#edmund von thermann

[mostly-history]

Nazi rally in Buenos Aires (April 10th, 1938).

Before WW2, Argentina had a strong, well-organized Nazi demographic that was controlled by the German ambassador Edmund von Thermann.  In 1938, a “Day of Unity” rally was held at Estadio Luna Park to celebrate the Austrian Anschlüss.

According to U.S. Vice-Consul W. F. Busser, about 20,000 people attended the rally.  He reported that it had all the trappings of the Berlin Sportpalast rallies – massed choruses of Deutschland über Alles and Horst-Wessel-Lied (the Nazi party anthem); Hitler Youth, Frontline Veterans and the SA with their tossing standards; and a high podium with Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer in huge Gothic letters on an blood-red background.

The Alianza de la Juventad Nacionalista (the Argentinian fascist youth movement) attended in their grey shirts (shown in the fourth photo) and Nazi stormtroopers (the SA) ringed the entire auditorium (shown in the fifth photo).  Busser reported that the stormtroopers were of two types: “thick-necked and square-headed with well-filled paunches, or thin, pasty-faced, but terribly earnest...they must have been mostly waiters or poorly paid clerks.”

Von Thermann was in Germany, so the Chargé d'Affaires Erich Otto Meynen was there in his place.  Also attending were the Austrian consul Richard Staudt, a wealthy German-Argentine businessman who later distanced himself from the Third Reich; and Dr. Ott, a Reichsredner (political speaker) sent by Germany, who gave “an almost perfect imitation of Hitler”.  Busser also stated that “the speeches were exercises in mass hypnosis.”  (However, it is not certain how much German Busser could understand.)

The Federación Universitaria Argentina and socialist youth groups held a counter-demonstration in the nearby Plaza San Martín, although they had been forbidden from doing so.  The demonstration spilled over into nearby streets.  German flags were burned, German banks and the Instituto Cultural German-Argentino were stoned, and two elderly bystanders were trampled to death by police horses.  The interim Chancellor of the Foreign Ministry, Manuel Alvarado, apologized publicly to the Chargé d'Affaires two days later, criticizing a “certain press” offensive to German nationality that failed to take into account “the cordial relations between the two nations”.

The swastika-in-a-gear symbol was the badge of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labour Front), the Nazi trade union association that replaced the various trade unions of the Weimar Republic after the Nazis gained power.  The banners read: Wir wollen den Frieden (We want the Peace), and Jeder arbeitende Deutsche gehört in die Deutsche Arbeiterfront (Every Working German Belongs in the German Labour Front).