Anglo-German Fellowship - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Anglo-German Fellowship was a group which existed from 1935 to 1939 and aimed to build up friendship between the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

and Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

; it was widely perceived as being allied to Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

. Previous groups in Britain with the same aims had been wound up when Adolf Hitler came to power.

Development

In a 1935 speech the Prince of Wales

Edward VIII of the United Kingdom

Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...

had called for a closer understanding of Germany

Germany

in order to safeguard peace in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

and in response Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

Sir Thomas Moore, 1st Baronet

Sir Thomas Cecil Russell Moore, 1st Baronet CBE was a long-serving British Conservative Party politician. He was elected Member of Parliament for Ayr Burghs in a 1925 by-election, and served until his retirement in 1964, when he was succeeded by George Younger. Moore was created a Baronet, of...

suggested setting up a study group of pro-German MPs. From this idea the AGF was established in September 1935 with Lord Mount Temple as chairman and historian Philip Conwell-Evans and merchant banker Ernest Tennant as secretaries. Tennant was a friend of Joachim von Ribbentrop

Joachim von Ribbentrop

Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...

, German Ambassador to Britain. The group's stated aims were to foster political, professional, commercial and sporting links with Germany although Mount Temple stated publicly that membership of the society did not assume support for Nazism or anti-Semitism.

Membership

The organisation was aimed at the influential in society, and the membership was dominated by businessmen keen to promote commercial links. Members included Bank of England

Bank of England

The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world...

director Frank Cyril Tiarks

Frank Cyril Tiarks

Frank Cyril Tiarks OBE was an English banker.Tiarks married Emmy Maria Franziska Brödermann of Hamburg, Germany, on 18 November 1899....

, Admiral Sir Barry Domvile, Prince von Bismarck, Governor of the Bank of England

Governor of the Bank of England

The Governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the Bank, with the incumbent grooming his or her successor...

Montague Norman, Geoffrey Dawson

Geoffrey Dawson

George Geoffrey Dawson was editor of The Times from 1912 to 1919 and again from 1923 until 1941. His original last name was Robinson, but he changed it in 1917.-Early life:...

editor of The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

. "Corporate membership" was also available for leading companies who wished to show their support for co-operation with Germany and this was taken out by such groups as leading organisations as Price Waterhouse, Unilever

Unilever

Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....

, Dunlop Rubber

Dunlop Rubber

Dunlop Rubber was a company based in the United Kingdom which manufactured tyres and other rubber products for most of the 20th century. It was acquired by BTR plc in 1985. Since then, ownership of the Dunlop trade-names has been fragmented.-Early history:...

, Thomas Cook & sons, the Midland Bank

Midland Bank

Midland Bank Plc was one of the Big Four banking groups in the United Kingdom for most of the 20th century. It is now part of HSBC. The bank was founded as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in Union Street, Birmingham, England in August 1836...

and Lazard Brothers amongst others.

Several Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

, mostly from the Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

joined the group including Sir Peter Agnew, 1st Baronet, Ernest Bennett

Ernest Nathaniel Bennett

Sir Ernest Nathaniel Bennett was a British politician and writer. He was a Member of Parliament for Woodstock , and for Cardiff Central from 1929 until he retired in 1945. A close ally of Ramsay Macdonald, he followed Macdonald away from the Labour Party and supported National Labour from...

, Sir Robert Bird, 2nd Baronet

Sir Robert Bird, 2nd Baronet

Sir Robert Bland Bird, 2nd Baronet KBE was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.- Biography :...

, Robert Tatton Bower

Robert Tatton Bower

Lieutenant-Commander Robert Tatton Bower was a Royal Navy officer and a Conservative Party politician in England.At the 1931 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for Cleveland...

, Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the Marquess of Clydesdale

Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton

Air Commodore Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton and 11th Duke of Brandon, KT, GCVO, AFC, PC, DL, FRCSE, FRGS, was a Scottish nobleman and pioneering aviator....

, Robert Vaughan Gower

Robert Vaughan Gower

Sir Robert Vaughan Gower FRGS, OBE was a British solicitor and Conservative Party politician from Kent. He sat in the House of Commons from 1924 to 1945.-Early life:...

, Thomas "Loel" Guinness, Norman Hulbert

Norman Hulbert

Wing Commander Sir Norman John Hulbert, DL was a British company director, Royal Air Force officer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party for nearly thirty years. Early in his career, he was an advocate of closer relations with Nazi Germany but he served in...

, Archibald James

Archibald James

Sir Archibald William Henry James was a British Conservative Party politician and Air Force pioneer.Born in Paddington, London, the son of H A James of Hurstmonceux Place, East Sussex, he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge.He married twice, to Bridget Guthrie with whom he had one...

, Alfred Knox, John Macnamara

John Macnamara

Colonel John Robert Jermain Macnamara was a British Conservative Party politician and British Army officer who was killed in Italy during the Second World War....

, Sir Thomas Moore, 1st Baronet

Sir Thomas Moore, 1st Baronet

, Assheton Pownall

Assheton Pownall

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Assheton Pownall was a british Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Lewisham East from 1918 to 1945. During the late 1930s Pownall was a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship....

, Frank Sanderson

Frank Sanderson

Sir Frank Bernard Sanderson, 1st Baronet was a British Conservative Party politician and public servant.During the First World War, Sanderson was Controller of Trench Warfare, National Shell Filling Factories and Stores at the Ministry of Munitions.He was elected as Member of Parliament for the...

, Duncan Sandys

Duncan Sandys

Edwin Duncan Sandys, Baron Duncan-Sandys CH PC was a British politician and a minister in successive Conservative governments in the 1950s and 1960s...

, Admiral Murray Sueter

Murray Sueter

Sir Murray Fraser Sueter, CB, MP was a Royal Naval officer who was noted as a pioneer of naval aviation and later became a Member of Parliament .-Naval career:...

, Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor (UK politician)

Sir Charles Stuart Taylor was an English businessman and Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1935 to 1974....

and Ronald Tree

Ronald Tree

Arthur Ronald Lambert Field Tree , was an American-born British journalist, investor and Conservative Member of Parliament for the Harborough constituency in Leicestershire.-Biography:...

. Members of the House of Lords

House of Lords

The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

to hold membership included Lord Brocket

Ronald Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket

Ronald Nall Nall-Cain, 2nd Baron Brocket was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom....

, Lords David

Lord David Douglas-Hamilton

Squadron Leader Lord David Douglas-Hamilton was a Scottish nobleman, pilot, and boxer.The youngest son of Lt...

and Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton

Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton

Wing Commander Lord Malcolm Avondale Douglas-Hamilton OBE, DFC was a Scottish nobleman and politician....

, Lord Galloway

Randolph Stewart, 12th Earl of Galloway

Randolph Algernon Ronald Stewart, 12th Earl of Galloway was the son of Randolph Stewart, 11th Earl of Galloway, styled Viscount Garlies from 1901 to 1920....

, the Earl of Glasgow

Patrick Boyle, 8th Earl of Glasgow

Patrick James Boyle, 8th Earl of Glasgow was a Scottish nobleman and a far right political activist.-Royal Navy:...

, Lord Londonderry

Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry

Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, KG, MVO, PC, PC , styled Lord Stewart until 1884 and Viscount Castlereagh between 1884 and 1915, was an Anglo-Irish peer and had careers in both Irish and British politics...

, Lord Nuffield

William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield

William Richard Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield GBE, CH , known as Sir William Morris, Bt, between 1929 and 1934 and as The Lord Nuffield between 1934 and 1938, was a British motor manufacturer and philanthropist...

, Lord Redesdale

David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale

David Bertram Ogilvy Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, , was an English landowner and was the father of the Mitford sisters, in whose various novels and memoirs he is depicted.-Ancestry:...

, Lord Rennell

Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell

James Rennell Rodd, 1st Baron Rennell, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, PC , known as Sir Rennell Rodd before 1933, was a British diplomat, poet and politician...

and the Duke of Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 5th Duke of Wellington

Arthur Charles Wellesley, 5th Duke of Wellington was the son of Arthur Charles Wellesley, 4th Duke of Wellington, and Kathleen Bulkeley Williams....

Nazi links

Its sister organization in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, Germany

Germany

, was the Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft
Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft
The Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft was the German sister organization of the Anglo-German Fellowship. It was formed in Berlin, Germany, around 1935, under support of the Dienststelle Ribbentrop. The Dienststelle Ribbentrop was created by Ribbentrop in 1935, and was to function parallel to the...

. Neither group had an avowed mission to Nazify Britain and instead the two groups would unite to host grand dinners at which leading German figures noted for their Anglophilia or their familial links to the UK such as Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...

, von Ribbentrop, General Werner von Blomberg

Werner von Blomberg

Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg was a German Generalfeldmarschall, Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces until January 1938.-Early life:...

, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Brunswick and Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the fourth and last reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, two duchies in Germany , and the head of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1900 until his death in 1954...

would be guests of honour.

However the organisation had a pro-Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

leaning, as well as a number of fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

members. The spies Guy Burgess

Guy Burgess

Guy Francis De Moncy Burgess was a British-born intelligence officer and double agent, who worked for the Soviet Union. He was part of the Cambridge Five spy ring that betrayed Western secrets to the Soviets before and during the Cold War...

and Kim Philby

Kim Philby

Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...

, seeking to disguise their Communist affiliations, joined the AGF in the knowledge that it was widely perceived as allied to the far right. Lord Mount Temple resigned in November 1938 as chairman of the AGF because of the treatment of the German Jews by the National Socialists.

Development

Membership

Nazi links

See also