For the Dutch fascist group see Black Front (Netherlands)

Black Front (Netherlands)

The Black Front was a Dutch fascist movement active before the Second World War.The Front grew out of the southern section of the General Dutch Fascist League, with regional organiser Arnold Meijer quarrelling with leader Jan Baars in 1934 and leading his followers out...

.

The Black Front (formally known as the Kampfgemeinschaft Revolutionärer Nationalsozialisten, "Combat League Of Revolutionary National Socialists" or KGRNS) was a group formed by Otto Strasser

Otto Strasser

Otto Johann Maximilian Strasser was a German politician and 'left-wing' member of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Strasser was part of the ‘left-wing’ faction of the party, along with his brother Gregor Strasser, and broke from the party due to disputes with the ‘Hitlerite’ faction...

 after his expulsion from the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1930. Strasser believed the original anti-capitalist nature of the NSDAP had been betrayed by Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

. The Black Front was composed of former radical members of the NSDAP, who intended to cause a split in the main party. Strasser's organisation published a newspaper, 'The German Revolution' and adopted the crossed hammer and sword symbol which is still used by several Strasserite groupings today.

The organisation was unable to oppose the NSDAP effectively, and Hitler’s rise to power proved to be the final straw. Strasser spent the years of the Third Reich in exile, first in Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

 and later 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...

. The left-wing of the party itself was eradicated in 1934 during 'The Night of the Long Knives

Night of the Long Knives

The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...

', in which Gregor Strasser

Gregor Strasser

Gregor Strasser was a politician of the National Socialist German Workers Party...

, Otto’s elder brother, was killed.