Wiedemann, Fritz.

Fritz Wiedemann, born 30-06-1891 in Bad Reichenhall, Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria during WW1 was the staff adjutant of the 16th Reserve Infantry Regiment. One of the men under his command, was Adolf Hitler, who he used as a despatch-runner. He started working for Hitler in 1934, and in 1935 was promoted as Hitlers Personal Adjutant. Stephanie Julianne von Hohenlohe,  born Stephany Julienne Richter (16-09-1891 – 13-06-1972) was an Austrian princess by her marriage to the diplomat Prince Friedrich Franz von Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, a member of the princely Hohenlohe family. Hitler was deeply impressed by Princess Stephanie but there were people in Hitler’s immediate circle who resented the favours the Führer was showing her. This included Ernst Hanfstaengel    who warned Hitler that Stephanie was a “professional blackmailer and a full-blooded Jewess”. Hitler promised Hanfstaengel he would have the princess’ family history researched. Hitler later told Hanfstaengel that the Gestapo had investigated her background thoroughly and had found the allegations that she was Jewish totally unfounded. After their divorce Stephanie von Hohenlohe went to Berlin where she met Wiedemann and they started an affair.

Wiedemann reported to Hitler that Stephanie was the mistress of Lord Rothermere. Hitler decided that she could be of future use to the government and gave Wiedemann 20,000 Reichsmarks as a maintenance allowance to ensure that she had her hotel, restaurant bills, telephone bills and taxi and travel fares paid. Wiedemann was also allowed to buy her expensive clothes and gifts. Stephanie von Hohenlohe died in Geneva, Switzerland, on 30-06-1972, age 80 and is buried there.

Wiedemann and Hitler also first came into contact during the First World War when Hauptmann Wiedemann, as regimental adjutant, was Corporal Hitler’s superior. Along with Max Amann   he was one of Hitler’s strongest supporters in the regiment, nominating him for the Iron Cross, First Class on a number of occasions before the medal was given in 1918.] Whilst giving evidence at the Nuremberg Trials Wiedemann suggested that Hitler had failed to gain promotion in the regiment due to commanding officers viewing him as a ‘Bohemian’ .Wiedemann here in the Reichstag on the right

After the war Wiedemann left the army and became a farmer, initially refusing an offer from Hitler at the regimental reunion in 1922 to help organise the Sturmabteilung (SA). However, when Hitler came to power in 1933 Wiedemann accepted a new offer, initially in the offices of Rudolf Hess before taking up his post at Hitler’s side, as well as Nazi Party membership, on 02-02-1934. From then on Wiedemann remained at Hitler’s side, accompanying him on state visits, facilitating meetings and dealing with Hitler’s correspondence. He also attended a meeting with Lord Halifax, here with Hermann Goering, in July 1938 in which Wiedemann, here left made it clear that Hitler intended to deal with the problem of the Sudetenland by force.

Not long after this Wiedemann fell out of favour with Hitler as his rival Julius Schaub became the more important adjutant. After trysting with Stephanie von Hohenlohe, he was “exiled”, in January 1939, to San Francisco as a Consul General to the United States. In public, Wiedemann continued to support Nazism and apparently led a playboy lifestyle which included attendance at society parties, membership of the exclusive Olympic Club and regular appearances in the columns of Herb Caen. Allegations leveled in a case filed at the city’s Federal District Court in 1941 also suggested that he worked on pro-Nazi initiatives with Henry Ford.  In private, however, Wiedemann broke entirely with Nazism. He met with the British agent Sir William Wiseman , warning him of Hitler’s unstable personality and urging Britain to attack Germany. He also offered to publicly denounce the German regime, but the White House at that time had no interest in such an offer.

Thomas Weber has found the records of Wiedemann’s talks with him in 1940 in which Wiedemann openly warned against Hitler and claimed Hitler had a “split personality and numbered among the most cruel people in the world, saw himself better than Napoleon and that peace with him was impossible.” He told Wiseman of Hitler’s plans to attack and conquer the UK and “recommended strongly” that the British themselves strike as quickly and as “hard as possible” against him. He told Wiseman that the morale of the German population and the support of Hitler were lower than generally believed. Thomas Weber said if Hitler had known about Wiedemann’s “treason,” he would have given him the death penalty. Wiedemann was subsequently sent to Tientsin where he was a central figure in German espionage in China, apparently this time without betraying Hitler.

After World War II, Wiedemann was arrested in Tientsin, China, in September 1945, and flown to the United States. He gave evidence at Nuremberg although charges made against him were dropped in 1948 and he subsequently returned to farming, disappearing from public life.

Some 7,000 personal and semiofficial papers of Fritz Wiedemann, one-time company commander in the infantry regiment in which Adolf Hitler served as corporal and later personal adjutant to Hitler, have been acquired by the Library.Library of Congress, 1949

In 2012 it was claimed that Wiedemann helped to save Hitler’s Jewish commanding officer, Ernst Moritz Hess.

Hess’s daughter Ursula, by then 86 and still living in Germany, stated in an interview with the Jewish Voice that her father had met Wiedemann, with whom he served in the First World War, by chance and that when he later became Hitler’s adjutant he had been able to secure concessions for Hess that were not otherwise open to Jews