Ben Klassen
Encyclopedia
Bernhardt "Ben" Klassen (Ukrainian
: Бернар класу; February 20, 1918 – ) was an American
religious leader who founded the Church of the Creator
with the publication of his book Nature's Eternal Religion in 1973. Klassen was also a Florida state legislator, supporter of George Wallace
's presidential campaign, and inventor of a wall-mounted electric can opener.
to Bernhard and Susanna Klassen.. He had two sisters and two brothers: Sarah, Katie, Korni, and Henry; four, six, ten, and twelve years his senior, respectively. When Klassen was nine months old, he caught typhoid fever
and nearly died. His earliest memories were of the famine of 1921-22
. He remembered his father rationing to him one slice of dark bread for dinner. Klassen was first introduced to religion at the age of "three or four." Klassen recalls his mother praising him for the "verve and loudness" with which he sang religious hymns.
When he was five, the family moved to Mexico
, where they lived for one year. The first stop on their trip was in Moscow
, where Klassen was introduced to electric lights and ice cream. The next stop was Riga, Latvia, then on to Berlin
, Germany
where they stayed for some time. They stopped in at Cologne where his father and brothers went to see the sights, including the famous Cologne Cathedral
. Next, the Klassen family went to Paris
, where they again went sight-seeing, visiting the Eiffel Tower
and other famous landmarks. From Paris they took a train to their embarkation point across the Atlantic, at La Rochelle
, France. Klassen recalls his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean as his first encounter with Black people
, oranges
, banana
s, and pineapple
s. The Klassen family arrived, after more than a week, at Havana
harbor, where they stayed at a boarding house
for at least two weeks. After that, the family boarded another train and embarked for Vera Cruz, Mexico. From there, they went north to Chihuahua where the family met with other Mennonites to decide where to go next. In 1925, at age six, he moved with his family to Herschel, Saskatchewan
(in Canada
). He attended the German
-English
Academy (now Rosthern Junior College
).
firm in Los Angeles in partnership with Ben Burke. Klassen, believing that Burke was prone to drinking and gambling, bought him out and became sole proprietor. He hired several salesmen, including Merle Peek, who convinced him to buy large land development projects in Nevada. Klassen and Peek started a partnership called the Silber Spring Land Company. In 1952 Klassen sold his share of the company to Phillip Hess for $150,000 and retired.
On March 26, 1956 Klassen filed an application with the U.S. Patent Office to patent a wall-mounted, electric can-opener which he marketed as Canolectric. In partnership with the marketing firm Robbins & Myers, Klassen created Klassen Enterprises, Inc., and Robbins & Myers. In the face of competition from larger manufacturers which could provide similar products cheaper, Klassen and his partners dissolved the company in 1962.
in the Florida House of Representatives from November 1966- March 1967. He campaigned for election to the Florida Senate in 1967, but was defeated.. That same year, he was Vice Chaiman of an organization in Florida which supported George Wallace for president..
Klassen was a member of the John Birch Society
, at one point operating an American Opinion bookstore. However, he became disillusioned with the Society because of its tolerant position toward Jews. Klassen eventually left the organization after writing a letter to it's chairman stating that the Society did not have the audacity to address the "Jewish issue" and requesting a refund of his $1,000 lifetime membership fee.
In November 1970, Klassen, along with Austin Davis, created the Nationalist White Party. The party platform was directed at White Christians and was explicitly religious and racial in nature; the first sentence of the party's fourteen point program is "We believe that the White Race was created in the Image of the Lord..." The logo of the Nationalist White Party was a "W" with a crown and halo over it. That same logo would be used three years later as the logo of the Church of the Creator.
Less than a year after he created the Nationalist White Party, Klassen began expressing apprehension about Christianity to his connections through letters. These letters were not well received and effectively ended the influence of the Nationalist White Party.
In 1982, Klassen established the headquarters of his church at Otto, North Carolina. There he established a school for boys. The original curriculum was a two-week summer program that included activities such as "hiking, camping, training in handling of firearms, archery, tennis, white water rafting and other healthy outdoor activities" as well as instruction on "the goals and doctrines of Creativity and how they could best serve their own race in various capacities of leadership."
Klassen was Pontifex Maximus of the church until January 25, 1993 when he transferred the title to Dr. Rick McCarty.
late August 6 or early August 7, 1993 by consuming four bottles of sleeping pills.
Church members were notified on August 12, 1993 in a letter from McCarty stating:
Klassen was buried on his North Carolina property in an area designated "Ben Klassen Memorial Park".
Ukrainian
Ukrainian may refer to:* Something of, from, or related to Ukraine* The Ukrainians, people from Ukraine or of Ukrainian descent.* Something relating to Ukrainian culture....
: Бернар класу; February 20, 1918 – ) was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
religious leader who founded the Church of the Creator
Creativity (religion)
Creativity is a nontheistic, ethnocentric religion founded in 1973 by Ben Klassen with the publication of the book Nature's Eternal Religion and was later expounded upon in the books The White Man's Bible, and Salubrious Living...
with the publication of his book Nature's Eternal Religion in 1973. Klassen was also a Florida state legislator, supporter of George Wallace
George Wallace
George Corley Wallace, Jr. was the 45th Governor of Alabama, serving four terms: 1963–1967, 1971–1979 and 1983–1987. "The most influential loser" in 20th-century U.S. politics, according to biographers Dan T. Carter and Stephan Lesher, he ran for U.S...
's presidential campaign, and inventor of a wall-mounted electric can opener.
Early life
Klassen was born on February 20, 1918 in Rudnerwiede, UkraineUkraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
to Bernhard and Susanna Klassen.. He had two sisters and two brothers: Sarah, Katie, Korni, and Henry; four, six, ten, and twelve years his senior, respectively. When Klassen was nine months old, he caught typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
and nearly died. His earliest memories were of the famine of 1921-22
Russian famine of 1921
The Russian famine of 1921, also known as Povolzhye famine, which began in the early spring of that year, and lasted through 1922, was a severe famine that occurred in Bolshevik Russia...
. He remembered his father rationing to him one slice of dark bread for dinner. Klassen was first introduced to religion at the age of "three or four." Klassen recalls his mother praising him for the "verve and loudness" with which he sang religious hymns.
When he was five, the family moved to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, where they lived for one year. The first stop on their trip was in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where Klassen was introduced to electric lights and ice cream. The next stop was Riga, Latvia, then on to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
where they stayed for some time. They stopped in at Cologne where his father and brothers went to see the sights, including the famous Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site...
. Next, the Klassen family went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where they again went sight-seeing, visiting the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
and other famous landmarks. From Paris they took a train to their embarkation point across the Atlantic, at La Rochelle
La Rochelle
La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...
, France. Klassen recalls his voyage across the Atlantic Ocean as his first encounter with Black people
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
, oranges
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
, banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
s, and pineapple
Pineapple
Pineapple is the common name for a tropical plant and its edible fruit, which is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. It was given the name pineapple due to its resemblance to a pine cone. The pineapple is by far the most economically important plant in the Bromeliaceae...
s. The Klassen family arrived, after more than a week, at Havana
Havana
Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...
harbor, where they stayed at a boarding house
Boarding house
A boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
for at least two weeks. After that, the family boarded another train and embarked for Vera Cruz, Mexico. From there, they went north to Chihuahua where the family met with other Mennonites to decide where to go next. In 1925, at age six, he moved with his family to Herschel, Saskatchewan
Herschel, Saskatchewan
-External links:*******-Footnotes:...
(in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
). He attended the German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
-English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
Academy (now Rosthern Junior College
Rosthern Junior College
Rosthern Junior College, an independent high school, has been a landmark institution in the town of Rosthern, Saskatchewan, Canada since 1905. Opening in that year as the German-English Academy, it was founded by Mennonite settlers in response to a need for trained teachers to work in the schools...
).
Entrepreneurship
Klassen established a real estateReal estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
firm in Los Angeles in partnership with Ben Burke. Klassen, believing that Burke was prone to drinking and gambling, bought him out and became sole proprietor. He hired several salesmen, including Merle Peek, who convinced him to buy large land development projects in Nevada. Klassen and Peek started a partnership called the Silber Spring Land Company. In 1952 Klassen sold his share of the company to Phillip Hess for $150,000 and retired.
On March 26, 1956 Klassen filed an application with the U.S. Patent Office to patent a wall-mounted, electric can-opener which he marketed as Canolectric. In partnership with the marketing firm Robbins & Myers, Klassen created Klassen Enterprises, Inc., and Robbins & Myers. In the face of competition from larger manufacturers which could provide similar products cheaper, Klassen and his partners dissolved the company in 1962.
Political Career
Klassen served Broward CountyBroward County, Florida
-2000 Census:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,623,018 people, 654,445 households, and 411,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,346 people per square mile . There were 741,043 housing units at an average density of 615 per square mile...
in the Florida House of Representatives from November 1966- March 1967. He campaigned for election to the Florida Senate in 1967, but was defeated.. That same year, he was Vice Chaiman of an organization in Florida which supported George Wallace for president..
Klassen was a member of the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
, at one point operating an American Opinion bookstore. However, he became disillusioned with the Society because of its tolerant position toward Jews. Klassen eventually left the organization after writing a letter to it's chairman stating that the Society did not have the audacity to address the "Jewish issue" and requesting a refund of his $1,000 lifetime membership fee.
In November 1970, Klassen, along with Austin Davis, created the Nationalist White Party. The party platform was directed at White Christians and was explicitly religious and racial in nature; the first sentence of the party's fourteen point program is "We believe that the White Race was created in the Image of the Lord..." The logo of the Nationalist White Party was a "W" with a crown and halo over it. That same logo would be used three years later as the logo of the Church of the Creator.
Less than a year after he created the Nationalist White Party, Klassen began expressing apprehension about Christianity to his connections through letters. These letters were not well received and effectively ended the influence of the Nationalist White Party.
Church of the Creator
In 1973 Klassen founded the Church of the Creator with the publication of Nature's Eternal Religion. Individual church members are called Creators and the religion they practice is Creativity.In 1982, Klassen established the headquarters of his church at Otto, North Carolina. There he established a school for boys. The original curriculum was a two-week summer program that included activities such as "hiking, camping, training in handling of firearms, archery, tennis, white water rafting and other healthy outdoor activities" as well as instruction on "the goals and doctrines of Creativity and how they could best serve their own race in various capacities of leadership."
Klassen was Pontifex Maximus of the church until January 25, 1993 when he transferred the title to Dr. Rick McCarty.
Death
Mourning the death of his wife and the decline of the church, Klassen committed suicideSuicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
late August 6 or early August 7, 1993 by consuming four bottles of sleeping pills.
Church members were notified on August 12, 1993 in a letter from McCarty stating:
In the early morning of Sunday, August the 8th [sic] our beloved founder and friend Mr. Ben Klassen passed away. I learned this from Klassen's daughter Monday morning. She told me that his last thoughts were about you. How important and significant each one of you are in the survival of our race and religion. The faith he has in each of you to continue with the courage you have always shown. To make a stand and not to back down. To take up the banner of the COTC and to carry it to victory.
Klassen was buried on his North Carolina property in an area designated "Ben Klassen Memorial Park".
Books
- 1973: http://www.archive.org/details/NaturesEternalReligion Nature's Eternal Religion (ISBN 0963609424)- The first of the Holy Books of Creativity.
- 1981: http://www.archive.org/details/WhiteMansBible The White Man's Bible (ISBN 0317532790)- The second of the Holy Books of Creativity.
- 1983: http://www.archive.org/details/SalubriousLiving Salubrious Living (co-author)- The third of the Holy Books of Creativity.
- 1991: http://www.archive.org/details/ARevolutionOfValuesThroughReligion A Revolution of Values Through Religion (ISBN 0963609483)- A comparison of various religious doctrines to Creativity.
- 1991: http://www.archive.org/details/AgainstTheEvilTide Against the Evil Tide: An Autobiography - Klassen's autobiography.
- 1991: http://www.archive.org/details/TheLittleWhiteBook The Little White Book (co-author)- A collection of programmatic statements, creeds, and quotes "for Daily reading and affirmation"
- 1993: http://www.archive.org/details/TrialsTribulationsAndTriumphs Trials, Tribulations, Triumphs - A History of the Church of the Creator during the 1980s
Articles
- 1985: Expanding Creativity (ISBN 0963609432)- A collection of articles from Racial Loyalty #1-12
- 1986: Building a Whiter and Brighter World - A collection of articles from Racial Loyalty #13-28
- 1987: RAHOWA! This Planet is All Ours - A collection of articles from Racial Loyalty #28-39
- 1993: On the Brink of a Bloody Racial War - A collection of articles from Racial Loyalty #40-81
Letters
- 1988: The Klassen Letters, Volume I - A collection of letters.
- 1989: The Klassen Letters, Volume II - A second collection of letters.