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In this fifth installment, the book Hitler’s Aristocrats: The Secret Power Players in Britain and America Who Supported the Nazis, 1923–1941 by Susan Ronald first prompts an overview of the curious case of Ridgefield, CT / Lewisboro, NY’s Martha Dodd. Then two more spotlighted figures in the book are discussed in relation to New Canaan architect and Nazi agent, Philip Johnson of Glass House fame.
As previewed in the book promo, “Hitler’s Aristocrats uncovers the battle between these influencers and those who heroically opposed them.” (See the list of key players.)
Martha Dodd, alleged Nazi-loving nymph associated with Ridgefield featured
What’s an American girl in her early 20s to do moving to Berlin in 1933 after Hitler took power, accompanying her history professor-turned-US ambassador father? Martha Dodd shows us one way.
Martha Dodd receives shortlisted billing in Hitler’s Aristocrats, although Martha isn’t really one of Hitler’s aristocrats as put forth. She is, and then she isn’t. Her father was Ambassador to Germany (1933-37), and for Connecticut gossip purposes, he was not a “Connecticut Dodd”, but from North Carolina.
In Hitler’s Aristocrats, Martha is at first making the rounds sampling various Nazi men. She even went on some sort of date with Hitler, but neither spoke the other’s language and there wasn’t much chemistry. I guess this is good for Ridgefield, because otherwise a Mrs. Martha Hitler would never have arrived to the area.
By mid-1934, Martha had moved on to a Soviet diplomat anyway, which solved one problem but created another.
A new book focused on Ridgefield area’s Martha Dodd is out by Brendan McNally, Traitor's Odyssey: The Untold Story of Martha Dodd and a Strange Saga of Soviet Espionage (2024), with reference to declassified Russian intelligence.
McNally takes Martha’s 1930s sexual obsession with Nazis further, stating, “To the consternation of the US Government, Martha dates, and beds, the head of the Gestapo, a famous dive-bomber ace, several top generals, Goering, Goebbels, and both Hitler’s piano player [Putzi] and his personal spymaster.”
As we can see, Martha allegedly kept herself busy.
Martha’s father the ambassador was however recalled to the US in 1937 due to his strong, anti-Nazi stance. In 1938, Martha married another Soviet, Alfred K. Stern, Jr., a New York millionaire.
Ambassador Dodd died in 1940.
After WWII, Martha and her husband later mainly settled in Ridgefield, CT / Lewisboro, NY. In a PhD actually focused on Martha’s life, it’s clarified: “Although Ridgefield, Connecticut provided mail and telephone service to the home, it was in Lewisboro, New York for tax and residency matters” (page 155, footnote 77 and see a postcard with a NY / CT address).
It’s understood that the cross-border situation, CT / NY, created some challenges with a long-standing investigation of Martha and her husband, in two jurisdictions, as shown in declassified FBI files with hundreds of pages. (Search “Dodd” in a directory of FBI files at the bottom of the linked article.)
One can imagine that Martha created great excitement at the Ridgefield post office with years of FBI queries. One can also imagine the stares and pearl-clutching by Ridgefield Social Register types seeing Martha drive by in the town.
After WWII, by 1955 with the FBI totally on her and her husband accused of Soviet espionage, they fled the Ridgefield area to a more suitable location. They ended up settling in Cold War Prague.
Over her lifetime, Martha seemed to, shall we say, lead a rather complicated life. But after you’ve engaged in various trysts with an entire range of serious Nazis, was there any going back?
Putzi
While there’s no evidence yet that Connecticut’s Nazi-loving nymphs Martha Dodd in Ridgefield and Philip Johnson in New Canaan ever met, another of America’s finest knew both of them in Berlin.
His name was Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl. He was Hitler’s foreign press secretary, an entertaining piano player and pal of Hitler. He was also featured in the shortlist in Hitler’s Aristocrats.
Putzi was a German-American Harvard graduate, class of 1909. His grandmother was a Sedgwick.
Putzi knew Hitler from back in the early 1920s, and as mentioned above, he came up with the great idea of Martha possibly dating the Führer.
In 1932 in Berlin, Putzi arranged for Philip Johnson and his New York-based Vogue writer pal, Helen Appleton Read, a Wellesley grad, to attend a Hitler Youth rally while they were in Germany. Yes, like today, the Harvard alumni network could open up exciting doors then too.
In 2016 in Vanity Fair, book author Marc Wortman wrote:
“Decades later, [Johnson] told Franz Schulze, ‘You simply could not fail to be caught up in the excitement of it, by the marching songs, by the crescendo and climax of the whole thing, as Hitler came on at last to harangue the crowd.’ He could not separate the energy of the orchestrated frenzy from the day’s sexual charge, either, feeling thrilled at the sight of ‘all those blond boys in black leather’ marching past an ebullient führer.”
If you find this very creepy, join the crowd. This isn't in Johnson's Glass House promotion.
In 1934, Putzi wanted to attend his Harvard class 25th reunion, but there were concerns and protests because he was Hitler’s foreign press secretary. In the end, he was allowed to join in the festivities, as shown above in the photo.
As one might expect, somewhat posh Putzi later was seen socializing with friends in Newport, Rhode Island before his return to Berlin.
The following year, Putzi also helped engineer some impressive cultural Nazi propaganda work with Vogue writer Helen Appleton Read via an exhibition at several museums. This is shown in the forthcoming part 6 of this series.
Things decisively turned against Putzi in 1937. He got on the bad side of the Nazi regime and there was a plot to assassinate him. However, he dramatically escaped to Britain and a fellow Harvard grad, President Franklin Roosevelt, enabled Putzi to return to the US as a kind of informant.
After public pressure though, Putzi was returned to Britain and was detained until the end of WWII.
Hitler - Putzi - Roosevelt? Yes.
Finally a hero: American journalist William Shirer
All three of the American charlatans— Martha, Putzi, and Philip— had interaction with one of the heroes in Hitler’s Aristocrats, CBS radio journalist William Shirer. He arrived after Hitler took power to cover developments of the Nazi regime.
Shirer had the task of not only dueling with propaganda minister Goebbels, but also had to duel with Putzi. Shirer also mentioned meeting Martha Dodd in his best-selling book Berlin Diary, published in June 1941 six months before the US entered WWII in Europe. The diary detailed his time in Germany until he fled in December 1940.
Shirer mentioned encountering Philip Johnson during the Nazi advance into Poland on September 18, 1939:
“Dr. Boehmer, press chief of the Propaganda Ministry in charge of this trip, insisted that I share a double room in the hotel here with Phillip [sic] Johnson, an American fascist who says he represents Father Coughlin’s Social Justice. None of us can stand the fellow and suspect he is spying on us for the Nazis. For the last hour in our room here he has been posing as anti-Nazi and trying to pump me for my attitude. I have given him no more than a few bored grunts.”
By the time of book publication, a number of magazines and news columnists had already mentioned Philip Johnson as a pro-Nazi propagandist and agent, and the FBI was well on the case of Herr Johnson. Shirer himself even spoke to the FBI about him after his return to the US. Philip’s younger sister Theodate even passed on information about Philip to a government official.
His older sister Jeannette or her husband, based in Cleveland, also may have passed on some intelligence. A curious letter dated on June 1, 1940 was sent anonymously and special delivery from Cleveland to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The letter refers to Philip, his parents, and Theodate—but not Jeannette— with information purported to come from directly inside the Johnson family farm home. Coincidentally, Harper’s magazine published an article on that day “The American fascists”, mentioning Philip. A number of comparable articles would soon follow.
Soon enough, Johnson course-corrected when facing the real threat of federal charges. Soon enough, he began to testify in federal grand juries in relation to his former Nazi-loving friends in America.
Other friends of Philip in elite circles basically helped him escape justice. Then he was back to a life of architecture.
**
> Ronald, Susan. (2023). Hitler’s Aristocrats. St. Martin’s Press. 464 pp.
Six installments, Hitler's Artistocrats et al.: part 1 | 2a | 2b | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | + Assassination Plot | + Martha & Hitler | + Thomas W. Lamont
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