Admirers of Adolf Hitler were not only to be found in the British Houses of Parliament; but on the very throne itself, in the person of King Edward VIII.
On 10 December 1936, after having succeeded to the throne only a few months earlier, the king abdicated, saying that he could not live without his great love, Mrs Wallis Simpson, but was not permitted to rule with her as his consort.1
In Hitler’s view, the departure of the King of England from his throne was a disaster for Anglo-German relations. As early as January 1936, shortly after succeeding to the throne, the king had sent word to Hitler via a German kinsman, Carl Eduard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to say that he believed an alliance between Great Britain and Germany was politically necessary and that it could even lead to a military pact including France. It was therefore his wish, King Edward said, to speak personally to the Reich Chancellor as soon as possible, either in Britain or Germany.
Hitler saw Edward’s abdication as a victory for those forces in Britain that were hostile to Germany. Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German ambassador in London, confirmed Hitler’s view that ‘the King had a pro-German and anti-Jewish attitude, and had been deposed as the result of an anti-German conspiracy in which Jews, freemasons and powerful political interests had made common cause’.2 Joseph Goebbels’ comment on the king’s abdication was less than friendly: ‘He has made a complete fool of himself. What’s more it was lacking in dignity and taste. It was not the way to do it. Especially if one is king.’3
When King Edward VIII saw that he was being forced to abandon the throne, rumours circulated not only in Germany, but also in Britain and the USA, about a ‘plot behind the scenes’ to remove the ‘pro-Nazi’ monarch. The fact that, in December 1936, the German press received instructions from the very highest level to be particularly reticent in its coverage of the Abdication Crisis, shows what far-reaching consequences these events were seen to have.
In London, Wallis Simpson found in her immediate vicinity someone to defend her love for the king. By pure coincidence, Mrs Simpson was living in Bryanston Court, near Marble Arch – the same building in which Stephanie had her apartment. And Stephanie was very favourably disposed towards the royal love affair. Edward, as Prince of Wales, had also known the princess for quite some time, having met her at various golf-clubs in England and the South of France.
Consequently, the press barons Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere, together with Princess Stephanie, stood up as champions of the king’s cause. Stephanie had floated the idea of a morganatic marriage. As the best example of this, Stephanie reminded them of the marriage between the Heir Apparent to the Austrian throne, Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, and the Countess Sophie Chotek who, though well-born, was by no means of royal blood. Had the couple not been so fatefully assassinated in Sarajevo in 1914, Franz Ferdinand would have duly become Emperor, but Sophie would only have been his consort, without the title of Empress; nor would children of that marriage have had any rights of succession.
Lord Rothermere’s son, Esmond Harmsworth, invited Wallis Simpson to dinner and drew her attention to this possible form of marriage, for which she was most grateful. Yet what was feasible in other European dynasties failed in Britain. Since there is no tradition of morganatic marriage in English law, a special Act of Parliament would be necessary. On 25 November, the prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, had a private meeting with the king, who asked him if such a measure might be possible. Baldwin said he would consult his cabinet and the prime ministers of the dominions on this question. On 2 December the two men met again, and Baldwin told the king that ‘neither in the dominions nor here would there be any prospect of such legislation being accepted’. Baldwin reported this to the House of Commons on 10 December 1936, and added that, as far as His Majesty was concerned, ‘the matter was closed. I never heard another word about it from him.’4
Nancy Astor, Edward’s golf-partner of many years, had pleaded tearfully with him to give up Mrs Simpson once and for all. The reason was not that she was American, but that she had already been divorced twice and without the dispensation of the Church. The Archbishop of Canterbury therefore asserted that the king had no choice but to abdicate if he wanted to wed Mrs Simpson.
Finally, on 10 December 1936 King Edward VIII ordered his Abdication Statement to be read out to both Houses of Parliament in London. In the gallery of the House of Lords the statement was heard by a woman who, as the daughter of a peer, was entitled to be there. She was the fascist, Unity Mitford,5 who had just returned from Germany. ‘Oh dear, Hitler will be dreadfully upset about this’, she wailed. ‘He wanted Edward to stay on the throne.’
Joachim von Ribbentrop was certainly one of many who tried to use Wallis Simpson as a way of gaining access to Edward. His admiration for Mrs Simpson was also demonstrated by the fact that during his frequent stays in London he would have a bouquet of seventeen roses delivered every morning to her flat in Bryanston Court. Those roses were a popular topic of conversation, not only in London, but in Berlin’s diplomatic circles. Even Adolf Hitler teasingly questioned his ambassador as to the secret of the seventeen roses. There was also talk of Ribbentrop sending baskets of orchids to Wallis Simpson. In Berlin’s Wilhelmstrasse, headquarters of the Foreign Ministry, animosity towards Ribbentrop inspired numerous jibes about the ‘pushy Nazi’ and the ‘travelling wine-salesman’.
There was even speculation about a sexual relationship between Wallis and Ribbentrop. The constant gossip about this ‘love affair’ annoyed Mrs Simpson so much that in May 1937 she gave an interview to an American journalist, Helena Normanton, in which she stated categorically that she had only met Ribbentrop on two occasions (although they frequently ran into each other at receptions). She vehemently denied being in any way whatsoever a tool of the Nazis in London.
But there was no denying the fact that Ribbentrop had got close to Wallis Simpson in the circles of Lady Cunard and Lady Astor, and had been able to influence her. Many people were well aware of this and the matter was even raised in the House of Commons. Speaking in the debate on the Abdication on 10 December, the communist MP and dedicated anti-monarchist, Willie Gallacher, observed: ‘The King and Mrs Simpson do not live in a vacuum. Sinister processes are continually at work … The Prime Minister told us he was approached about a morganatic marriage … but he did not tell us who approached him … It is obvious that forces were encouraging … what was going on. […] I want to draw your attention to the fact that Mrs Simpson has a social set, and every member of the cabinet knows that the social set of Mrs Simpson is closely identified with a certain foreign government and the ambassador of that foreign government.’ [Hon. Members: ‘No, no’]. ‘It is common knowledge …’ Gallacher retorted, and went on to say that the only answer was for the monarchy to be abolished altogether.
On his abdication Edward and Mrs Simpson were granted the title of Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but had to leave Britain immediately. Their wedding took place quietly in France, on 3 June 1937. Meanwhile, ‘Bertie’, the eldest of his three younger brothers, ascended the throne as King George VI, with his wife Elizabeth as queen.
One of the first big projects the Windsors undertook in 1937 was a trip to National Socialist Germany. Now would come the meeting that Edward had wished for: as Duke of Windsor he visited Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the German Reich, albeit not in Berlin, but at his private residence, the Berghof, near Berchtesgaden in Bavaria.
In the notes that Stephanie jotted down for her ghost-writer Rudolf Kommer, she points out that she played a major part in the planning and realisation of the ducal visit to Germany, though officially Fritz Wiedemann and Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, were responsible for it. Stephanie’s maid, Wally Oeler, later gave a detailed account to friends of hers in Berlin: ‘He [Wiedemann] was the one who officially invited the Duke of Windsor to Germany, as soon as they heard that he wanted to come over for a visit … Anyway, express airmail letters written in pencil were going back and forth, and there were telephone conversations nearly every day.’
During their twelve-day visit in the second half of October 1937, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were the official guests of Dr Robert Ley, the head of the German Labour Front. The travel and all the costs of their stay in Germany were paid for from German government funds. It was billed as a ‘study-trip’ to look at the country’s social institutions. But behind this there was another agenda. After the humiliating treatment his wife had received from the British, the duke wanted to show her a country that would extend her a truly ‘royal’ welcome. The men in power in Berlin expected that in the not too distant future the former king of England would return to the throne ‘under their patronage’.
The first call the Windsors paid was on Hermann Göring, at his extravagantly enlarged country house, Karinhall, on the Schorfheide heath, north-east of Berlin. The same evening, Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop gave a dinner for his guests at the very grand Horcher restaurant in Berlin. Paul-Otto Schmidt, chief interpreter at the Foreign Ministry, sat between the Duchess of Windsor and the actress Marianne Hopper. Goebbels found the duke a ‘nice, friendly young man, clearly equipped with sound common sense’; the propaganda minister became ‘really fond of him’. ‘His wife is unassuming, but distinguished and elegant; though without any “side”, a real lady … Magda is charmed by them too. Especially his wife.’
Then on 22 October, the Windsors visited Adolf Hitler in his mountain-top retreat, the Berghof. They only stayed a few hours, yet the visit provoked violently conflicting opinions in Britain, France and the USA. The tour of the German Reich by a former British monarch was taken to be a proclamation of solidarity with National Socialism.
Wiedemann picked the guests up at the railway station in Berchtesgaden, where a large number of press correspondents had gathered, among them Winston Churchill’s son Randolph. After a short stroll along the shore of the Königsee lake, the party drove up to the Berghof, where Hitler came down the steps in front of his house and greeted his guests warmly. Hitler’s mistress, Eva Braun, would have dearly loved to be introduced to the duke and duchess. But that was ruled out by Hitler, and she had to stay in her room.
To judge from the notes made by the interpreter, Paul Schmidt, the whole conversation that followed was very non-political. The duke, clearly well-disposed towards Germany, was very appreciative of the country’s progress in the social sphere, for example the workers’ welfare arrangements in the armaments company, Krupp of Essen. The duchess only contributed occasionally and with great reticence to the conversation, mainly when a topic of particular interest to her as a woman was raised.
After the Windsors’ visit to Germany the Nazi press sang the praises of the duke and duchess. The newspapers recounted the touching story of how, when leaving Germany at the frontier, she pressed the entire contents of her purse into the hand of an SA man. ‘It’s for the KdF’ [the ‘Strength through Joy’ organisation, which provided free holidays and recreation for industrial workers], were apparently her parting words.
The next time Stephanie von Hohenlohe met the Führer, she asked him what impression the duchess had made on him. ‘Well, I must say she was most ladylike’, Hitler replied. The princess was very pleased that, under the aegis of her friend Fritz Wiedemann, the Windsor visit had gone off to Hitler’s complete satisfaction.