Go Betweens For Hitler

Go Betweens For Hitler
By Karina Urbach
Oxford University Press – £20.00

The Duke believed until recently that Germany would win the war. He thinks that Hitler did a wonderful job in Germany. Only trouble is that he ‘overshot the mark.’ Hitler should have managed his ‘Drang nach Osten,’ by measures short of war. The method used in eliminating the Jews was harsh, but he thinks it was necessary to remove the Jewish influence from the German theatre, art, newspapers etc. When asked what he thought had been the percentage of Jews in Germany he replied: ‘about ten per cent.’

This (in a way) timely publication, is both a clarified and justified nod to the distractionary classes who only see things their way – regardless of whether the consequentialist outcome can, or will eventually entail huge disappointment and suffering for society at large. Upon reading this altogether well conceived book, I couldn’t help but think of former Etonian/London mayor, Boris Johnson, spouting forth about how Britain really should leave the European Union.

So far as his own twisted view, and somewhat ignorant agenda is concerned, it may be right for him. Surely as a whole, it’s absolutely not right for the country.

Likewise, Hitler and his odious cronies during the thirties – whose own despicable agenda entailed the murder of millions and the nigh annihilation of Germany itself. Now I’m not for a second, comparing the buffoon that is Johnson with the ghastly intent of Hitler; but what I am saying is that people in power, Donald Trump being another wretched example, ought to look beyond their own myopic calculation, and assess social topography and demographics for what they TRULY are.

Go Betweens For Hitler is a an overt, coherent example of what can happen when one person in (blind) power, can catapult himself way beyond the stratosphere of all reason, by way of a handful of well-connected, intelligent, yet highly selfish people. Its 321 pages (excluding Abbreviations, Notes, Archives and Bibliography, Picture Acknowledgements and Index) are a more than revelatory account of a fundamentally untold story.

The untold story of how some of Germany’s top aristocrats contributed to Hitler’s secret diplomacy during the The Third Reich, providing a direct line to their highly influential contacts and relations across Europe – in Britain especially, where their secret channels included that most unpleasant of press barons: The Daily Mail owner Lord Rothermere.

Not to mention the future King Edward VII.

Might this partially have been due to that of ”an aristocratic lifestyle could vary from country to country, but everywhere in Europe the maxim was: aristocrats have access to other aristocrats?”

Naturally this was most certainly the case, and Hitler knew and nurtured this all too well; which again, reinforces how myopic some peoples’ agendas truly are. Or in some cases, how horribly naive some people are in general; especially those in relatively high places who really ought to have known better.

This is without any shadow of a doubt, brought to the very fore quite early on in the book, where on pages 29/30, authoress Karina Urbach writes: ”Although the Kaiser recognized the signs of the times, Queen Victoria was obviously out of touch with German affairs. To her, Coburg was still the charming little town her husband came from, a sort of fairytale place. She was not alone in seeing its harmless side. For the average British newspaper reader, Coburg was a Pumpernickel dukedom with a few toy solders – politically negligible. These perceptions overlooked an important fact. The dukedom of Coburg was the most nationalist in Germany. If one wants to understand the growth of German nationalism, Coburg offers the idea case study: it developed from a dukedom that supported national unity in the first half of the nineteenth century, into a highly chauvinistic place that would after the First World War become a refuge for radical right wing movements and eventually the first town in Germany to be governed by the Nazis.”

Using previously unexplored sources from across Europe and the USA, Urbach herein unravels the charade of top-level go-betweens such as the Duke of Coburg (grandson of Queen Victoria) and the coquettish Stephanie von Hohenhow, who rose from a life of near destitution in Vienna to become a princess and an intimate of Hitler.

It’s a book, that amid its unraveling, seeks to roundly clarify yet never justify, what truly went on within Europe’s corridors of ill-fated, purposefully misguided power.

One of my favourite writers on the Second World War, Richard Overy (editor of The Oxford Illustrated History of World War II), has himself stated that this is: ”a fascinating and painstaking reconstruction of the real history of the go-between, so long shrouded in rumour and speculation. This really is a privileged journey behind the scenes of international diplomacy in the company of a cast of larger than life characters brought vividly to life.”

To be sure, Go Betweens For Hitler may essentially be based within the parameters of a scholarly undertaking, but it almost reads like that of a John Le Carre or Robert Littell novel. In and of itself, this speaks volumes.

David Marx