Episode 1415
Duke and Duchess of Windsor's 1937 tour of Germany
Sat, 2021-Mar-20 00:20 UTC
Length - 3:39
Direct Link
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The featured article for Saturday, 20 March 2021 is Duke and Duchess of Windsor's 1937 tour of Germany.
Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, visited Nazi Germany in October 1937. The Duke had abdicated the British throne in December 1936, and his brother George VI became king. Edward had been given the title Duke of Windsor and married Wallis Simpson in June 1937. He appeared to have been sympathetic to Germany in this period and, that September, announced his intention to travel privately to Germany to tour factories. His interests, officially into researching the social and economic conditions of the working classes, were against the backdrop of looming war in Europe. The Duke's supporters saw him as a potential peacemaker between Britain and Germany, but the British government refused to sanction such a role and was against the tour, suspecting that the Nazis would use the Duke's presence for propaganda. Windsor was keen that his wife—who had been rejected by the British establishment—experience a state visit as his consort. He promised the government to keep a low profile, and the tour went ahead between 12 and 23 October.
The Duke and Duchess were officially invited to the country by the German Labour Front, and were chaperoned for much of their visit by its leader, Robert Ley. The couple visited factories, many of which were producing materiel for the war effort, and the Duke inspected German troops. The Windsors were greeted by the British national anthem and Nazi salutes and they dined with high-ranking Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Albert Speer, and had tea with Hitler in Berchtesgaden. The Duke had a long private conversation with Hitler, but it is uncertain what they discussed as the minutes of their meeting were lost in the war. The Duchess took afternoon tea with Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. Hitler was sympathetic to the Windsors and treated the Duchess regally.
The British government was unable to affect the course of events and forbade its diplomatic staff in Germany from having any high-level interaction with the Duke and Duchess. British popular opinion of the tour was muted, most viewing it as in poor taste to disrupt the first year of George's reign. The tour of Germany was intended to have been followed by one of the United States, but Nazi repression of working-class activists in Germany led to a wave of disapproval for the Windsors in the American labour movement. This led to the US visit being cancelled. Modern historians tend to consider the 1937 tour as a reflection of both the Duke's lack of judgement and of his disregard for the advice he received.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:20 UTC on Saturday, 20 March 2021.
For the full current version of the article, see Duke and Duchess of Windsor's 1937 tour of Germany on Wikipedia.
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