Fritz Julius Kuhn

Fritz Julius Kuhn (May 15, 1896 – December 14, 1951), was a Nazi, Antisemite, and controversial leader of the German American Bund, prior to World War II. He was a naturalized citizen of the United States and a loyal supporter of the German government led by Adolf Hitler.

Biography

He was the son of Georg Kuhn and Julia Justyna Beuth in Germany. During World War I, Kuhn earned an Iron Cross as a German infantry lieutenant. After the war, he graduated from the University of Munich with a master's degree in chemical engineering. In the 1920s, Kuhn moved to Mexico. In 1928, he moved to the United States and, in 1934 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.

As head of the Bund he was considered the "American Führer". In 1939, seeking to cripple the Bund, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia had the city investigate the Bund's taxes. It found that Kuhn had embezzled over $14,000 from the Bund, spending part of that money on a mistress. District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey issued indictment and won a conviction against Kuhn. Despite his criminal conviction for embezzlement, followers of the Bund continued to hold him in high regard. During World War II, Kuhn was arrested as an enemy agent, and held by the federal government at an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas. In 1945 he was released, sent to Ellis Island, and deported to Germany.

Death

He died on December 14, 1951, in Munich, Germany. He’d been working as an obscure chemist.

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