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Prince Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, visited Nazi Germany in October 1937. Edward had abdicated the British throne in December 1936, and his brother George VI had become 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 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, opposed the tour and suspected that the Nazis would use the Duke's presence for propaganda. Prince Edward was keen for his wife, who had been rejected by the British establishment, to 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 1937. The Duke and the Duchess, who were officially invited to the country by the German Labour Front, were chaperoned for much of their visit by its leader, Robert Ley. The couple visited factories, many of which were producing materiel for the rearmament effort, and the Duke inspected German troops. The Windsors were greeted by the British national anthem and Nazi salutes. They dined with high-ranking Nazis such as Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Albert Speer, and had tea with Adolf 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 during the war. The Duchess took afternoon tea with Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess. Hitler was sympathetic to the Windsors and treated the Duchess like royalty. 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 Windsors. British popular opinion of the tour was muted, and most people viewed it as in poor taste and disrupting 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, which led to the U.S. visit being cancelled. Modern historians tend to consider the 1937 tour as a reflection of both the Duke's lack of judgment and his disregard for the advice that he received. Background Edward VIII became king after the death of his father, George V, in early 1936. Almost immediately, he announced his intention to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American. On political and moral grounds, she was unacceptable as a royal consort to the British government and royal family. As king, Edward was the titular governor of the Church of England, which forbade the divorced from remarrying during the lifetime of their former spouses, and both of Simpson's previous husbands were still alive. The proposed marriage was believed by critics to breach Edward's coronation oath, and weakened his position as constitutional monarch. Edward knew that if he forced the issue, Stanley Baldwin's government would almost certainly resign en masse. Edward realised that his family, the government, the Church, and the people would not support the marriage. Thus, in December 1936, he abdicated. His younger brother, the Duke of York, succeeded him as George VI, and Edward was given the title of Duke of Windsor. Edward and Simpson married in France in June the following year, and having honeymooned in Vienna, they returned to Paris and established their headquarters there. Internationally, journalist Andrew Morton stated that the Duke was viewed as being Modern, progressive, vigorous, and accessible. Even his mock Cockney accent with a touch of American seemed more down-to-earth and unaffected than the disdainful patrician tones of a man like Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden. He remained an intriguing international celebrity, his marital turmoil only enhancing the iconic mystery surrounding the man. Political context The European political background to the tour was tense. The Spanish Civil War, which had broken out the previous year, upset the balance of power and drew in the Soviet Union, Italy, and Germany. Also, Germany was becoming increasingly aggressive and had spent the previous few years rearming. In the United Kingdom, there was a sense of political unease towards the future and an expectation of war although foreign policy remained predicated on appeasement. Baldwin resigned as prime minister in May 1937 and was replaced by his deputy, Neville Chamberlain. Historian Michael Bloch states that although with hindsight, the tour can be viewed as a poor decision, it was not out of place for the time. He notes that "war was still two years away, curiosity about the Nazis was intense, and many respectable people accepted government invitations. It was fashionable to go to Germany and visit Hitler in the mid-thirties just as it was to go to China and visit Mao Tse-tung in the sixties". The former prime minister, David Lloyd George, had visited Germany two years before the Windsors. The leader of the Labour Party, pacifist George Lansbury met with Hitler in April 1937. Also, Lord Halifax, later foreign secretary, visited to do so, at Göring's invitation, the following month. Halifax's trip was "ostensibly ... a social one", but it was also an opportunity for the British government to initiate talks with Hitler, according to modern historian Lois G. Schwoerer. Similarly, Hitler hosted many non-Germans, including Aga Khan III, papal nuncio Cesare Orsenigo, ambassadors, government ministers, and European royals, at his residence in Bavaria, the Berghof. Royal and governmental view George VI is said to have been horrified by his brother's entry into European political affairs at such a delicate time. George wrote to Edward's political advisor, Walter Monckton, that the Duke's plan was "a bombshell, and a bad one". George took particular umbrage because on abdication, Edward had said that he intended to avoid public appearances. Royal biographer Sarah Bradford suggests that the visit indicated that Edward had no intention of retiring: rather, he intended to behave independently of the King's and the government's wishes. Contemporaries were aware of the negative connotations of a trip to Germany at the time. The announcement took everyone by surprise, and those sympathetic to Edward, such as Winston Churchill and Lord Beaverbrook, attempted to dissuade him from going. The intervention of an old friend of the Duchess, Herman Rogers, against the trip also proved unsuccessful. The government already suspected that Edward had "strong views on his right to intervene in affairs of state",.... Discover the Gren De Bouverie popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gren De Bouverie books.