John Wheeler-Bennett - Wheeler-Bennett and Pre-war Nazi Germany

Wheeler-Bennett and Pre-war Nazi Germany

He lived in Germany between 1927–1934 and witnessed first-hand the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazi Germany. During his time living in Berlin, he enjoyed some success as a horse-breeder. During this period, he became an unofficial agent and advisor to London on international events.

In 1933, Wheeler-Bennett told the Royal Institute of International Affairs that:

"Hitler, I am convinced, does not want a war. He is susceptible to reason in matters of foreign policy. He is greatly anxious to make Germany self-respecting and is himself anxious to be respectable. He may be described as the most moderate member of his party." (International Affairs, May 1933, pp 318-9)

Wheeler-Bennet's biography of Paul von Hindenburg created his reputation as a historian. Another great success was The Forgotten Peace, a study of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This is still regarded as the standard historical study of the subject.

After the Second World War, Wheeler-Bennett was a critic of Appeasement and 10 years after the Munich Agreement wrote a book condemning it.

In the pre-1939 period, Wheeler-Bennett befriended or was at least on speaking terms with a number of well-known people all over Europe. Some of the people he had some contact with included Heinrich Brüning, Basil Liddell Hart, Franz von Papen, John Buchan, Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, Leon Trotsky, Hans von Seeckt, Max Hoffmann, Lewis Bernstein Namier, Benito Mussolini, Robert Bruce Lockhart, Karl Radek, Sir Robert Gilbert Vansittart, Kurt von Schleicher, Sir Isaiah Berlin, Tomáš Masaryk, Engelbert Dollfuss, the former Kaiser Wilhelm II, Adam von Trott zu Solz, Louis Barthou, Lord Lothian, Winston Churchill, and Dr. Edvard Beneš.