Karl Otto Paetel

[1] Paetel was involved in the German Youth Movement and became a prominent leader in the Deutsche Freischar that formed part of it.

[1] He belonged to its "national revolutionary" tendency, which sought to marry elements of both the radical left and the radical right in order to form a Third Position between the Nazi Party and the Communist Party of Germany.

To this end he established his own Arbeitsring Junge Front and subsequently the Group of Social-Revolutionary Nationalists to promulgate his syncretic views.

[3] Nonetheless, he felt that the Nazi Party still contained "useful" revolutionary elements and was particularly active in attempting to win over members of the Hitler Youth to his side.

[1] After escaping from internment by the French police in May 1940, he fled via southern France to Spain, and then to New York.