Friends of New Germany
| Successor | German American Bund |
|---|---|
| Formation | July 1933 |
| Founder | Heinz Spanknobel |
| Extinction | December 1935 |
| Headquarters | New York City, United States |
|
Membership
|
5,000-10,000 |
Friends of New Germany, sometimes called Friends of the New Germany, was an organization founded in the United States by German immigrants to support Nazism and Nazi Germany. Nazis outside of Germany made considerable efforts to establish an American counterpart organization. Recruiting commenced as early as 1924 with the formation of the Free Society of Teutonia.
In May 1933, the Nazi Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess, gave German immigrant and German Nazi Party member Heinz Spanknöbel authority to form an American Nazi organization. The result was the creation of the Friends of New Germany in July 1933. Assistance was given to its formation by the German consul in the City of New York. The organization took over the membership of two older pro-Nazi organizations in the United States, the Free Society of Teutonia and Gau-USA. The new entity was based in New York City, but had a strong presence in Chicago, Illinois.
The Friends of New Germany was led by Spanknöbel and was openly pro-Nazi, and engaged in activities such as storming the German language newspaper New Yorker Staats-Zeitung with the demand that Nazi-sympathetic articles be published, the infiltration of other non-political German-American organizations, and the use of propaganda to counter the Jewish boycott of businesses in the heavily German neighborhood of Yorkville, Manhattan. Members wore a uniform, a white shirt and black trousers for men with a black hat festooned with a red symbol. Women members wore a white blouse and a black skirt.
In an internal battle for control of the Friends, Spanknöbel was soon ousted as leader, and in October 1933 he was deported because he had failed to register as a foreign agent.
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