Black Front
The Combat League of Revolutionary National Socialists (German: Kampfgemeinschaft Revolutionärer Nationalsozialisten, KGRNS), more commonly known as the Black Front (German: Schwarze Front), was a political group formed by Otto Strasser after he resigned from the Nazi Party (NSDAP) to avoid being expelled in 1930.[2][3]
Combat League of Revolutionary National Socialists Kampfgemeinschaft Revolutionärer Nationalsozialisten | |
---|---|
Leader | Otto Strasser |
Founded | 4 July 1930 |
Dissolved | 15 February 1933 (banned)[1] |
Split from | National Socialist German Workers Party |
Succeeded by | German Social Union (not legal successor) |
Headquarters | Berlin |
Newspaper | The German Revolution |
Ideology | Strasserism Revolutionary nationalism Anti-capitalism Economic antisemitism |
Political position | Far-right |
Colours | Black, red |
Party flag | |
Strasser believed the original anti-capitalist stance of the party, embodied in several items of the its 1920 25 Points platform, which was never changed, but was in large part ignored by Adolf Hitler, which Strasser saw as a betrayal. The Black Front was composed of former radical Nazis, who intended to cause a split in the party. The group published a newspaper, The German Revolution.[2] The Black Front adopted the crossed hammer and sword symbol which is still used by several Strasserite groups.
The Black Front, which never had more than a couple of thousand members,[3] was unable to oppose the NSDAP effectively, and Hitler’s rise to power proved to be the final straw. Strasser spent the years of the Third Reich in exile, first in Czechoslovakia and later in Canada. The Strasserist wing of the party was eradicated in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives in which Gregor Strasser, Otto's older brother, was killed. Strasser had previously broken with his brother over Otto's proclivity to act on his own.[3]
References
- Nolzen, Armin. (2013). Straßer, Otto. Neue Deutsche Biographie 25:479-481.
- Wistrich, Robert S. (4 July 2013). Who's Who in Nazi Germany. Routledge. p. 248. ISBN 9781136413810.
- Ullrich, Volker (2017). Hitler: Ascent: 1889-1939. Translated by Jefferson Chase. New York: Vintage. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-101-87205-5.