Franz Burri (26 October 1901 – 24 July 1987) was a Swiss political figure who, from his base in Germany, became the leading disseminator of Nazi propaganda in the country.

Born in Lucerne, to a half-German working-class family, Burri was a supporter of Nazi Germany from an early age and frequently visited the country during the 1930s.^[1] He came to full-time activism in 1941 by forming his own Bund der Schweizer in Grossdeutschland (League of the Swiss in Greater Germany), calling for a very close relationship between his country and Nazi Germany.^[1] Known for his crude language and his fondness for wearing the brown uniform of the Sturmabteilung, his hopes for a career in the SS were dashed when Reinhard Heydrich deemed him unsuitable.^[1] Also involved in the larger National Movement of Switzerland, Burri quit this organisation after the rejection of his SS application in 1941 to set up his own Nationalsozialistischer Schweizerbund (NSSB),^[1] although he moved to Germany full-time soon after this and ran a sister group, the Nationalsozialistische Bewegung in der Schweiz, from there. Both of the groups were funded directly by Germany.^[1]

Burri operated in Austria until 1934, when he was deported for pro-Nazi activities. He returned to Switzerland, where he remained until 1938. He came back to Austria after the Anschluss.^[2]

Following his move to Germany, Burri took up his role as the leading producer of Nazi propaganda for the Swiss market. From his base in Frankfurt, he produced the International Presseagentur, a newspaper funded by the Nazis. Within its pages Burri and his fellow writers, notably his closest ally and NSSB chief Ernst Leonhardt, called for a Union of the German Peoples in which Switzerland would be absorbed into the Third Reich in the same way that Austria had been.^[3] Having taken up German citizenship, he was symbolically stripped of his Swiss status in 1943.^[4]

Starting in 1942, Burri started a leaflet agitation campaign against Switzerland. Helpers smuggled the leaflets into the country and distributed them. In 1943, he was sentenced to six months in prison in absentia for "attacks on the independence of Switzerland". In 1944, leaflets by Burri described General Henri Guisan, who'd mobilized Swiss forces for a potential invasion by Germany, as a "traitor", a "mercenary of Jews and liar", and a "miserable idiot". He called for the establishment for a "Swiss Legion" within the Waffen-SS, as well as a Germany invasion of Switzerland. In response, a Swiss court sentenced Burri to 7 years in prison in absentia.^[2]

On 11 December 1945, Burri was arrested by the Americans in Allied-occupied Austria. In 1946, the Americans extradited him to Switzerland, where he was put on trial for treason. In 1949, he was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Burri was released from prison in 1959, after which he moved to Germany. He continued to support Nazism, writing for far-right publication. In one letter, he said he would be rehabilitated by history one day. Burri returned to Switzerland before his death in 1987.^[4][2]

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