In February 1939 in New York, the fascist American German Bund and its self-proclaimed “Führer” Fritz Julius Kuhn celebrated the high point of the American National Socialist movement. 22,000 supporters had gathered in Madison Square Garden at an event modeled on the Nuremberg party rallies. Violent protests from opponents accompanied the meeting, and 1,700 police officers were on duty.
What was the “Fuehrer of America” all about, the documentary filmmaker Annette Baumeister asks in her contribution “History in the first: The American Führer – Hitler’s unwelcome doppelganger”. The first broadcasts the film on June 13 from 10:50 p.m. Baumeister, who made highly acclaimed contributions about “The Stasi in the schoolyard” or the Colonia Dignidad sect active in Chile, presents a little-known aspect of American history with her latest contribution – with some interesting cross-connections to the present.
The German-born American Kuhn, a chemist by trade, was born in Munich in 1896 and also died there in 1951. The petty criminal and impostor emigrated from Germany in 1924 and finally made his way to the United States via Mexico. There, the staunch supporter of Adolf Hitler tried to link Nazi ideology with American racism. One means were contacts with the extreme right-wing Ku Klux Klan. Another: holiday camps for young people, which Kuhn had filmed for propaganda purposes.
Baumeister uses this material and combines it with assessments by historians Bradley W. Hart, Arnie Bernstein and James Calaski and their colleague Cornelia Wilhelm. In addition, she relies on a second main character, John C. Metcalfe, who is also of German descent. He smuggled himself into Kuhn’s union as an undercover journalist. His reports in the Chicago Daily Times helped spread his machinations to a large audience.
The filmmaker interviewed Metcalfe’s son Howard, who for the first time spoke in front of the camera about his father and his by no means harmless research. It was fascinating for her to see the different paths the two men with roots in Germany took, says Baumeister. Metcalfe’s work also shows “that courageous and meticulous journalism can achieve something”.
Kuhn himself skilfully played on the media keyboard during his rise to power and in this respect seems quite akin to the populists of our day. During the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, he managed to present Adolf Hitler with a donation from the American German Federation for the NS Winter Relief Organization at a brief appointment in the Reich Chancellery. A photo was taken with his idol. Kuhn exploited the image for propaganda purposes in the USA and claimed that Hitler had commissioned him to continue the fight in America – which led to diplomatic irritation on both sides of the Atlantic during this construction phase of the National Socialist regime.
Ultimately, it was the media presence that was fatal to Kuhn shortly after his acclaimed appearance in New York. The FBI investigated and arrested him. Not because of his diatribes against Jews, because from the point of view of his contemporaries they were covered by freedom of expression. But because of tax fraud and embezzlement. In 1943 he was interned as an “enemy alien” and transferred to Germany at the end of 1945. Two years in prison followed. Kuhn died impoverished and almost unknown in 1951.
The historians interviewed by Baumeister emphasize that Kuhn’s organization was by no means harmless. Compared to what was happening in Germany and Europe at the same time, the »Führer of America« remains a bizarre marginal figure. However, his rise and fall shows how easily such figures find their audience, what role the media play in this and how difficult it is in democratic societies to draw the boundaries of freedom of expression. That, summed up by filmmaker Baumeister, makes Kuhn and his story interesting and relevant for today’s TV viewers.
»The American Führer – Hitler’s Unwelcome Doppelganger«. Documentary film by Annette Baumeister. The first, Monday, June 13, 10:50 p.m. – 11:35 p.m.
–
