Kunze's political career began around 1914 when he was employed by the German Conservative Party along with fellow rightist Wilhelm Kube.
[1] Serving the party as general secretary he earned 12,000 marks per month for a role that largely involved travelling Germany drumming up support.
[2] Near the end of the war he became involved with the Fatherland Party where he gained the nickname Knüppel-Kunze (Cudgel Kunze) because of strong attacks on the Jews.
[3] After the war Kunze was associated with the Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund and in 1920 he joined with Reinhold Wulle and Arnold Ruge to form the Deutschvölkischen Arbeitsring Berlin, a short-lived successor group.
[6] The new party rejected the monarchism of the DNVP, arguing that Jewish influence had been just as pronounced in the German empire as in the new Weimar Republic.