MITFORDS (PART SIX) - DIANA & UNITY AT NUREMBERG 1933

A year after the foundation of the British Union of Fascists, Oswald Mosley sent a BUF delegation to the 1933 Nuremberg Rally. Here they are with their hosts:

Members of the BUF Delegation at the 1933 Nuremberg Rally.
Diana Mitford recognisable in white. Note young BUF member on left,
and be-medalled veteran in Scottish cap second from right, front row.
The remainder are presumably German NSDAP members (one on right with Iron Cross).

All change - young and veteran sitting together. Note Union Jack armbands. 

Unity Mitford, just turned 19, is visible in the rear row, several

seats apart from her older sister, Diana. She has yet to acquire her

old sister's "glamour" look.

     

Heil ! Although the photograph is cut off, it is fairly obvious that
Unity has her right arm raised in salute.

Aha ! The reason the Mitford sisters are sitting apart -
Diana is sitting with (i.e. seeking to influence) Putzi Hanfstaengl.
See his WIKI here.

Cropped shot. At this point, who could guess that it
would be Unity who would have greatest access
to the Fuhrer in the years to come ?

A 1930s travel poster for Nuremberg, proudly proclaiming
itself as "The City of the Party Rally"

Another travel poster. 
Brownshirts on the march
through Nuremberg.

A poster for the 1933 Nazi Party Rally at Nuremberg,
as attended by Diana and Unity.

MITFORDS (PART FIVE) - UNITY, DIANA & THE "OSTERIA BAVARIA"

 Unity Mitford first met her idol, Adolf Hitler, at his favourite Munich restaurant, the "Osteria Bavaria":

Adolf in monologue and a rapt Unity

Dining companions at Adolf's favourite table at the "Osteria Bavaria".

Unity and Diana outside the "Osteria Bavaria" with a member of staff.

Practically the same spot - Unity outside the Osteria Bavaria,
this time with "Farve" and "Muv"

A slightly later shot - perhaps 1940 ? -  a well dined Adolf departing
the "Osteria Bavaria", surrounded by an adoring civilian crowd.

The "Osteria Bavaria" is still in business in Munich today, but now renamed the "Osteria Italiana". This clever photomontage merges a contemporary photograph of the renamed restaurant with the historic photograph above:

and it's still possible to dine at "Hitler's favourite table" - although not recommended to ask the staff about it:

A modern photograph of the "Osteria Italiana" dining area favoured by Hitler -
compare the first two photographs of Adolf and Unity above.

MITFORDS (PART FOUR) - DIANA and UNITY

Third and fourth daughters of Lord and Lady Redesdale, Diana and Unity are clearly identified with the BUF cause during the VBCW, and spend much of their time together:

Off duty socialites - Diana and Unity attend a movie premiere, 1935.
Diana is 25 and Unity just 21.

Notoriety - "Truth" magazine's profile of the two Fascist sisters.

How it all began - Diana and Unity, 1934.
Unity wears an improvised BUF uniform.
Diana is the mistress of BUF Leader, Oswald Mosley.

Apogee, Nuremberg 1937 - Diana, Unity and assorted SS stormtroopers.

Nuremberg 1937 - Diana, Unity and SA stormtroopers marching past.

At home and ideologically ready for VBCW action - Diana and Unity practice salutes.

AUTUMN BIG GAME 2022 - ASSAULT ON LLAREGGUB

The Autumn Big Game 2022 took place far away from Herefordshire, in the sleepy West Wales village of LLareggub - a collection of shops and houses so little known that it could even be fictional. This Big Game did not engage the Anglicans, and it can therefore be safely assumed that, as per the Spring Big Game 2022, the good Bishop of Ludlow is still engaged in the North of the Ecclesiarchy (towards Evesham). For all the details, in eight gloriously illustrated parts, start HERE.

MITFORDS (PART THREE) - DIANA

The very beautiful and very married Diana Mitford (b. 1910) began a passionate affair with Oswald Mosley, a notorious seducer of beautiful women, in 1932. The affair led to her divorce and to their own eventual marriage in Berlin, in 1936, at the home of Joseph and Magda Goebbels. Hitler attended as a witness and guest of honour. As the adoring wife of "the Leader", there can be no doubt of Diana's support for the BUF in the VBCW....

Diana in 1932, aged 22. It was in this year that Oswald Mosley dissolved the "New Party"
- which had been destroyed by the results of the 1931 General Election in any event -
and founded the BUF. It was also in this year that Diana began her illicit relationship
with 'the Leader'.

Society lady, early 1930s

Fascist Supporter. Nuremberg Rally 1936

"The Tatler" (Dec 14, 1938) acknowledges Diana's marriage, which had been kept

secret by Mosley for a period and for political reasons.

Notes:

[1]. Diana interviewed by Mavis Nicholson HERE. Her guest appearance on Desert Island Discs, interviewed by Sue Lawley, is HERE. Both are well worth a listen.

MITFORDS (PART TWO) - UNITY

Notorious "English friend" of Adolf Hitler and sister-in-law to Sir Oswald Mosley, there is absolutely no doubt which side Unity Valkyrie Mitford would have chosen in the Very British Civil War - Fascism and the BUF!

Unity Valkyrie Mitford

Unity was born on 8th August 1914, just four days after the outbreak of World War One. By 1935, she was in Munich (purportedly to improve her German) and had succeeded in engineering a meeting with Adolf Hitler at the Osteria Bavaria, the Fuhrer's favourite Munich restaurant. Over the next few years, allegedly whilst working for an Anglo-German rapprochement, she consolidated her famous friendship - and reputation as a Fascist fanatic and virulent anti-Semite.

 

The English lady, before Hitler - 18-year-old Unity, February 1932 (Bassano)

Five years later, fully fledged Fascist, 1937.
Unity in conversation with SS Untersturmfuhrer (eg. 2nd Lt.)
Fritz Stadelmann, one of Hitler's Munich adjutants.

The conversation continues - this wider shot confirms that it took place
on the front steps of the famous Munich "Brown House"

Add Edit - a full length image:

VBCW RADICAL HERO (1) - MICHAEL FOOT

To those (of a certain age) living in the alternative timeline (of reality), Michael Foot might be familiar as 'that old bloke in the donkey jacket' who led the Labour Party to a catastrophic defeat at the 1983 General Election. Ah yes, those in the know will say, but at the 1935 General Election.....

Michael Foot, aged 22, 1935

At the General Election of 1935, Michael Foot fought his first Parliamentary seat in the constituency of Monmouth, just on the borders of Herefordshire and (traditionally) safely Conservative. Although Foot obtained a creditable swing (of some 7.5%) in favour of the Labour Party, the result was:

John Herbert (Conservative) 23,262

Michael Foot (Labour) 13,454

Foot had been President of the Oxford Union in the Michaelmas Term 1933, and then graduated (with a second in PPE) from Oxford in the summer of 1934. On any basis, he was therefore extremely young for his first attempt to get into Parliament at the November 1935 General Election.

What would the young Michael Foot have done in 1938, during the Very British Civil War? There is no doubt that he would have been a hero of the Socialist faction, scribbling away as a journalist in Fleet Street, or possibly touring the country preaching for a "Popular Front" of the fragmented left. Although Foot would undoubtedly have rejected "the appalling excesses" of the notorious Comrade Colonel Professor Winters and his Herefordshire Communists, given Foot's previous knowledge of Monmouthshire, it is very possible that his speaking campaigns would have extended into Herefordshire itself...

On the stump - Foot in Herefordshire, 1938.
Or possibly in Plymouth, 1945.

Foot's loudspeaker equipped "Propaganda Van" would have faced stiff
competition in Herefordshire - see HERE for the BUF opposition,
and HERE for a Herefordshire Communist example.

Michael Foot - VBCW "Radical Hero"

Add Edit: Kenneth O. Morgan's eponymous biography notes of Monmouth in 1935; "...It was marked by the remaining influences of great houses - Lord Tredegar or the Dukes of Beaufort. It was strong hunting country, and the Beaufort Hunt was an ancient local institution: here was a pastime that Foot particularly disliked, for social as much as for humane reasons.....the fledgling Labour candidate fought a spirited, even sparkling, campaign. Foot's (election) address and speeches focussed on the twin themes of peace and poverty. "The armaments race must be stopped now," and the League of Nations supported, including in the current crisis caused by the Italian invasion of Abyssinia. At home, there should be public ownership of all major industries and banks ('exchange' had been added to 'production' and 'distribution' in Clause 4 of the Labour Party's constitution at the 1934 party conference), together with social reforms...including a minimum wage and the abolition of tied cottages..."