On February 20, 1939, over 20,000 American supporters of the Nazi party packed Madison Square Garden in New York City. They anxiously awaited the appearance of Fritz Julius Kuhn, the newly anointed American Führer of the German-American Bund. The event took place two days before George Washington’s birthday and a 30-foot-high portrait of the first president (who was described by Fritz as the first Fascist) hung behind the podium along with Nazi flags and swastikas.