THE POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OF KARL FRANK (A.K.A. PAUL HAGEN) IN AMERICA DURING WORLD WAR II by Siobhan Doucette submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofMaster of Arts in History Chair: i f l G Professor Robert Crews f// jLL l Professor Richard Breitman Dean of the College ■ay (L< Jen Date 2003 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1417254 Copyright 2003 by Doucette, Siobhan All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 1417254 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © COPYRIGHT by SIOBHAN DOUCETTE 2003 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE POLITICAL ACTIVITIES OF KARL FRANK (A.K.A. PAUL HAGEN) IN AMERICA DURING WORLD WAR II BY Siobhan Doucette ABSTRACT This thesis analyzes primary documents from the Hoover Institute and National Archives to explore the political career of Karl Frank, the leader of the German Socialist anti-Nazi group, Neu Beginnen. Frank from 1940 developed a position of preeminence within the German Socialist exile community in America. This thesis examines his work with the US government, in the anti-Nazi movement, and in the founding of exile organizations in America. By exploring Frank’s activities in America, this thesis also looks at the circumstances of the German Socialist exile community. It challenges the assertions made by previous chroniclers of the German Socialist exile experience that in America the German Socialist community ceased to exist. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.......................... ii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION......................................................................... 1 II. FRANK’S POLITICAL CAREER BEFORE EXILE IN AMERICA... ...... 5 Early Political Career Org The Nazi Seizure of Power Frank’s Leadership ofOrg/Neu Beginnen III. FRANK’S INITIAL WARTIME ACTIVITIES IN AMERICA’S GERMAN SOCIALIST EMIGRE COMMUNITY.......................... 25 American Friends of German Freedom Emergency Rescue Committee Investigation of the Emigre Attacks on Karl Frank, 1940 International Coordination Council Unity in England, Division in America Will Germany Crack? and Lectures VI. FRANK’S ACTIVITIES WITH THE U.S. GOVERNMENT....................45 Frank’s Efforts with the US Government Toward Establishing Contact with the German Underground, 1942 German Socialist Exiles in Britain Frank’s Efforts with the US Government Toward Establishing Contact with the German Underground, 1943 V. CULMINATION OF FRANK’S WARTIME ACTIVITIES IN AMERICA’S GERMAN SOCIALIST EMIGRE COMMUNITY...........62 Emigre Activities during Frank’s Work with the US Government Planning and Establishment of the Council for a Democratic Germany Germany After Hitler, The American Association for a Democratic Germany, and Speaking Engagements VI. FRANK’S POLITICAL CAREER IN THE POST-WAR ERA................ 79 VII. CONCLUSION.............. ...84 VIII. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. .................. ....88 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Within the vast literature on the Second World War, German resistance to Nazi Germany has held a special place. Although with time this literature has blossomed in quantity, its quality has at times wavered. Some of the initial shortcomings in the literature can be attributed to its use as a means of legitimizing various politicians, parties, organizations, and, most significantly, the two post-War German states. In the former German Democratic Republic, research on the resistance concentrated almost exclusively on the Communist opposition to Nazism; Socialist resistance was relegated to a minor role while conservative resistance (if treated at all) was often treated with hostility. While the literature written in the German Federal Republic in the post-War period was not as politically charged as that written in the DDR, there were distinct political influences. Most studies dealt with the conservative resistance, particularly the July 20th Plot; there was no emphasis on Communist, and little emphasis on Socialist resistance.1 A notable exception to the overall disregard for Socialist resistance during the immediate post-War period was Lewis Edinger’s excellentGerman Exile Politics, published in 1956. Claiming that “the political life of the anti-Nazi exile 1 Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation, 4th ed. (London: Arnold Publishers, 2000), 185-188. 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 movement.. .revolved primarily around the left-wing groups,” Edinger traced in detail the developments and trends in these left-wing, non-Communist groups between 1933 and 1939.2 Despite his comprehensive discussion of Socialist exile politics in the pre- War period, his analysis effectively ended with the fall of France. Edinger largely dismissed the Socialist communities that continued to exist in Britain and America after this date. Although dramatic changes occurred between the 1960s and 1970s in literature on Socialist resistance, research on Socialist resistance in exile remained virtually non-existent. During this period, German historians began exploring resistance to Nazism in regional studies. These studies allowed for an improved understanding of resistance at the grassroots level, which meant that Socialist resistance received attention.3 However, the activities of those Socialist opponents to Nazism who had fled the country remained largely unexplored. During the 1980s several authors began delving into German exile experiences; some even focused on exiles in America. However, these authors tended to highlight intellectual, rather than political exiles.4 Only Anthony Glees’Exile Politics During the Second World War discussed political exiles at length. 2 Lewis Edinger, German Exile Politics: The Social Democratic Executive Committee in the Nazi Exile (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1956), xi. 3 Kershaw, 190-192. 4 These works include Robert E. Cazden, German Exile Literature in America, 1933-1950: a History of the Free German Press and Book Trade (Chicago: American Library Association, 1988). Anthony Heilbut,Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America, From the 1930s to the Present (New York: Viking Press, 1983). Jarrell C. Jackman and Carla M. Borden, eds. Muses Flee Hitler: Cultural Transfer and Adaptation, 1930-1945 (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983). Helmut F. Pfanner,Exile in New York: German and Austrian Writers After 1933 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1983). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 However, Glees limited his analysis to the exiles in England, because he posited that, “those [exiles] who did go to the United States, do not appear to have achieved the sort of success that their English colleagues gained,” as they quickly melted into the American “melting pot.”5 Glees’ assessment is comprehensible given the diversity of the German Socialist exile community in America and the relative weakness of the Sopade (German Social Democratic Party Executive in Exile).6 Having enjoyed a position of preeminence in Europe prior to the evacuation of France as well as contemporaneously in Britain, the Sopade had been at the center of most treatments of the exile Socialists, including the works by Glees and Edinger. Its lack of influence in America easily led to the misperception that German Socialists in America were inactive. This study shows instead that the weakness of the Sopade in America did not signify a lack of German Socialist activity in America during World War II. On the contrary, it shows that influence within the community was spread among different groups and individuals. Of these, arguably the most important was the leader of the German Socialist splinter group Neu Beginnen, Karl Frank.7 As such, an examination of Frank’s experiences will elucidate much about the general circumstance of the exile community in America. 5 Anthony Glees,Exile Politics During the Second World War: the German Social Democrats in Britain (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 32. 6 The Sopade was the official successor to the Executive o f the German Social Democratic Party once the Party was forced