A swastika pin found in Khan el-Khalili, Cairo, sparks interest and inadvertently reveals that the Muslim Brotherhood’s structural foundation is likely thanks to Nazis in Egypt, including the brother of Hitler’s number two man.
Within the history of the Muslim Brotherhood’s early days, beginning in 1928 in Egypt, and its founder, Hassan al-Banna, few seem to know that there was a link to the German political party known as the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), in English known as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also nicknamed the Nazis.
With a few hundred local German members, the NSDAP/AO, the Nazi Party organization abroad, the Auslands-Organisation (Foreign Organization of the Nazi Party), a.k.a. Landesgruppe Ägypten, began as early as 1926, led by Alfred Hess, Rudolf Hess‘s younger brother.
Rudolf Hess was Adolf Hitler’s number two man and would later become Deputy Führer.
Later on, the NSOrtsgruppe was formed in Egypt in 1932, led by Alfred Hess.
Eventually, Alfred would become the Deputy Gauleiter of the AO based in Germany.
‘According to historical analyses of British and German archives, Berlin invested funds into the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1930s to counter British influence in Egypt and mobilize anti-Allied sentiment.’
Not surprisingly, the Nazis, before and during the war, went so far as to help organize anti-British rallies, finance lectures, including anti-Jewish lectures, and more.
Keep in mind that before the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933, Alfred Hess was already leading the Nazis organizations abroad in Egypt as early as 1926.
It is no secret that Hassan al-Banna was an admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. Both ideological movements shared anti-Semitism and a desire to see the British Empire weakened.
Information seems to show that the Nazis in Egypt, the AO, advised the Muslim Brotherhood (and al-Banna) in its early days to create the organizational structure of the Muslim Brotherhood. I would not be surprised if Alfred himself advised Banna.
Rudolf Hess and Alfred Hess were born in Alexandria, Egypt. Their father, Fritz H. Hess, was a prosperous merchant from Wunsiedel in Germany’s Fichtelgebirge region. Their father ran Hess & Co., a successful wholesaler and exporter based in Egypt. The family lived in a villa on the Egyptian coast near Alexandria, and visited Germany often from 1900, staying at their summer home in Reicholdsgrün (now part of Kirchenlamitz) in the Fichtel Mountains.
About the Hess brothers and the Nazis setting up shop in Egypt, see:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=lKtufY98NzAC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=NS+Ortsgruppe+egypt+hess&source=bl&ots=uf52JDsGFr&sig=ACfU3U1UAQTn5YwkZHcQQ5J-iS_ghcNe5g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi35oj48-vhAhUqmuAKHckhAI4Q6AEwDnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=NS%20Ortsgruppe%20egypt%20hess&f=false
By the spring of 1939, before the war, amidst the reports covering Germany’s Nazi Reichsminister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels‘s visit to Cairo, apparently Johann Ivo Theiss “headed the NSDAP in Egypt“, which means he headed Landesgruppen. By the time of Goebbels visit, Alfred Hess was in Germany.
Another key Nazi figure of interest is British-born Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, a high-ranking official in Nazi Germany who had a connection to Egypt early in his career. ‘In 1930, before rising to prominence within the Nazi Party, Bohle worked as an interpreter at the Egyptian consulate in Hamburg, Germany.’
Bohle’s political career accelerated rapidly. In 1933, Bohle was appointed leader of the Auslands-Organisation (AO) (Foreign Organization of the Nazi Party)—the same organization whose local branch Alfred Hess managed in Egypt when Bohle became the AO’s leader back in Germany.
‘This specific branch was responsible for managing, organizing, and spreading Nazi propaganda among German citizens living abroad.’
‘Under Bohle’s leadership, the organization mapped out strategic geopolitical interests in the Middle East, including drafting regional administrative plans that encompassed Egypt, Palestine, and Iraq.’
It’s important to mention that Al-Banna also had close ties with the WWII Nazi mouthpiece and collaborator Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.
After the war, al-Husseini fled to Egypt and successfully gained political protection there. Banna welcomed al-Husseini to Egypt and appointed him to prominent roles within the Muslim Brotherhood.
Worth mentioning is that Sayyid Qutb, the most influential radical theoretician of the Brotherhood, based on timelines and other evidence, also seems to have been influenced by Nazi and fascist ideologies and, going by what is being presented here, likely had contact with local Nazi elements as an influential figure in the Muslim Brotherhood.
What led me to dig a little deeper into the subject?
It was all because I came upon a badly made swastika pin (see below), probably made in the late 20s during the early days of the Nazi Party, which I found in an antique shop in Cairo in the Khan el Khalili bazaar in 2015.
–RdM
For interest, the video below, ‘Nuremberg Day 90-91 (1946) Alfred Hess Affidavit by Dr. Seidl’.
Thank You for sharing that Royce. Some of it I was already aware of, but much of my knowledge on this subject was missing. The Islamist will work with anyone, or anything, that enables and promotes their ” Cause “. Right up until these ” Useful Idiots ” are no longer required.
Cheers!
I wonder if the leftist and antifa (anti-fascist) types that are working hand-in-hand with Islamist and their interests are aware of this history of the MB and Nazi collaboration?