American Hitler".

Training and activity as a soldier

Rockwell was born in Bloomington , Illinois to two vaudeville actors. His father George Lovejoy Rockwell was of English-Scottish origin, his mother Claire Schade Rockwell of German-French origin. According to his own statements, he learned from his parents the talent to speak and to impress the masses. He went as a student to the Hebron Academy in Maine and studied philosophy at Brown University from 1938 . During his studies, he particularly rejected the idea of human equality and promoted the Christian identity movement .

In 1940 he dropped out and joined the US Navy , where he also served in World War II. After World War II he became a graphic designer in the advertising industry. To train soldiers for the Korean War , he was drafted again in 1950 and transferred to San Diego . He was transferred to Iceland in 1952 and retired in 1954.

Founding and running the American Nazi Party

In 1955, Rockwell published a magazine for soldiers' wives, advocating segregation and anti-communism . Due to financial difficulties, she was discontinued shortly afterwards.

In March 1959, he founded the World Union of Free Enterprise National Socialists (WUFENS), a racist and anti-communist party that spoke out primarily for racial segregation and against common property and state interference in the economy. In December 1959 it was renamed the American Nazi Party , headquartered in Arlington County .

Under Rockwell, the Nazi Party initially supported the Ku Klux Klan , especially against the efforts of the black civil rights movement and Martin Luther King . However, Rockwell later saw the Klan as too ineffective and gave up support. In 1965 Rockwell received a telegram from Malcolm X announcing severe retaliation if Rockwell and his men physically attacked King or other black people.

On June 25, 1961, Rockwell and ten other members of his party were listening to a Nation of Islam event , at which Malcolm X also spoke, and donated $ 20. Rockwell said that he would prefer the members to go to Africa, but consider the Nation of Islam as "black Nazis" because they want the same thing as him - segregation .

Rockwell was best known through an extensive interview in April 1966 with Playboy magazine . The interview was conducted by the black journalist Alex Haley at the headquarters of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell had been assured that no Jew would conduct the interview and mistakenly assumed that no black people would of course be sent. However, he then assured Haley security for the interview stay and decided to conduct the interview anyway.

As a party leader, Rockwell named goals among other things to deport all blacks to Africa and to execute all "communist traitors". Jews should be allowed to stay (with the exception of black and communist Jews) but only if they are castrated and give their property to other white Americans. He denied the Holocaust and called it a communist conspiracy. He called Hitler a blessing. He also advocated the Vietnam War . Rockwell cited the fundamental problem that the USA had become a nation of “ beatniks and peace crawlers ”. He also announced that, as president, he would immediately carry out a nuclear strike against China.

death

On August 25, 1967, he was shot and killed by John Patler outside a laundromat. After the murder, there was a dispute between Rockwell's relatives, who wanted to bury the World War II veteran in a military cemetery, and the party that claimed the body on the basis of an alleged will of Rockwell. The Department of Defense finally allowed a burial in Culpeper National Cemetery , but on the condition that party members would not wear swastikas and party badges. Since some did not adhere to it, a first funeral in August 1967 was prevented by the US Army . Thereafter, six other cemeteries refused to allow Rockwell to be buried. On August 31, 1967, party leaders confirmed that Rockwell had been burned that morning.

Others

• In the US television series Roots - The Next Generation from 1979, Rockwell is portrayed by Marlon Brando .
• 2018 The Man in the High Castle (TV series) , season 3 ( 5 episodes ) - played by David Furr, Rockwell takes on the role of the marshal of the American Empire (fictional counterpart to the USA) in the dystopian alternative world scenario . In the series, Rockwell wears a blue air force uniform as Reichsmarschall , which is similar to Hermann Göring's real air force uniform .

Web links

• Literature by and about George Lincoln Rockwell in the catalog of the German National Library
• US Nazi Rockwell: The American Hitler , biography and commented photo series, Jasmin Lörchner, one day , December 14, 2016
• American leaders - George Lincoln Rockwell versus the rest of the world , Dietmar Gottfried, Telepolis , December 25, 2010

Individual evidence

1. ^ A telegram to Rockwell from Malcolm X , 1965.
2. ↑ rarehistoricalphotos.com: George Lincoln Rockwell and members of the American Nazi Party attend a Nation of Islam summit, 1961 , accessed June 23, 2014
3. ↑ Transcript of interview with Rockwell April 1966 ( Memento of the original dated December 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Playboy Magazine conducted by Alex Haley 
4. ↑ 1967: “American Hitler” shot dead , BBC and several interview documents
5. ↑ Blast from the Past: George Lincoln Rockwell ( Memento of the original from May 3, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by David Maurer in Daily Progress , August 24, 2003  
6. ↑ The Man in the High Castle (TV series). Amazon Prime Video, accessed February 15, 2019 .