Princess Stephanie Julianne von Hohenlohe [1891-1972] was a member of a titled German family by marriage, she was a close friend of Adolf Hitler, and spied for Nazi Germany.
Born in Vienna she was of Jewish descent, the daughter of Ludmilla Kuranda and lawyer Johann Sebastian Richter. She developed into a beautiful charming young lady, and was soon to become part of Vienna's high society. On May 12 1914 she married Prince Franz von Hohelohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfurst, thus acquiring the title of Princess. Over the years she let herself become known in society as a Hohenlohe Princess, spending time in Paris and various parts of Europe, developing friendships and intimate relationships with a number of powerful and influential men, such as 1st Viscount Rothermere and prominent Nazi diplomat Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Despite being Jewish, she became closely acquainted with the Nazi hierarchy, including Adolf Hitler, who called her his “dear princess” She developed a very close relationship with Goring and Himmler, who even declared her an “honorary Aryan” In 1938 a British M16 report stated “ She is frequently summoned by Hitler who values her intelligence and good advice. Early in 1932 she took up residence in London, residing in the Dorchester Hotel, and when Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933, she became a valuable propagandist and spy for the Nazis. She befriended Lord Rothermere the newspaper Baron, owner of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, who admired Hitler and advocated an alliance with Germany.
Princess Stephanie also kept very busy as a point of liaison for various high-ranking British men who were sympathetic to the Nazis, in 1937 she arranged for Lord Halifax to travel to Germany and meet with her friend Hermann Goring In 1937 she achieved an even more useful meeting, by arranging a visit of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor to Germany where they met with a most cordial Adolf Hitler.
After spending a short time in Germany, she returned to Britain in 1939, but following the start of WW2 in September 1939 being fearful she might be arrested as a German spy, Stephanie left the country, and went back to her former lover Fritz Wiedermann in San Francisco. On her arrival the U.S. Government placed her under security surveillance, in 1941 a memo to President Roosevelt described her as “extremely intelligent and dangerous, claiming that as a spy she was “worse than ten thousand men”.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, she was arrested by the FBI and interned at a facility in Philadelphia, and later at a Texas camp for enemy aliens, she was paroled in May 1945. After the war Stephanie returned to Germany where she worked with media companies, securing interviews with John F Kennedy and Lyndon B Johnson. She died in Geneva Switzerland in 1972.
Home 
