[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
delightful combination of business and pleasure, for as he says, "the famous names who
visited me were legion, Pierpont Morgan, Toscanini, Henry Ford, Caruso, Santos-Dumont,
Charlie Chaplin, Paderewski, and a daughter of President Wilson."2 It was also at Harvard
that Putzi made friends with the future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
I took most of my meals at the Harvard Club, where I made friends with the
young Franklin D. Roosevelt, at that time a rising New York State Senator.
Also I received several invitations to visit his distant cousin Teddy, the former
President, who had retired to his estate at Sagamore Hill.3
From these varied friendships (or perhaps after reading this book and its predecessors, Wall
Street and FDR and Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, the reader may consider
Putzi's friendship to have been confined to a peculiarly elitist circle), Putzi became not only
an early friend, backer and financier of Hitler, but among those early Hitler supporters he
was, "., . almost the only person who crossed the lines of his (Hitler's) groups of
acquaintances."4
In brief, Putzi was an American citizen at the heart of the Hitler entourage from the early
1920s to the late 1930s. In 1943, after falling out of favor with the Nazis and interned by the
Allies, Putzi was bailed out of the miseries of a Canadian prisoner of war camp by his friend
and protector President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When FDR's actions threatened to become
an internal political problem in the United States, Putzi was re-interned in England. As if it
is not surprising enough to find both Heinrich Himmler and Franklin D. Roosevelt
prominent in Putzi's life, we also discover that the Nazi Stormtrooper marching songs were
composed by Hanfstaengl, "including the one that was played by the brownshirt columns as
they marched through the Brandenburger Tor on the day Hitler took over power.5 To top
this eye-opener, Putzi averred that the genesis of the Nazi chant "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil," used
in the Nazi mass rallies, was none other than "Harvard, Harvard, Harvard, rah, rah, rah."
Putzi certainly helped finance the first Nazi daily press, the Volkische Beobachter. Whether
he saved Hitler's life from the Communists is less verifiable, and while kept out of the
actual writing process of Mein Kampf much to his disgust Putzi did have the honor to
finance its publication, "and the fact that Hitler found a functioning staff when he was
released from jail was entirely due to our efforts. ,"7
When Hitler came to power in March 1933, simultaneously with Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in Washington, a private "emissary" was sent from Roosevelt in Washington, D.C. to
Hanfstaengl in Berlin, with a message to the effect that as it appeared Hitler would soon
achieve power in Germany, Roosevelt hoped, in view of their long acquaintance, that Putzi
would do his best to prevent any rashness and hot-headedness. "Think of your piano playing
and try and use the soft pedal if things get too loud," was FDR's message. "If things start
getting awkward please get in touch with our ambassador at once.8
Hanfstaengl kept in close touch with the American Ambassador in Berlin, William E. Dodd
apparently much to his disgust, because Putzi's recorded comments on Dodd are
distinctly unflattering:
In many ways, he [Dodd] was an unsatisfactory representative. He was a
modest little Southern history professor, who ran his embassy on a shoestring
and was probably trying to save money out of his pay. At a time when it needed
a robust millionaire to compete with the flamboyance of the Nazis, he teetered
around self-effacingly as if he were still on his college campus. His mind and
his prejudices were small.9
In point of fact Ambassador Dodd pointedly tried to decline Roosevelt's Ambassadorial
appointment. Dodd had no inheritance and preferred to live on his State Department pay
rather than political spoils; unlike the politician Dodd was particular from whom he
received money. In any event, Dodd commented equally harshly on Putzi, "... he gave
money to Hitler in 1923, helped him write Mein Kampf, and was in every way familiar with
Hitler's motives ...."
Was Hanfstaengl an agent for the Liberal Establishment in the U.S.? We can probably rule [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
delightful combination of business and pleasure, for as he says, "the famous names who
visited me were legion, Pierpont Morgan, Toscanini, Henry Ford, Caruso, Santos-Dumont,
Charlie Chaplin, Paderewski, and a daughter of President Wilson."2 It was also at Harvard
that Putzi made friends with the future President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
I took most of my meals at the Harvard Club, where I made friends with the
young Franklin D. Roosevelt, at that time a rising New York State Senator.
Also I received several invitations to visit his distant cousin Teddy, the former
President, who had retired to his estate at Sagamore Hill.3
From these varied friendships (or perhaps after reading this book and its predecessors, Wall
Street and FDR and Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, the reader may consider
Putzi's friendship to have been confined to a peculiarly elitist circle), Putzi became not only
an early friend, backer and financier of Hitler, but among those early Hitler supporters he
was, "., . almost the only person who crossed the lines of his (Hitler's) groups of
acquaintances."4
In brief, Putzi was an American citizen at the heart of the Hitler entourage from the early
1920s to the late 1930s. In 1943, after falling out of favor with the Nazis and interned by the
Allies, Putzi was bailed out of the miseries of a Canadian prisoner of war camp by his friend
and protector President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When FDR's actions threatened to become
an internal political problem in the United States, Putzi was re-interned in England. As if it
is not surprising enough to find both Heinrich Himmler and Franklin D. Roosevelt
prominent in Putzi's life, we also discover that the Nazi Stormtrooper marching songs were
composed by Hanfstaengl, "including the one that was played by the brownshirt columns as
they marched through the Brandenburger Tor on the day Hitler took over power.5 To top
this eye-opener, Putzi averred that the genesis of the Nazi chant "Sieg Heil, Sieg Heil," used
in the Nazi mass rallies, was none other than "Harvard, Harvard, Harvard, rah, rah, rah."
Putzi certainly helped finance the first Nazi daily press, the Volkische Beobachter. Whether
he saved Hitler's life from the Communists is less verifiable, and while kept out of the
actual writing process of Mein Kampf much to his disgust Putzi did have the honor to
finance its publication, "and the fact that Hitler found a functioning staff when he was
released from jail was entirely due to our efforts. ,"7
When Hitler came to power in March 1933, simultaneously with Franklin Delano Roosevelt
in Washington, a private "emissary" was sent from Roosevelt in Washington, D.C. to
Hanfstaengl in Berlin, with a message to the effect that as it appeared Hitler would soon
achieve power in Germany, Roosevelt hoped, in view of their long acquaintance, that Putzi
would do his best to prevent any rashness and hot-headedness. "Think of your piano playing
and try and use the soft pedal if things get too loud," was FDR's message. "If things start
getting awkward please get in touch with our ambassador at once.8
Hanfstaengl kept in close touch with the American Ambassador in Berlin, William E. Dodd
apparently much to his disgust, because Putzi's recorded comments on Dodd are
distinctly unflattering:
In many ways, he [Dodd] was an unsatisfactory representative. He was a
modest little Southern history professor, who ran his embassy on a shoestring
and was probably trying to save money out of his pay. At a time when it needed
a robust millionaire to compete with the flamboyance of the Nazis, he teetered
around self-effacingly as if he were still on his college campus. His mind and
his prejudices were small.9
In point of fact Ambassador Dodd pointedly tried to decline Roosevelt's Ambassadorial
appointment. Dodd had no inheritance and preferred to live on his State Department pay
rather than political spoils; unlike the politician Dodd was particular from whom he
received money. In any event, Dodd commented equally harshly on Putzi, "... he gave
money to Hitler in 1923, helped him write Mein Kampf, and was in every way familiar with
Hitler's motives ...."
Was Hanfstaengl an agent for the Liberal Establishment in the U.S.? We can probably rule [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]