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National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party

Nationalsozialistische Schweizerische Arbeiterpartei

[National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party]

image by Tomislav Todorovic, 10 February 2013

About the flag
National Socialist Swiss League

See also:

About the Flag

National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party (Switzerland)
Nationalsozialistische Schweizerische Arbeiterpartei (NSSAP)

National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party is one of the Front Movement (Frontenbewegung) parties. It was founded in 1933 as the People's League (Volksbund) by the breakaway members of National Front under the leadership of Major Ernst Leonhardt, to be renamed in 1935, which was followed by Leonhardt's dismissal from the Army same year due to his Nazi attitudes. In 1938, party was forbidden to hold the rallies and publish its newspaper. Shortly afterwards, Leonhardt disbanded the party and replaced it same year with the Swiss Society of the Friends of Authoritarian Democracy (Schweizerische Gesellschaft der Freunde einer autoritären Demokratie). In late 1939, after a campaign against the Swiss government, followed by a series of trials of his party members, Leonhardt fled to Germany and Swiss Society of Friends of Authoritarian Democracy was banned in 1940 due to its subversive activities. In 1944, Leonhardt was sentenced to prison in absentia and was killed in Germany next year in an air raid.

The flag of the National Socialist Swiss Workers Party is derived from that of the Swiss National Front (SNF), by superimposing a red disk charged with a white swastika and fimbriated white. It s use was made illegal in 1938, when the Swiss government banned the use of "non-Swiss" political symbols by Swiss political parties, which was primarily aimed at the use of swastika.
Pete Loeser and Tomislav Todorovic, 10 February 2013

National Socialist Swiss League

Nationalsozialistischer Schweizerbund (NSSB)

National Socialist Swiss League was founded in 1941 by Franz Burri, a Nazi activist. Most of its members were Swiss people living in Germany, although it operated in Switzerland as well. This group was dissolved in June same year, after a number of Swiss Nazi activists were arrested and a number of others, including Burri, fled to Germany, continuing their activities from there, mainly calling for another Anschluss - that of Switzerland. After the war, Burri returned to Switzerland, where he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in 1948 for speaking against the independence of the country, but was freed in 1959 and lived until 1987.

While only circular badges of National Socialist Swiss League are currently known which repeat the same general design, it is possible that the National Socialist Swiss League reused the flag of the National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party, knowing that Ernst Leonhardt assisted in its founding and took part in its activities.
Pete Loeser and Tomislav Todorovic, 10 February 2013

Sources:

[1] Historical Flags of Our Ancestors: http://www.loeser.us/flags/hate2.html
[2] People's League at Wikipedia (in German): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksbund_%28Schweiz%29
[3] Swiss Society of the Friends of Authoritarian Democracy (in German): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweizerische_Gesellschaft_der_Freunde_einer_autorit%C3%A4ren_Demokratie
[4] Ernst Leonhardt at Wikipedia (in German): http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Leonhardt
[5] Ernst Leonhardt at Wikipedia (in English): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Leonhardt
[6] Franz Burri at Wikipedia (in English): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Burri
[7] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - topic about the National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/23775-nssap-volksbund/
[8] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - image of the National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party flag (with the governmental censorship stickers over): http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach%A7ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=108092
[9] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - image of the National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party fundraising stamp: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach%A7ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=108093
[10] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - image of the National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party fundraising stamp
[11] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - topic about the National Socialist Swiss League: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/23642-nationalsozialistischer-schweizerbund
[12] Gentleman's Military Interest Club forum - image of the National Socialist Swiss League badge: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?app=core&module=attach%A7ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=107476