I am looking at a series of newspaper articles that discuss crimes against German-Americans and their property. Almost all of these events happen exactly in the year 1933, for some reason. I considered backlash against the German American Bund, but that was only established in 1936. I also considered Hitler becoming chancellor in 1933, but cannot imagine that many Americans knew about what he was doing over in Europe enough to take it out against German-Americans. Does anybody know why 1933 was such a significant year for violence against German-Americans?
It really can be traced to the ascension of Adolf Hitler to the Chancellery in 1933, subvert Fascist support had opened up and funding flowed from Berlin to pro-Nazi and pro-Axis propandists and saboteurs the world over. There had been a long building of support for Fascist elements in the United States in the early 20^th century, the same could be said for many countries asides the typically cited Axis powers. Britain had its own British Union of Fascists led by Sir Oswald Mosley, Canada had "the Canadian fuhrer" Adrian Arcand and even Mexico had its Gold Shirts led by Revolutionary General Nicholas Rodriguez Carrasco. The United States had plenty of Fascist and Pro-Axis/Pro-German supporters in the United States under a variety of disguises. I've covered that to some extent here
It was 1933 when the first notable pro-German propagandist, Edwin Emerson, funded by the German Government, arrived in New York and began publishing the Amerikas Deutsche Post a pro-Nazi propaganda organ, and founded the Friends of New Germany, which later became the German-American Bund. There had been plenty of buildup of Fascist support in the US, Henry Ford distributed copies of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion to his workers and across his network of news affiliates, Right Wing, openly National Socialist and Fascist groups operated with little discretion and there were even Congressmen who read the Protocols into Congressional Record.
The violence you noted, is a reaction to that, Fascism had gained support, to be sure. But there were plenty of opponents of this booming, shortlasted, movement. Communists, labor unions, ethnic and racial minorities all struck back in economic boycotting and plenty of violent streetbattles between factions, one notable example of this was in the United Kingdom. The 1935 "Battle of Cable Street" came from a planned British Union of Fascists march protected by the police. In opposition to this, socialists, anarchists, communists and Jews, came together to attack the planned march and flooded the street beating the police, fascists, and their supporters. The march was cancelled and the British Union of Fascists took a major blow from the following Public Order Act of 1936 which banned political marches and wearing of political uniforms. There were many more stories to this nature across the United States in city centers such as New York, Chicago and Detroit.