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Coffee with Hitler : the untold story of the amateur spies who tried to civilize the Nazis / Charles Spicer.

by Spicer, Charles, author.

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New York : Pegasus Books, 2022.

Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945.

Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter-Partei.

Intelligence officers -- Great Britain -- History -- 20th century.

Espionage, British -- Germany -- History -- 20th century.

9781639362264 (hardcover) :

1639362266 (hardcover)

392 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm

First Pegasus Books cloth edition.

Introduction -- Prologue: Lloyd George's Nazi -- Part One: June 1934-September 1936. Dinner on the terrace with Himmler -- Roast chicken at the Chancellery -- Margarine, rubber and gold -- The prince and the poppy -- Beer and sausage at Nuremberg -- Whiskey with Goring -- Swastikas over White Hart Lane -- Vistas of unlimited aggression -- Mayfair rushing Hitlerwards -- Coffee with Hitler -- Part Two: October 1936-November 1938. Preaching brotherly love to a rogue elephant -- The Brickendrop circus -- Sharks, Stalin and Inspector Morse -- Sending a curate to visit a tiger -- Clearing the decks -- The Oster conspiracy -- Tea at Nuremberg -- Plan Z -- The night of broken glass -- Part Three: December 1938-May 1941. The two Englishmen who know Germany best -- No happy returns for the Fuhrer -- Gangster politics -- The Tennant mission -- If the world should fall and break -- The political and moral scum of the earth -- Britain's broke; it's your money we want -- The flying visit -- Epilogue: None so blind as those who will not see -- Conclusion.

Coffee with Hitler tells the astounding story of how a handful of amateur British intelligence agents wined, dined, and befriended the leading National Socialists between the wars. With support from royalty, aristocracy, politicians, and businessmen, they hoped to use the recently founded Anglo-German Fellowship as a vehicle to civilize and enlighten the Nazis. At the heart of the story are a pacifist Welsh historian, a World War I flying ace, and a butterfly-collecting businessman, who together offered the British government better intelligence on the horrifying rise of the Nazis than any other agents. Though they were only minor players in the terrible drama of Europe's descent into its second twentieth-century war, these three protagonists operated within the British Establishment. They infiltrated the Nazi high command deeper than any other spies, relaying accurate intelligence to both their government and to its anti-appeasing critics. Straddling the porous border between hard and soft diplomacy, their activities fueled tensions between the amateur and the professional diplomats in both London and Berlin. Having established a personal rapport with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, they delivered intelligence to him directly, too, paving the way for American military support for Great Britain against the Nazi threat. The settings for their public efforts ranged from tea parties in Downing Street, banquets at London's best hotels, and the Coronation of George VI to coffee and cake at Hitler's Bavarian mountain home, champagne galas at the Berlin Olympics, and afternoon receptions at the Nuremberg Rallies. More private encounters between the elites of both powers were nurtured by shooting weekends at English country homes, whiskey drinking sessions at German estates, discreet meetings in London apartments, and whispered exchanges in the corridors of embassies and foreign ministries.

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