Franz Burri

Franz Burri (26 October 1901 – 24 July 1987) was a Swiss political figure who, from his base in Germany, became the leading disseminator of Nazi propaganda in the country. The media labeled him the "Helvetic Goebbels".

Background and career Born in Lucerne to a half-German working-class family, Burri was an early supporter of National Socialism and frequently visited Nazi Germany during the 1930s. He came to full-time activism in 1941 by forming his own Bund der Schweizer in Grossdeutschland (League of the Swiss in Greater Germany), calling for a very close relationship between his country and Nazi Germany.

World War II and treason trial After moving to Germany, Burri took up his role as the leading producer of Nazi propaganda for the Swiss market. From his base in Frankfurt, he produced the International Presseagentur, a newspaper funded by the Nazis. Within its pages Burri and his fellow writers, notably his closest ally and NSSB chief Ernst Leonhardt, called for a Union of the German Peoples in which Switzerland would be absorbed into the Third Reich in the same way that Austria had been. Having taken up German citizenship, he was symbolically stripped of his Swiss status in 1943.

Starting in 1942, Burri started a leaflet agitation campaign against Switzerland. Helpers smuggled the leaflets into the country and distributed them. In 1943, he was sentenced to six months in prison in absentia for "attacks on the independence of Switzerland". In 1944, leaflets by Burri described General Henri Guisan, who'd mobilized Swiss forces for a potential invasion by Germany, as a "traitor", "mercenary of Jews and liar", and "miserable idiot". He called for the establishment for a "Swiss Legion" within the Waffen-SS, as well as a German invasion of Switzerland. In response, a Swiss court sentenced Burri to 7 years in prison in absentia. "My fight was not an end in itself. It served an idea that I still think is correct today. You cannot divide the sons of a people into villains and saints. They only divide based on opinions. Part is truth and part is error."

Post-war Burri was released from prison in 1959, after which he moved to Germany. He continued to support Nazism for the rest of his life and wrote for far-right publications. In one letter, he wrote that, "One day, I, too, will be rehabilitated by history." In his memoirs, Burri said he viewed other right-wing extremists who'd moderated their views after World War II to increase their public appeal as cowards."I refused to convert in 1945 in a cowardly and characterless manner in order to have possible advantages... I only knew and know two cards: attitude and the courage to make sacrifices." Burri returned to Switzerland before his death in 1987.