Frontist Movement

The Frontist movement (German: ''Frontenbewegung''), also known as Frontisms, Frontists or Fröntlers, was Switzerland's parallel movement to National Socialism in the German Reich and to fascism in Italy. Since 1930, tendencies had been growing in the Swiss Confederation that called for a renewal of the country on a nationalistic basis. Liberal and individual rights were to be restricted in favor of a stronger emphasis on the community. However, the Frontenbewegung – in contrast to German National Socialism or Italian fascism – always remained marginal. The most influential group within the fragmented and very diverse Frontenbewegung was the National Front, which was inspired by Italian fascism. The name “Frontenbewegung” comes from the fact that most of these groups had the word ''front'' in their name. The Front Movement als had its own leader's salute, called ''Harus!''

History

In 1919, anti-communist and anti-socialist vigilante groups formed in Switzerland in the wake of the 1918 Swiss general strike. These vigilante groups were the forerunners of the later front organizations. In 1925, the national-conservative and anti-Semitic Heimatwehr was founded in Zurich. When Adolf Hitler was appointed German Chancellor on January 30, 1933, this led to a so-called Front spring in Switzerland. In 1933, the Frontists managed to achieve a 27% share of the vote in the Council of States by-election in Schaffhausen. In the same year, they won 10 of 125 municipal council seats in Zurich. The Frontists won 9% of the vote in the Grand Council elections in Geneva in November 1933.

In January 1934, a group of Frontists carried out a bomb attack on the apartment of an employee of the Zurich daily newspaper ''Volksrecht''. In November of the same year, there were several Frontist demonstrations in Zurich against the cabaret ''Pfeffermühle'' from antifascist German exiles and the Schauspielhaus Zürich. In the 1935 National Council elections, the Frontists won one seat each in Zurich and Geneva. In the same year, the initiative launched by the Frontists to implement a total revision of the Federal Constitution failed.

In May 1935, Walther Bringolf, the mayor of Schaffhausen, was severely disrupted while speaking at an event by a group of Frontists. After the event, there was a mass brawl with socialists. In 1937, the Frontists made a vain attempt to ban the Masonic lodges. In July 1940, after France's defeat, hopes were raised for a second frontist spring, and Federal President Marcel Pilet-Golaz received the frontists Ernst Hofmann and Max Leo Keller for an official talk. The ''proposal of the two hundred'' was addressed to the Swiss Federal Council on November 15, 1940.173 members of the German-friendly right-wing People's Union for the Independence of Switzerland called for the “eradication” of the leading Swiss bourgeois newspapers '' NZZ'', ''Basler Nachrichten'' and ''Der Bund'', as well as the expulsion of the League of Nations from Switzerland, out of consideration for Nazi Germany. In response, the Federal Council banned the National Movement of Switzerland (NBS) on November 19, 1940. The Second World War led to the discrediting of the front movement. The last of the front organizations disappeared from the public eye in 1943.

In addition, there were offshoots of German National Socialism in Switzerland; for example, there were 36 local groups of the NSDAP next to a “Hitler Youth Zurich” and the “League of German Girls”. The Zurich local group of the NSDAP was active from 1931, and from 1932 the local groups were grouped into a national group. From 1933 to 1935, the newspaper Der ''Reichsdeutsche in der Schweiz'' (Germans in Switzerland) was printed in Horgen, from 1936 to 1938 the ''Nachrichtenblatt der deutschen Kolonie in der Schweiz'' (Newsletter of the German Colony in Switzerland) was printed in Bern, and from 1938 to 1945 the ''Deutsche Zeitung in der Schweiz'' (The German Newspaper in Switzerland) was printed in Essen. After the Gustloff Affair, the central leadership organs of the NSDAP in Switzerland were dissolved by the Federal Council on February 18, 1936. However, from that point on, Sigismund von Bibra took over the national leadership and acted under the protection of diplomatic immunity.

Ideology

In general, the Frontist groups were nationalist, ethnocentric, anti-communist, anti-liberal and usually also anti-Semitic.

The aim was to undermine communism by uniting the nation under a strong leader. The Helvetic democracy was to be restricted and replaced by an authoritarian centralized state and the market economy by a corporative order. Due to their anti-Bolshevist and anti-liberal attitude, some of the Swiss right-wing and Catholic conservatives saw in the Front movement a helper in the fight against communist activities and liberalism in Switzerland.

Propaganda

Publications of the movement were:

* ''Das neue Volk'' (Publisher: Katholische Front / Front der militanten Katholiken)
* ''Der Angriff''
* ''Der Eidgenosse'' (Publisher: Nationalsozialistische Eidgenössische Arbeiterpartei)
* ''Der Eiserne Besen'' (Publisher 1931–1933: National Front)
* ''Die Front'' (Publisher 1933–1943: National Front)
* ''Eidgenössische Korrespondenz''
* ''Grenzbote''
* ''Informationen des NSSB''
* ''Internationale Presseagentur'' (IPA)
* ''Landbote''
* ''Nationale Hefte''
* ''Neue Schweiz'' (Publisher 1933–1935: Neue Schweiz)
* ''Schweizer Banner'' (Publisher: Bund treuer Eidgenossen nationalsozialistischer Weltanschauung)
* ''Schweizer Faschist / Fasciste Suisse / Fascista Svizzero'' (Publisher 1933–1935: Schweizerische Faschistische Bewegung)
* ''Schweizerdegen'' (Publisher: Bund treuer Eidgenossen nationalsozialistischer Weltanschauung)
* ''Schweizervolk''
* ''Volksbund newspaper''

There were also mass rallies with flags and uniforms, street battles and various forms of intimidation of political opponents, modeled on examples from abroad.

Resistance

The Swiss Federal Council and the cantonal governments banned some of the organizations (or sections of them). This was made easier by the fact that the bans in Nazi Germany only met with muted disapproval. The reason for this was that the neighbors did not have much time for the extremely fragmented Swiss Fröntler, who were not considered to have much of a chance of seizing power in the long term due to their weakness in party politics.Jürg Fink: ''Die Schweiz aus Sicht des Dritten Reiches.'' 1985, p. 130.

Organisations

* Bund der Schweizer in Grossdeutschland (BSG) 1940–1945
* Bund für Volk und Heimat (BVH) 1933–1936
* Bund Nationalistischer Schweizerstudenten (Successor organization of the Nationalen Bewegung der Schweiz)
* Bund Nationalsozialistischer Eidgenossen (BNSE) –1935
* Bund treuer Eidgenossen nationalsozialistischer Weltanschauung (BTE) 1938–1940
* Eidgenössische Aktion 1931–1939
* Eidgenössische Arbeiter- und Bauernpartei (EABP) (Successor organization of the Nationalen Bewegung der Schweiz)
* Eidgenössische Sammlung (Successor organization of the Nationalen Bewegung der Schweiz)
* Eidgenössische Soziale Arbeiterpartei (ESAP) 1936–1940
* Eidgenössische Soziale Volksbewegung 1934–1938 (A splinter group that merged with the Eidgenössischen Sozialen Arbeiterpartei in 1938)
* Heimatwehr 1925–1946
* Helvetische Aktion (HV) 1934
* Jungbauernbewegung 1930–1947
* Kampfbund Speer (Successor organization of the Nationalen Bewegung der Schweiz)
* Katholische Front / Front der militanten Katholiken 1933–1938
* Lega nazionale ticinese 1933–1938
* Ligue vaudoise 1933–
* National-Bernischer Sportverein (NBS) (Successor organization of the Nationalen Bewegung der Schweiz)
* Nationaldemokratischer Schweizerbund 1935–1943
* Nationale Bewegung der Schweiz (NBS) 1940–1941
* Nationale Erneuerung
* Nationale Front 1933–1940
* Nationale Gemeinschaft Schaffhausen 1940–1943
* Nationalsozialistische Eidgenössische Arbeiterpartei (NSEAP) or Bund Nationalsozialistischer Eidgenossen (BNSE) 1931–1935
* Nationalsozialistische Schweizerische Arbeiterpartei (NSSAP) 1935–1938
* Nationalsozialistischer Schweizerbund (NSSB) 1941
* Neue Front 1930–1933 (Nachfolgeorganisation: Nationale Front 1933–1940)
* Neue Schweiz 1933–1936
* Schweizerische Faschistische Bewegung (SFB) 1933–1936
* Schweizerische Gesellschaft der Freunde einer autoritären Demokratie (SGAD) 1938–1940
* Schweizerische Sportschulen (SS) 1941 (Successor organization of the Nationalen Bewegung der Schweiz)
* Schweizerischer Vaterländischer Verband (SVV) 1919–1948
* Soziale Volkspartei (SVP) 1941 (Successor organization of the Nationalen Bewegung der Schweiz)
* Union nationale 1932–1939
* Volksbund 1933–1935 (Successor organization: Nationalsozialistische Schweizerische Arbeiterpartei SSAP1935–1938)
* Volksbund für die Unabhängigkeit der Schweiz 1921–1950s

Swiss nationals working for the Nazis

There were about 150 exiled Swiss who belonged to the SS, the most well-known of whom were probably the Lucerne-based Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Franz Riedweg and Benno Schaeppi.

Literature

* Beat Glaus: ''Die Nationale Front. Eine Schweizer faschistische Bewegung 1930–1940.'' Benziger, Zürich/Einsiedeln/Köln 1969 ( Dissertation an der Universität Basel).
* Walter Wolf: ''Faschismus in der Schweiz. Die Geschichte der Frontenbewegungen in der deutschen Schweiz 1930–1945.'' Flamberg, Zürich 1969, (Dissertation an der Universität Zürich 1969).
* Klaus-Dieter Zöberlein: ''Die Anfänge des deutschschweizerischen Frontismus : die Entwicklung der politischen Vereinigung «Neue Front» und «Nationale Front» bis zu ihrem Zusammenschluss im Frühjahr 1933.'' Hain, Meisenheim a. G. 1970.
* Fritz Roth: ''Die Schweizer Heimatwehr (1925–1937): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der schweizerischen Frontenbewegung.'' 2 Bände. Dissertation. Universität Bern 1973.
* Jürg Fink: ''Die Schweiz aus der Sicht des Dritten Reiches 1933–1945: Einschätzung und Beurteilung der Schweiz durch die oberste deutsche Führung seit der Machtergreifung Hitlers – Stellenwert der Kleinstaates Schweiz im Kalkül der nationalsozialistischen Exponenten in Staat, Diplomatie, Wehrmacht, SS, Nachrichtendiensten und Presse.'' Schulthess, Zürich 1985, (Dissertation. Universität Zürich 1985).
* Konrad Zollinger: ''Frischer Wind oder faschistische Reaktion? Die Haltung der Schweizer Presse zum Frontismus 1933.'' Chronos, Zürich 1991, (Dissertation. Universität Zürich 1990).
* Hans Stutz: ''Frontisten und Nationalsozialisten in Luzern 1933–1945'' (= ''Luzern im Wandel der Zeit.'' Heft 9). Luzern 1997, .
* Matthias Wipf: ''Frontismus in einer Grenzstadt – Schaffhausen im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1933–1945.'' Bern 1998, ( Seminararbeit an der Universität Bern, Historisches Institut, 1998, Standort: Stadtarchiv Schaffhausen).
* Daniel Gut: ''Neidkopf: zur Naturgeschichte des Schweizer Frontisten Hans Kläui – eine literarische Recherche.'' Elfundzehn, Eglisau 2015, .
* Christian Koller
''Weder Zensur noch Propaganda: Der Umgang des Schweizerischen Sozialarchivs mit rechtsextremem Material.''
In: ''LIBREAS. Library Ideas.'' 35, 2019.
* Yves Schumacher: ''Nazis! Fascistes! Fascisti!: Faschismus in der Schweiz 1918–1945.'' Orell Füssli, Zürich 2019, .

References

{{Swiss far right

Antisemitism in Switzerland
Swiss nationalism
Far-right politics in Switzerland
Switzerland in World War II