Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry, the Nazis and the Road to War

by Ian Kershaw

Chas Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, was born to power. Scion of an aristocratic family, Churchill's cousin, royal confidant, owner of vast coal fields & landed estates, wed to the doyenne of London society, he was an ornament to his class, the .1% who still owned 30% of England's wealth as late as '30. But history hasn't been kind to 'Charley', as the king called him, because, in his own words, he "backed the wrong horse"--a very dark horse indeed: Adolf Hitler & the Nazis. Londonderry wasn't the only aristocrat to do so, but he was the only Cabinet member to do so. It ruined him. In a final irony, his grand London house was bombed by the Luftwaffe in the blitz. Kershaw isn't out to rehabilitate Londonderry but to understand him, to expose why he was made a scapegoat for views that were much more widely held than anyone likes to think. H.L. Mencken famously said that "for every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat & wrong." The conventional explanation of the coming of WWII is a simple story of the West's appeasement of Hitler in the face of bullying. Thru the story of how Londonderry came to be mixed up with the Nazis & how it all went wrong, Kershaw shows that behind the familiar cartoon is a much more complicated & interesting reality, with miscalculations on both sides, fatal miscalculations.

Genres: History, Biography, World War II, Nonfiction, European History, War, Germany

488 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2004

About the author

Ian Kershaw is a British historian, noted for his biographies of Adolf Hitler.
Ian Kershaw studied at Liverpool (BA) and Oxford (D. Phil). He was a lecturer first in medieval, then in modern, history at the University of Manchester. In 1983-4 he was Visiting Professor of Modern History at the Ruhr University in Bochum, West Germany. From 1987 to 1989 he was Professor of Modern History at the University of Nottingham, and since 1989 has been Professor of Modern History at Sheffield. He is a fellow of the British Academy, of the Royal Historical Society, of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, and of the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung in Bonn. He retired from academic life in the autumn semester of 2008.

Reviews

[Graeme Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fine and brilliant history book! And what a far cry from the deadly boring assemblages of facts, dates, and names that immunized us against history at school.

In the words of Ian Kershaw:

Lord Londonderry was brought up to regard wealth, privilege, and power as a birthright. And so, throughout his life, he did. Carrying the weight of family expectations, he wanted to achieve great things.

Kershaw uses Londonderry as a vehicle to walk us through the emergence of Nazism and the decisions facing the British leaders in the 1920's and 30's, when the vast majority of the British people desperately wanted to avoid another great war. Thanks to his cousin, Sir Winston Churchill, Londonderry, who was an aviation enthusiast, was appointed Secretary of State for Air in late 1931. He saw the importance of air warfare and bombing to Britain's future defense, and actively lobbied for strategic investment, but an arrogant and undiplomatic remark saw him lose that position, to his great shame and humiliation, thus ending his ability to promote rearmament. He was, however, always credited with initiating the development of the strategically vital Spitfire and Hurricane fighter aircraft.

Londonderry was both a great British patriot and an admirer of Germany, but was never a British Fascist or Nazi, like Sir Oswald Mosley. He saw an opportunity to become an amateur diplomat, using his aristocratic credentials to forge friendships with the German leaders that would, as he saw it, help avoid war. He and Lady Londonderry, ever his supporter and partner, visited Germany several times, and invited the German leaders to visit them at Mount Stewart, in County Down, Northern Ireland, and their enormous mansion in London. They were not alone among British leaders in being impressed by Hitler, Göring, Ribbentrop, and other Nazi leaders. It never occurred to Londonderry that a gentleman would lie or deceive, and only when the Nazis invaded the remaining (non-Sudetenland) part of Czechoslovakia did they realize how completely they had been taken in. Of course, none of the Nazis were gentlemen, even if they did hunt.

In the meantime, Londonderry had acquired a reputation of being an apologist for Germany, or at least a fool, and when the tide turned and his efforts came to nothing he was entirely absent from the halls of power. The rest of his rather sad life was spent in trying to find ways to salvage his damaged reputation by stating and restating the worthiness of the positions he had taken, by condemning any and all of the British leaders and particularly the Foreign Office, and generally making a great nuisance of himself. We learn so much about this man, but at the same time acquire a deep knowledge of the history and players of this dark time. What an intense and fascinating tale.

Hitler never deviated from the plan that he laid out in Mein Kampf, written in prison after the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. He wanted to entirely cleanse Germany of Jews. It seemed to me that that plan, amply confirmed by the cruel treatment and murder of Jews in Germany and Austria, should have been enough to set Great Britain, France, the British Dominions, and the United States into planning for war. There was no excuse. No one thought that Jews were worth fighting for or even accepting them in large numbers when Germany was trying to force them to emigrate. If the great democracies had responded with decency and courage in the 1920s, the Nazis would not have been able to rearm and establish an almost unstoppable juggernaut. And the cruelties and inequities of the Treaty of Versailles could have been addressed before Hitler became so powerful that he could simply ignore it.

[Maryann MJS1228 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readers will be excused if they mistake Making Friends With Hitler for a self-help book designed to assist us all in dealing with the despots in our lives. This is not a how-to, rather it's more of a "why did anyone bother in the first place." Specifically, this is an exploration of the not uncommon view circa 1935 that Britain should seek some sort of accommodation with Hitler rather than oppose him.

The idea of making friends was born in part of a belief that Germany's Versailles grievances were justified and a view that accession to power had matured Hitler out of his Mein Kampf "excesses." At its root was the assumption that Hitler's appetite for conquest could be sated.

Lord Londonderry is representative of the more benignly deluded adherents of this belief. He wanted to be a statesman of the caliber of his famous ancestor Lord Castlereagh. Castlereagh's legacy is a bit of a mixed bag - revered as a diplomat today but in his time reviled as an elitist and a reactionary by the likes of Byron and Shelley. It's difficult to find any evidence that Londonderry understood Castlereagh's accomplishments - he seemed fixated instead on the glory of his legend, glory he very much wanted for himself. Kershaw's character sketch of Londonderry fascinated me nearly as much as Londonderry's gusto for socializing with the likes of Goering and Goebbels repelled me. It is nearly impossible to put aside what we know of their monumental crimes and imagine a time when they might be viewed as moderating influences on the "more extreme" elements of the Nazi party.

A less talented historian would spend time decrying the lunacy of hanging out with Adolf, Hermann and the boys in hopes of avoiding war. Ian Kershaw is a very talented historian with the ability to remind readers that what is in the past and seems inevitable, once lay in the future and was not at all certain. His approach is detailed, likely too detailed for the casual reader, but it is compelling for anyone interested in the topic.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing history that finally puts into perspective what men like Londonderry were doing when they attempted to find a way to 'deal' with Hitler. There was no way of 'dealing' with Hitler and Londonderry was to arrogant to see this - he was not a very sympathetic man - but probably miles more intelligent then others like the loathsomely anti-Semitic Dukes of Westminster and Woburn and the ridiculous stupid Duke of Windsor. But he backed the wrong horse and was held to blame, unfairly but not surprisingly, simplistic solutions are always popular. As H.L. Mencken famously said "for every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat & wrong." The conventional explanation of the coming of WWII is a simple story of the West's appeasement of Hitler in the face of bullying. Through the story of how Londonderry came to be mixed up with the Nazis & how it all went wrong, Kershaw shows that behind the familiar cartoon is a much more complicated & interesting reality, with miscalculations on both sides, fatal miscalculations.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book, and I suspect my frustrations stemmed from simply not knowing enough about that period of British history to appreciate the significance of some of the narrative. There was an awful lot of, "And then Lord So-and-so wrote a rather disapproving letter to Lord What Not about this subject,which caused Sir This-and-That to write an a letter to Lord Thingmummy reiterating his ambivalence about Lord So-and-So's estimate of Germany's air power." Which I did not fully get, but probably was very important.

[Dimitri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kershaw should've stuck with his original setup for an article. At book length Londonderry is only half present and the other half cannot stand on its own as a POV inspired reconstruction of appeasement. Apart from pushing for expansion (with development of the Hurricane and Spitfire) during his tenure as Secretary of State for air, he comes off as well intentioned but more persistently misguided about Hitler than even his contemporaries.

[Morgan Baliviera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un documento molto interessante, dove Ian Kershaw (tra i massimi esperti storici sul nazismo) ripercorre la storia di Lord Londonderry, ministro dell’aviazione britannica dei primi anni ‘30, che si fece promotore, fino allo scoppio della seconda guerra mondiale, di una politica di intesa con la Germania di Hitler. Lettura molto specifica, ma scorrevole.

[Yooperprof · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't believe I'm awarding only two stars to a book written by Ian Kershaw, who is a great historian of Nazi Germany, an excellent researcher and writer. But this book too often illustrates the cliché of "beating a dead horse." There's really no reason for a 350 page book about a minor British political figure of the early 1930s who by general agreement had only a very minimal impact upon his colleagues.

About half of the book is made up of Kershaw's interpretation of the general causes and consequences of British appeasement in the 1930s, but by no means was Lord Londonderry in the "mainstream" of appeasement, and it hardly seems appropriate to treat such an important subject as a secondary focus. That is to say, if Kershaw really wanted to deal with appeasement as the MAIN subject of the book, he should have concerned himself with MacDonald, Baldwin, Chamberlain, and Halifax as his primary subjects, not as figures on the fringes of his concern with Lord Londonderry.

Moreover, Kershaw proposes that Lord Londonderry be considered as representative of a broader trend, "The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy." Really, though, David Cannadine deals with that subject in a much more convincing (and nuanced) fashion. And Kershaw doesn't explain why Londonderry should be regarded as any more representative of the aristocracy than other figures such as Lord Salisbury - or Winston Churchill, who after all would never allow people to forget that he was the grandson of a Duke.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, a well written account of Lord Londonderry and the debates within the British government over dealing with Hitler between 1933 and 1940. As usual, Kershaw brings a wealth of information and deep understanding of his topics to bare in order to outline the factors which led Londonderry to naively believe he could make peace with Hitler and the Third Reich. As a structuralist, Kershaw is clear to situate Londonderry within the political debates of the time over the nature of British rearmament and "appeasement" to the Nazis.

While well written, the book is likely too long for the content it covers. The last chapter dealing with Londonderry's views after the start of the war drags out the length of the book unnecessarily, in my opinion, and doesn't add any information we don't learn about Londonderry and British politics in the preceding chapters. This could have easily been run into the conclusion with little lost information and much better pacing. Nevertheless, Kershaw is still an excellent writer and given my interest in the topic, I personally found the read enjoyable regardless.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The immediate nature of our study of WW II and the Nazi empire was to remark on its brutality and limited length. Most students know about concentration camps. Some students read about the war and the interaction of people in various countries who consorted with the Nazis (Quislings) to run their empire. Occasionally, very occasionally, students will be exposed to men and women in the Allied Powers who supported Hitler, like Lindberg whose nationalism dovetailed nicely with the white nationalism of the Germans. This interesting and articulate book exposes us to the extensive net of supporters of the Nazi regime who, while deploring some of the "excesses" still felt that anyone who stopped the spread of communism deserved our support. Like many modern-day Americans Lord Londonderry was bright enough to stagger into the net provided by Goebels and Goering, feeling that they were superior in breeding and brains, emerging in 1941 as London smoldered during the blitz with nothing but the despite of their fellow Englishmen. If you don't think we can fall into this trap,and you believe that Putin isn't a danger because he's a kleptocrat not a communist, read this book and learn. I never felt sorry for Londonderry. I do feel sorry for us.

[William Edmund Wilkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The seventh Marquis of Londonderry is infamous for his hospitality to top Nazis during the 1930's. Ian Kershaw presents a detailed look at this aspect of L's life. The book is thorough with frequent quotes from L's correspondence. Kershaw's insights into the era and the participants are specific and tempered, not caricatures. The reader will gain insights into Chamberlain, Churchill, Ribbentrop, Goering, and others.
Kershaw shows the difficulties facing British leaders during the Great Depression--how to rearm while their population was adamant for peace after the horrible casualties of the Great War.
What makes this book especially valuable in 2023 is its careful look at an era of appeasement. People around the world today are hearing similar voices of appeasers in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The comments from 1934-39 in this book will eerily echo pro-Putin voices today.

[Shane Goodyear · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed Mr Ian Kershaw‘s books. This is a fascinating portrayal of a single man called Lord Londonderry who was alive and to some extent a pivotal political mover in the early 1930s join the height of the conservative parties and the national government appeasement of Hitler. The book looks into Lord Londonderry’s arguments for making friends at Lehr during this period London dairies view is that British civilisation and indeed the civilised world would be destroyed by a second world war he proposed two things one either make friends with Hitler and be Germany’s ally or rearm to scare Germany off.
Mr. Kershaw goes into these details to see what was going on and how history should judge Lord Londonderry good book.

[Judd Street · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really interesting premise for a book, though it left me wanting more in the actual execution. "Making Friends with Hitler" follows Lord Londonderry, a figure portrayed as a rather middling British politician in the lead-up to the second world war.

The hook of the book is great: Londonderry was a major apologist for Hitler and the German government during the years leading up to WWII. He generally argued in favour of appeasement policies, for closer relationships, and against the various steps towards conflict. To say the least, this didn't age terribly well, and Londonderry increasingly found himself on the outside of the political sphere (and cultural milieu) as a result.

The challenge, for me, is that the book never really explains /why/ Londonderry ended up in this particular paradigm. We get some tastes of it, from the access to high-level personnel and travel to Germany it afforded him; to the way it allowed Londonderry to position himself as a key intermediary and gatekeeper in the political scene. There also, clearly, became significant sunk cost over the years, making it hard to adjust his positions as they clearly became more and more questionable. Ostracization from the political scene likely further entrenched his position. And, Londonderry engaged in all sorts of revisionist thinking and perpetually thought that, just around the corner, he'd be proved right.

But, we never really get a convincing explanation for why he set down this path in the first place... which is a fairly relevant question in today's geopolitical situation. It's an interesting book, but it leaves me wishing I had learned more about why he ended up where he did.

[R.S. Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Details of several well placed British citizens who leaned or downright embraced facism, including the only cabinet member to do so, Lord Londonderry. Kenshaw's impeccable scholarship and indepth descriptions illustrate the dire results of appeasement and concessions that eventually helped the spread of fascism throughout the world. Londonderry, who later famously admitted to "backing the wrong horse", and his circle of sympathizing aristocrats are painted as both pathetic and sinister. Great resource for anyone interested in presenting the full picture of the complexities of prewar Britian.

[Patricia Roberts-Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

A difficult and painful read. This is a book almost exclusively about the Marquess of Londonderry, who argued for appeasement (albeit in conjunction with rearmament). And it shows that, while he was completely wrong about Hitler, he wasn't uniquely wrong. His view, that Hitler was the consequence of the British having backed the hand of the French in humiliating Germany, and, therefore, making Germans feel better about themselves by giving them many concessions would transform them into responsible partners, was unhappily common.

[Jane Lowes · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astounding and thought-prov0king book about Lord Londonderry which says as much about British high society between the wars as it does about the man himself and his relationship with the upper echelons of the Third Reich. My only criticism is that Londonderry's dealings with his collieries and his thousands of employees in County Durham both before the war and during it ( he was a regular visitor to Seaham, the town and port his ancestors founded to mine and ship their coal in the 19th century) are barely mentioned. That said, this is an excellent book and highly recommended.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book by Kershaw

I had zero interest in Londonderry before skimming this book and then deciding to purchase it. I was more interested in how the "important" people in Britain thought and felt about Hitler in their time, as opposed to what everyone thinks now with hindsight. As always well written and a quick read.

[Grindy Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read it thinking it was the back story of Lord Darlington in “The Remains of the Day,” though there were likely other British toffs who were Nazi apologists. Kershaw never spells out the motivations of Lord Londonderry, though I think that he and other aristocrats knew that another world war would threaten Britain’s class system and their place at the top of it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent academic analysis of Lord Londonderry's political life, especially as it pertains to foreign policy and his goals of making good with the Nazi regime during the 1930s. A figure I had never stopped to consider.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basically, it covers the efforts of Lord Londonderry to maintain an amicable relationship with Germany. Nothing of any real interest other than behind the scenes back biting and gossiping.

[Saman Perera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite a character, Lord Londonderry. The 1930s had so much intrigue.

[Tony Siciliano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Until the end of World War II, the British aristocracy was the well-spring of the country's governance and leadership. The coming age of the "common man" largely precluded aristocratic wealth and privilege from leadership. Lord Londonderry presents an example of just one of the aristocrats who fell from grace and power. He had enviable lineage to the famous Lord Castlereagh who was largely responsible for the reorganization of Europe after the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. His diplomatic skills created the conditions for a Europe at peace for nearly 100 years. This is a story of an aristocrat with exceptional motivation to match the ancestral record for peace-making, but mixed with only middling talent, enormous gullibility, and a long-running willingness to flirt with many Nazi policies, especially race. His positions in government were largely orchestrated by his wife's influence and connections. Serving at a time of extreme danger, as Hitler assumed power in Germany and began an enormous military buildup, Londonderry was alert to the danger. He pressed for an air force that could match or exceed Germany's while pursuing a policy of appeasement with that nation. The author relates Londonderry's many meetings with the most powerful German leaders, including Hitler, as he hoped to reach an accommodation that would prevent war. His cousin, Winston Churchill, also pressed for a strong re-armament policy, but sharply differed in his opinion on appeasement. Churchill saw the evil that was Hitler and Nazism and knew there could be no accommodation. The book fairly, and with much repetition, illustrates the tragedy of a decent man who did all he could to prevent war but never really understood the futility of appeasement until it was much too late. Londonderry's career was ruined as Hitler brought Europe to the edge of war and finally plunged the world into catastrophe, proving Londonderry to be naive at best, and a willing tool of Nazism at worst. The constant repetition makes the reading quite tedious. Annoying as well, the author feels he must add as many clauses to a sentence as possible, beginning a journey that leaves the reader lost, confused, frustrated and out of breath by the time the period mercifully appears.

[J.C. Paulk · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be cliche, hindsight is 20-20. This needs to be put in mind when reading about the actions of Lord Londonderry. This allows the reader to at least partially sympathize with his ideals for the first half of the text. The second half, however, shows a lack of thought that is difficult to sympathize with. The author did well in trying to create a balanced approach.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about the sole British cabinet member who actively attempted to ally his government's interests with those of Germany before WWII. But this book is not just about Lord Londonderry. It is about class, class interest and the extent of upper class interest in Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement.

[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's amazing how many books I've read about WWII, and Germany and Hitler...and there's always more to learn. Recommended for understanding the mindset of those Brits who courted Germany in the mid to late 1930's, trying to find a solution in avoiding another World War. They backed the wrong horse.

[Danielle Freriks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kershaw is an accomplished writer but a bit too wordy to qualify as storyteller. This shouldn't surprise anyone- the man is a scientist before he is a writer. He portrays Londonderry as a schmuck who happens into wrong choices. But lovingly.