Berlin Diary (13 page)

B
ERLIN
,
September
4

Got out of covering the party congress at Nuremberg beginning next week. After the Olympic crowds, don’t think I could have survived it.

B
ERLIN
,
September
(
undated
)

Lunched with Tom Wolfe. Martha Dodd suggested we meet, as I’d often expressed enthusiasm about his work. We found a quiet corner table at Habel’s. An immense fellow physically, boiling with
energy, he developed a Gargantuan appetite, ordering a second main dish of meat and vegetables, and more bottles of
Pfälzer
wine than were good for us—or at least for me. I liked him immediately and we had much good talk—about American writing and why most American writers—Lewis and Dreiser and Anderson, for example—either stopped writing or fell off from their best work just at the prime of their lives—a time when the Europeans usually produce their greatest novels and plays. A subject I’d often pondered about and discussed once with Lewis in Vienna. Wolfe is somewhat conscious of not being politically minded at a time when most writers are and indeed, we agreed, should be. He admitted the deficiency, but said he was learning. “I’m supporting Roosevelt for re-election,” he said. Curious thing: Wolfe translates excellently into German and
Look Homeward, Angel
has had a big success here, I believe. We parted, promising to meet in New York. A very genuine person and more promising, if he can integrate himself, than any other young novelist we have.

B
ERLIN
, September 9

Hitler at Nuremberg announces a Four-Year Plan to make Germany
self-sufficient in raw materials. Göring to be in charge. Obviously a war plan, but of course the Germans deny it. Party rally mostly concerned this year with attacking Bolshevism and the Soviets. There is talk of a break in diplomatic relations.

L
ONDON
,
October

A pleasant week, seeing old friends, blowing myself to two new suits in Savile Row, and, best of all,
five days at Salcombe in Devonshire with Squire Gallico, who has bought a place there. We had some fantastic fishing (Tess’s first experience, and she outfished both Paul and me), superb walks along the wind-blown cliffs, and much good talk. Paul’s gamble has been well worth while. He’s written and sold three short stories and got a handsome movie royalty from one of them. Funny: he’s scared stiff of his butler, who looks as though he had just stepped off the stage and completely runs the place.

Returning to Berlin tomorrow. Pleasant visits with the Newell Rogerses, the Strausses, Jennie Lee, who is very Scotch, very pretty, very witty, and really should be back in Parliament, from which she was ousted in the last elections, her husband, Aneurin Bevan, M.P. from a Wales mining district, himself a former miner, keen-minded, slightly impish, a grand guy. This afternoon we had tea with Bill Stoneman, who has just replaced John Gunther as Chicago
Daily News
correspondent here, and Maj Lis (his wife). Bill was terribly wrought up about something, nervous as an old hen—so much so that in a moment of exasperation I said: “Why don’t you come out with it, Bill, whatever it is? Maybe you’ll feel better.” Whereupon he produced from his pocket a cablegram and tossed it to me. It was a ten-line dispatch to his paper this afternoon. I scanned it. It said: “Mrs. E. A. Simpson
has filed suit for divorce against Mr. E. A. Simpson at the Ipswich Assizes. Case to be heard…” A detail or two about when the case would be heard. That was all.

It’s a tremendous scoop and should blow the story sky-high. Obviously the King intends to marry the woman now and make her Queen.

B
ERLIN
,
November
18

The Wilhelmstrasse announced today that Germany (with Italy) has recognized Franco. General Faupel, who has done good work for Germany in South America and Spain
, is to be Hitler’s Ambassador to Salamanca. Apparently today’s decision was timed to offset Franco’s failure to take Madrid just as he seemed to have it in his grasp. At first, I’m told, recognition was to coincide with Franco’s entry into Madrid, which the Germans expected ten days ago. Dodd tells me our consulate in Hamburg reported this week the departure from there of three German ships loaded with arms for Spain. In the meantime the comedy of “non-intervention” goes on in London. For two years now the policies of London and Paris have ceased making sense to me, judged by their own vital interests. They did nothing on March 16, 1935 and on March 7 this year, and they’re doing nothing about Spain now. Is my judgment becoming warped after two years in this hysterical Nazi land? Is it absurd or isn’t it absurd to conclude that Blum and Baldwin don’t know their own interests?

B
ERLIN
,
November
25

We were summoned to the Propaganda Ministry today for an “important” announcement. Wondered what Hitler was up to, but it turned out to be merely the signing of an anti-Comintern pact between Germany and Japan. Ribbentrop, who signed for Germany, strutted in and harangued us for a quarter of an hour about the pact’s meaning, if any. He said it meant, among other things, that Germany and Japan had joined together to defend “Western civilization.” This was such a novel idea, for Japan at least, that at
the end of his talk one of the British correspondents asked him if he had understood him correctly. Ribbentrop, who has no sense of humour, then repeated the silly statement, without batting an eye. It seems obvious that Japan and Germany have drawn up at the same time a secret military treaty calling for joint action against Russia should one of them get involved in war with the Soviets.

B
ERLIN
,
December
25

A pleasant Christmas dinner, and American at that, even to mince pie, with Ralph and Esther Barnes
and their children. Ralph and I had to get up in the middle of it, though, to check on queries from New York about a sensational A.P. report that the Germans had landed a large body of troops in Morocco to help Franco. There was no one in the Wilhelmstrasse, as all officials are out of town over the holidays, so we were unable to get a confirmation or denial. Sounds like a fake, though.

B
ERLIN
,
April
8, 1937

April here and no Hitler surprise this spring yet. This may be a year of Nazi consolidation, building up the armed forces, assuring Franco victory in Spain, cementing relations with Italy (support for the Duce in Spain and the Mediterranean in return for his giving Germany a free hand in Austria and the Balkans), and giving the nerves of the German people a little rest.