On the road: Future
President John F. Kennedy (middle) and childhood
friend Kirk LeMoyne
Billings (right) taking their Grand Tour of Europe in
1937. While a new book
reveals Kennedy was intrigued by Adolph Hitler
and Nazi Germany, it also
shows he was taken aback by German 'docility.'
John F. Kennedy: 'Fascinated' ... and Puzzled, by Hitler's Germany (Der Spiegel, Germany)
"I have come to the conclusion that fascism is the right
thing for Germany and Italy. ... What are the evils of fascism compared with
communism? ... The Germans are really too good - that's why people conspire
against them - they do it to protect themselves. ... The docility of German
officials shows how easy it would be to seize power ... in Germany you have
neither the curiosity of Americans, nor their innate oppositional 'I'm from
Missouri, you'll have to show me!' attitude toward authority."
A new book about JFK's visits to Germany, John F. Kennedy Among Germans: Diaries and Letters 1937-1945, outlines Kennedy's reflections about Germany during and after World War II, and suggests a certain fascination with Hitler.
Fascism? "The right thing for Germany"? As a
young man, John F. Kennedy toured Germany three times from 1937 to 1945 - and
was impressed by the "Third Reich." Now, for the first time, the
surprising accounts of the future president are being published in German.
In
the summer of 1937, two young Americans and a Ford Cabriolet landed at the Port of Le Havre. Their
mission: See Europe in three months. It was the classic "Grand Tour"
of wealthy east-coast Americans, which, like a debutante ball, was a must for
the adolescent elite. One was named Kirk LeMoyne Billings, also
called Lem, and the other was Jack - better known as John F. Kennedy.
The
two boys, who had just finished their first year of college at the elite
university Harvard, were 20 years old and ready for adventure. They enjoyed their
trip to the fullest- flirting, partying,
and meeting with friends. At the same time, however, they actively studied
political systems - the fascism
of Italy and Germany, in particular. Lem Billings recalled
later that Kennedy was "completely consumed with interest in the Hitler
movement." As a student, the future U.S. president traveled to Germany on
two more occasions: In the summer of 1939, while conducting research for his
senior thesis that dealt with the Munich Agreement of 1939, and in 1945, when
he accompanied James Forrestal, the-then secretary of the Navy, on a tour.
He
documented every experience in his diary (1937), in letters to his parents and Lem Billings (1939), and in detailed travelogues (1945). Now
for the first time, these documents have been translated into German and
published in sequence by the AufbauVerlag under the title John F.
KennedyAmong Germans: Diaries and
Letters 1937-1945. Like a red thread, Kennedy's reflections on fascism
run through his writings. At first glance, one might get the impression that
Kennedy approved of fascism and may even have admired Hitler.
'The Germans are
really too good'
"I have come to the conclusion that
fascism is the right thing for Germany and Italy," Kennedy noted in his
diary around August 3, 1937, and asks, "What are the evils of fascism
compared with communism?"
And
on August 21, 1937, he writes, "The Germans are really too good - that's
why people conspire against them - they do it to protect themselves." A
day later he praises German highways, "These are the best roads in the
world."
Even
in 1945, the young observer seemed fascinated by Hitler. On August 1, 1945,
after visiting Obersalzberg, he wrote, "Anyone who has visited these
places [Obersalzberg
and the Kehlsteinhaus, aka/Eagle's Nest],
can easily imagine how in a few years, Hitler will emerge from the hate that
now surrounds him and come to be regarded as one of the most significant
figures to have ever lived."
So,
had Kennedy fallen under Hitler's spell? It is well established that he was
impressed by the dramatic stagecraft of fascism - as were so many foreign
visitors before him, among them U.S. documentary filmmaker Julien
Bryan and Martha Dodd,
daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Berlin (1933-1937). In the 70s, Susan Sontag interpreted
the writings this way: Kennedy was susceptible to "the fascination of
fascism." But the dramaturgy didn't blind him.
Hitler's most
powerful weapon
After
all, the enthusiastic lines in Kennedy's writings are only one side of his
reflections. From the very beginning, he recognized that the success of the
Nazi regime was primarily based on propaganda, and he observed events objectively
and with foresight. For instance, summing up on August 17, 1937, he writes "Hitler
seems to be as popular here as Mussolini in Italy, although propaganda is
probably his most powerful weapon."
Two
years later, his interpretation of the Danzig crisis was extremely critical: In
May 1939, he wrote to Billings: "If Germany decides to go to war, it will
try to force Poland into the role of the aggressor and then will attack." Three
months later, he wrote his college friend: "It doesn't look good, because
the Germans have already gone so far with their propaganda over Danzig
and the [Polish] Corridor,
that one can hardly imagine them backing down."
Overall,
his observations vacillate between aversion and attraction, as do those of so
many foreign observers. What his writings clearly reflect, however, is that he
thought Germans were uncanny. On the one hand, he admired their technological
achievements. For instance, he visited a wharf with Navy Secretary Forrestal,
where U-boats were built during the war. One per day, as Kennedy recorded with
approval in his report. On the other hand, he was turned off by the unconditional
obedience of Germans: "The docility of German officials shows how easy it
would be to seize power in Germany ... you have neither the curiosity of
Americans, nor their innate oppositional 'I'm from Missouri, you'll have to
show me!' attitude toward authority."
Posted
By Worldmeets.US
When
all is said and done, it was this uncertainty about the nature of Germans which
Kennedy carried around like baggage while traveling
through Europe in the summer of 1963. The trip was clearly made under
difficult circumstances. Crises over Berlin and missiles in Cuba had recently
thrown the world into a state of emergency. The world again appeared to be on
the brink of war. Kennedy needed strong allies in Europe. But French President
Charles de Gaulle, according to Der Spiegel in
June 1963, "refused a partnership with the U.S. president."
Is he a
Berliner?
Kennedy
was therefore dependent on the support of the Federal Republic of Germany. But
would he be able to win the backing of the German people? In his own country,
the U.S. president was renowned as an enemy of Germany. Der Spiegel summarized the situation shortly before Kennedy's
legendary 1963 visit to Germany:"With the inauguration of the new
president, German-American relations became encased in an icy hoarfrost."
The Der Spiegel text was prefaced by a quote
from the letters of Paul
the Apostle to the Corinthians, "For I am afraid that when I come, I
shall not find you as I want, and you also will not find me as you want."
Kennedy in Berlin, 1963: With
four words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner',
the young president had won
the hearts of the German people.
Despite
the doubts on both sides, Kennedy captured the hearts of the German people with
a single sentence: he cried out on the square before the RathausSchöneberg (Schöneberg Town
Hall) in Berlin "Ich bin ein Berliner
[I am a Berliner]", and garnered wild applause. With these four words, he
made irrevocably clear that the United States would not give up Berlin.
Egon Bahr, architect of the Ostpolitik
(new eastern policy), recalled in his introduction to Among Germans, that Kennedy appeared particularly relaxed at the
gala dinner following his big appearance. Bahr had never really understood why
- before reading Kennedy's early writings. Apparently, the U.S. leader wasn't
sure he would be able to win the support of the "obedient" German
people.
For
additional reading:
Oliver Lubrich (Eds.): John F. Kennedy - UnterDeutschen. Reisetagebücher
und Briefe 1937-1945. AufbauVerlag, Berlin 2013, 256 pp.
