Bernhardt "Ben" Klassen (February 20, 1918 – August 6, 1993) was an American engineer, inventor, politician and religious leader who is best known for founding Creativity.
Biography[]
Early life and education[]
Bernhardt Klassen was born on February 20, 1918, in Rudnerweide (now Rozivka in Chernihivka Raion in Zaporizhzhia Oblast), Ukraine, to Bernhard and Susanna Klassen, a Ukrainian Mennonite Christian couple. He experienced Russian famine of 1921–1922. In 1924, his family fled Soviet Republic and they lived one year in Mexico after which they moved to Herschel, Saskatchewan, Canada. From 1935 to 1937 he attended University of Saskatchewan. There, he developed intense interest in history and after learning about the multitude of religions concluded that they were all contrived. He left the college in 1937 because he wanted to take a position as a schoolteacher at the Saskatoon Normal School in Saskatchewan, though he soon found that he was not cut out for this career, as he was frequently at odds with his pupils. He read German version of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf and he started to increasingly identify with the new German Reich. He planned to study engineering at the University of Heidelberg but the start of World War II in September 1939 lead to his plans unfulfillable as Canada eventually joined war and fought against Germany. Thus, he returned to the University of Saskatchewan where he studied engineering and later he transferred to the University of Manitoba from which he eventually received a degree in engineering. While in college, Klassen enlisted in the Canadian Officers Training Corps, but still maintained dreams of moving to Germany to "help build the New Order" and even entertained the notion of joining the air force so that he could somehow drop into Germany and join the Axis’ cause. With the defeat of the Third Reich in the spring of 1945, Klassen lost interest in politics and devoted his energies to establishing a career in engineering in the United States.
Career in engineering and the invention of a wall-mounted electric can opener[]
Klassen went on to establish a real estate in Los Angeles. During his business years, he entered in partnership with Merlene Peek and the two founded Silver Springs Land Company which founded Silver Springs in Nevada. He retired in 1952 after selling his share of the company for $150.000.
On March 26, 1956, he filed an application with the U.S. Patent Office to patent a wall-mounted electric can opener which he marketed as Canolectric. He once again entered in life of business and partnered with the marketing firm Robbins & Myers to create Klassen Enterprises, Inc. By the late 1950s, he and his family relocated to Florida. In the face of competition from larger manufacturers that could provide similar products more cheaply, Klassen and his partners dissolved the company in 1962. No longer having responsibilities of a businessman, put his energies in political work.
Career in politics[]
Klassen started his political career as a member of John Birch Society. Running as a Republican on an anti-busing and anti-government platform, he was elected and served as a State Representative of Broward County in Florida from November 1966 to March 1967. In 1967, he campaigned for election to the Florida Senate but was defeated. That same year, he was vice chairman of an organization in Florida which supported George Wallace's presidential bid.
In 1968, Klassen served as the Florida state chairman of the American Independent Party and he supported George Wallace during presidential election. His anti-Semitism unsettled the party leadership and they eventually requested his resignation and Klassen obliged. Klassen also became disillusioned with John Birch Society believing it to be too tolerant of Jews and in August 1969 he formally resigned from it by sending a letter to the chairman. He and his colleague, Austin Davis, believed it to be necessary to move away from conservative politics toward more radical approach.
Klassen considered joining Matt Koehl’s National Sociality White People’s Party but came to believe its members were unqualified and that openly Hitlerian approach was counter-productive because it led people to support Jewish fundraisers. In 1970, Klassen (a closeted atheist) and Davis founded Nationalist White Party which combined Christianity with white supremacism. Klassen was accusing Jews of attacking Christianity, however, after thoroughly reading the Bible to "see what all the fuss was about" he came to conclusion that Jesus' messages are full of suicidal ideas. By 1971, he started expressing his apprehension towards Christianity which inevitably led to Nationalist White Party's collapse. Klassen believed Jews invented Christianity to soften the white race and that Christianity laid groundworks for communism. To counter it, he believed it was necessary to create an alternative religion for a white man. This led to him founding Creativity.
Creativity[]
While residing in Florida, Klassen founded his new religion, Creativity, by publishing Nature's Eternal Religion in 1973. In the book, he outlined his anti-semitism and provided harsh criticism of Christianity. Klassen claimed that Jews and whites have been involved in a struggle extending back several millennia, that Biblical stories are almost certainly impossible, that Christianity is a self-imposed handicap because it encourages whites to recognize Jews as ‘‘God’s chosen people’’ and that Christian's message to love your enemies amounts to suicidal advice.
Thought Klassen did not hide his admiration for Adolf Hitler, he claimed Creativity is not a rehash of Nazism because it is concerned with the entire white race instead of German nation, it rejects divisive tendencies of nationalism in favor of racial identity and that Creativity is a religious movement instead of just political movement.
Death[]
Possibly depressed after the death of his wife, the failure of his church and a diagnosis of cancer and considering suicide a suitable way to end his life, Klassen took an overdose of sleeping pills either late on August 6 or early on August 7, 1993. Klassen was buried on his North Carolina property in an area which he had previously designated "Ben Klassen Memorial Park".