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Germans are by nature joiners. How much the Bund is actually an undercover wing of Naziism and how much the innocent modern equivalent of an old-fashioned Turnverein is highly debatable, even among Bund members. Major operations of the Bund are week-end outings, where members in grey uniforms with Swastika brassards are drilled in German military tactics, sing German songs, listen to speeches in favor of Adolf Hitler. Dues of $9 a year partly go to buy camping sites, of which the Bund has 27 in as many cities. They also pay the salaries of Führer Kuhn and the district leaders whom he appoints. Major Bund centres are New York, Milwaukee and Los Angeles. Separate editions of the Deutscher Weckruf are printed in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles. Unfortunately for its reputation as a legitimate wing of Naziism, the Bund did not suffer in the least when the Hitler Government disavowed all interest in it for the first time, two years ago. Instead, its membership steadily rose.
Major stated aims of the Bund are: 1) to fight the Jewish boycott on German goods, and 2) to stand as the nucleus of a U. S. army to defend the country against Communism. To achieve the first, Bund members are urged to patronize only stores run by Aryans who give members stamps entitling them to a discount relative to the amount they purchase. To achieve the second, Bundsmen have thus far done no more than make impassioned homesick speeches, parade with wooden guns. Sleek Mr. Kuhn, who looks and talks like an embryo Göring, last week failed to lead his organization through its latest crisis. He was in Brussels for an "antiCommunist" meeting with two other equally unsuccessful but considerably more authentic advocates of totalitarian government—Belgium's Léon Degrelle, France's François Casimir de La Rocque.