National Front, Volksbund, Schweizerische Gesellschaft der Freunde einer Autoritären Demokratie, Nationalsozialistischer Schweizerbund, Nationalsozialistische Bewegung in der Schweiz
Ernst Leonhardt (September 25, 1885 – March 26, 1945) was an American-born Swiss military figure and pro-Nazi politician.
Biography
Ernst Leonhardt was born to a German-born Swiss father on September 25, 1885, in Tracy City, Grundy County, Tennessee, United States.[1] Leonhardt moved to Switzerland at an early age to attend school at Basel, before joining the Swiss Army, where he rose to the rank of major.[2]
Leonhardt became involved in politics in 1932 when he joined the National Front, and before long he had risen to the rank of Gauführer (equivalent to Gauleiter) in both Basel-City and the Canton of Solothurn.[2] However he clashed with his superiors and in 1933 he left the Front and set up his own Volksbund with fellow dissident Emil Sonderegger.[2] The group was dominated by the forceful personality of Leonhardt, a strong factor in its failure to attract much of a following.[2] He also founded the Schweizerische Gesellschaft der Freunde einer autoritären Demokratie [de] (SGAD) (Swiss Society of Friends of an Authoritarian Democracy) in 1938 (a group officially banned in 1940, although in existence until 1941[2]), whilst he was also a member of Franz Burri's Nationalsozialistischer Schweizerbund [de] and Nationalsozialistische Bewegung in der Schweiz.[2]
Although Leonhardt continued to be involved in Swiss pro-Nazi movements, he had in fact relocated to Germany in 1939 and continued his activism from there.[2] He worked closely with Burri to distribute Nazi propaganda into Switzerland, whilst also recruiting volunteers for the SS and arguing for an Anschluss-style takeover of Switzerland by Hitler. Leonhardt's Swiss citizenship was revoked in 1943 due to this idea.[1][2] In his absence, the Swiss courts found Leonhardt guilty of attacking the Swiss Confederation's independence and illegally recruiting for a foreign military (i. e. the SS), sentencing him to fifteen and a half years in prison.[1] However, he remained free in Germany for the rest of his life, continuing to produce propaganda.[2] He was killed in an air raid on March 26, 1945, in Oberndorf am Neckar, Rottweil (district), Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[1][2]
