Swiss society of friends of an authoritarian democracy

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The Swiss Society of Friends of an Authoritarian Democracy (SGAD) was a political organization of the front movement .

history

At the end of 1938, Ernst Leonhardt , a former major in the Swiss Army , founded the SGAD as the successor organization to the Volksbund and its predecessor, the National Front . Since these had been banned on the basis of the ordinance to protect democracy, he chose the form of a society as camouflage.

The SGAD published a bulletin that replaced the newspaper The Attack (previously the Volksbund newspaper ) , which had been banned since 1938 , and was distributed by post via a distribution network.

Most of the meetings of the SGAD took place in Loerrach .

In 1939 Leonhardt traveled to Frankfurt am Main and received support from the Propaganda Ministry . In the same year, together with Ernst Burri and former members of the Volksbund, he ran a leaflet campaign against the Swiss government . The Swiss federal authorities thereupon opened proceedings against some members of the SGAD. In the canton of Solothurn, a military trial and a criminal trial were raised. At the end of 1939 Leonhardt fled to the German Reich .

In August 1940, the SGAD called for the government to resign and Switzerland to adapt to the new National Socialist Europe. In October 1940 the Swiss federal police unmasked a distribution organization of the SGAD.

A SGAD sabotage squad, consisting of two Swiss and six Germans, damaged several aircraft; the saboteurs were arrested. In November 1940 the authorities banned the SGAD.

Between 1942 and 1944 there was a trial. The accused were Leonhardt, Ernst Burri, Wilhelm Engler, Gottlieb Wierer, Hans Renold, Ludwig Nebel, Ernst Wagner, Alfred Wenger and 39 other people. The accused were sentenced to prison terms, some were expatriated and expelled from the country. One person was acquitted.

Political orientation

The goal of the SGAD was to transform Switzerland into a National Socialist leader state, following the example of German National Socialism.

literature

  • Beat Glaus: The National Front. A Swiss fascist movement 1930–1940 . Benziger, Zurich / Einsiedeln / Cologne 1969 (also dissertation at the University of Basel ).
  • Walter Wolf: Fascism in Switzerland. The history of the front movements in German-speaking Switzerland 1930–1945 . Flamberg / Zurich 1969 (also dissertation at the University of Zurich ).

Web links