Last modified: 2013-04-05 by rob raeside
Keywords: nationalsozialistische schweizerische arbeiterpartei | nssap | swastika | national socialist swiss league |
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National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party (Switzerland)
Nationalsozialistische Schweizerische Arbeiterpartei (NSSAP)
National
Socialist Swiss Workers' Party is one of the Front Movement (Frontenbewegung)
parties. It was founded in 1933 as the People's League (Volksbund) by the
breakaway members of National Front under the leadership of Major Ernst
Leonhardt, to be renamed in 1935, which was followed by Leonhardt's dismissal
from the Army same year due to his Nazi attitudes. In 1938, party was forbidden
to hold the rallies and publish its newspaper. Shortly afterwards, Leonhardt
disbanded the party and replaced it same year with the Swiss Society of the
Friends of Authoritarian Democracy (Schweizerische Gesellschaft der Freunde
einer autoritären Demokratie). In late 1939, after a campaign against the Swiss
government, followed by a series of trials of his party members, Leonhardt fled
to Germany and Swiss Society of Friends of Authoritarian Democracy was banned in
1940 due to its subversive activities. In 1944, Leonhardt was sentenced to
prison in absentia and was killed in Germany next year in an air raid.
The flag of the National Socialist Swiss Workers Party is derived from that of
the Swiss National Front (SNF), by superimposing a red
disk charged with a white swastika and fimbriated white. It s use was made
illegal in 1938, when the Swiss government banned the use of "non-Swiss"
political symbols by Swiss political parties, which was primarily aimed at the
use of swastika.
Pete Loeser and Tomislav Todorovic, 10 February
2013
Nationalsozialistischer Schweizerbund (NSSB)
National Socialist Swiss League was founded in 1941 by Franz Burri, a Nazi
activist. Most of its members were Swiss people living in Germany, although it
operated in Switzerland as well. This group was dissolved in June same year,
after a number of Swiss Nazi activists were arrested and a number of others,
including Burri, fled to Germany, continuing their activities from there, mainly
calling for another Anschluss - that of Switzerland. After the war, Burri
returned to Switzerland, where he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 1948
for speaking against the independence of the country, but was freed in 1959 and
lived until 1987.
While only circular badges of National Socialist Swiss
League are currently known which repeat the same general design, it is possible
that the National Socialist Swiss League reused the flag of the National
Socialist Swiss Workers' Party, knowing that Ernst Leonhardt assisted in its
founding and took part in its activities.
Pete Loeser and Tomislav
Todorovic, 10 February 2013
Sources:
[1] Historical Flags of Our Ancestors:
http://www.loeser.us/flags/hate2.html
[2] People's League at Wikipedia
(in German):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksbund_%28Schweiz%29
[3] Swiss Society
of the Friends of Authoritarian Democracy (in German):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizerische_Gesellschaft_der_Freunde_einer_autorit%C3%A4ren_Demokratie
[4] Ernst Leonhardt at Wikipedia (in German):
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Leonhardt
[5] Ernst Leonhardt at
Wikipedia (in English):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Leonhardt
[6] Franz Burri at
Wikipedia (in English):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Burri
[7] Gentleman's Military
Interest Club forum - topic about the National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party:
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/23775-nssap-volksbund/
[8] Gentleman's
Military Interest Club forum - image of the National Socialist Swiss Workers'
Party flag (with the governmental censorship stickers over):
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach%A7ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=108092
[9] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - image of the National
Socialist Swiss Workers' Party fundraising stamp:
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach%A7ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=108093
[10] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - image of the National
Socialist Swiss Workers' Party fundraising stamp
[11] Gentleman's Military
Interest Club forum - topic about the National Socialist Swiss League:
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/23642-nationalsozialistischer-schweizerbund
[12] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - image of the National
Socialist Swiss League badge:
http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach%A7ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=107476