Ernst Leonhardt

Ernst Leonhardt ( born September 25, 1885 in Tracy City, Tennessee, USA, † March 26, 1945 in Oberndorf am Neckar) was a Swiss politician of the front movement. He was one of the central figures of the National Front, the People's League and the SGAD.

Life

Ernst Leonhardt was the son of a German and a Swiss. When he was still a child, his father emigrated to Basel, where he went to school. After completing his apprenticeship Leonhardt joined the Swiss army and brought it to the Major. In 1932 he became a member of the National Front and was appointed Gauführer for Basel and Solothurn.

1934 there was a confrontation with Alfred Zander, Leonhardt, he resigned from the National Front and, together with Emil Sonderegger the national union. On March 11, 1934, but already came to a rift, and Leonhardt became the sole leader of the National League. In February 1935 all members of the National Socialist Federal Workers' Party were ( NSEAP ) / Federal National Socialist Confederation ( BNSE ) the National Association for. The national union called around and was then National Socialist Swiss Workers' Party ( NSSAP ). In the same year Leonhardt was dismissed because of his Nazi attitude from the army.

In 1938, Leonhardt, the Swiss Society of Friends of authoritarian democracy ( SGAD ) with the aim to transform the Confederation in a Nazi leader state. In November 1939, it came to a trial before the Federal Court against former members of the NSSAP, which ended with prison sentences of six months to one year. 1939 Leonhardt traveled to Frankfurt, where he received support from the Ministry of Propaganda. The end of 1939 Leonhardt fled to Germany.

In 1944, again on the trial of the former members of the SGAD. Leonhardt was sentenced in absentia to a long prison sentence.

Leonhardt died in 1945 during an allied air raid on Oberndorf am Neckar ( Wurttemberg ).