by Martha Schad
In July 1963 Pearson had interviewed King Paul of Greece for Quick and punctually delivered his copy to Stephanie for the German magazine. Unfortunately the royal Greek court did not immediately give approval for publication, and then in March 1964 the king died suddenly. The princess now had to take up the matter. However, it was Drew Pearson who wrote on 20 April 1964 to Queen Frederika of Greece, in order to pave the way for Stephanie:
Your Majesty, I was heartsick over the tragic news of the death of His Majesty … I know that these have been most trying days for you and that there is little your friends can do to help. I quite understand how the interview I did last summer has been held up by red tape; needless to say, it cannot now be published. I am sorry about this, because I felt I had drawn a really excellent portrait of His Majesty, of his problems and of the courage with which he faced them.
The bearer of this note, Princess Stephanie Hohenlohe, is associated with Quick magazine in Munich, for which I wrote the interview of last summer. She has been commissioned by her editor to talk with you about a signed article outlining some of the problems that His Majesty and you discussed last year in Corfu, or any other subject.
The editor of Quick, who is a friend of mine, believes that the time might be appropriate for such an article. Naturally we would want you to be fully satisfied with it and approve it down to the last comma and semiolon. Princess Hohenlohe will of course be able to discuss the details.
I hope that this is not an intrusion at this time. Please call on me if I can ever be of service. I continue to be, as always, at your command.
Stephanie von Hohenlohe travelled to Greece, and the widowed queen gave her permission for Drew Pearson’s interview with her late husband to be printed.
After this success, Stephanie’s contract was renewed for another year, and her basic fee was increased by 50 per cent. The editor of Quick, Karl-Heinz Hagen, wrote to her: ‘I am convinced that in this second year we will work just as well and successfully together, and continue the work which reached its culmination with the Kennedy interview that you set up for us.’ The Pearson–Hohenlohe partnership had indeed managed to arrange an interview for Hagen with President John F. Kennedy. Assistance was given by his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, who was told by Stephanie that Pearson had received a sum of $5,000 simply for acting as an intermediary.
Even after the assassination of President Kennedy, Stephanie remained in touch with Pierre Salinger. He was now employed by Continental Airlines, and his memoirs, entitled With Kennedy, were about to be published. Through Stephanie he offered Quick exclusive pre-publication rights for extracts specifically covering the following topics: the relationship between Kennedy and Khrushchev and the two days that Kennedy spent with the Soviet leader in Russia; the links between the world’s press and the US government; the Cuban Missile Crisis as seen through the eyes of an insider; glimpses of life in the White House and personal details about the president, Jacqueline Kennedy and their children. He would also write about the role of the USA in South-East Asia as it appeared to American diplomats.
Quick was not only the first German publication to run an interview with President Kennedy, it was also the first to interview his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. Hagen was received by Johnson in April 1964 and again in the following year. In a manner of speaking, the door of the White House was open to Stephanie, since Pearson had been a friend of L.B.J. for many years.
Quick gave the princess another substantial pay increase, awarded her an additional success-related bonus of $2,500, and renewed her contract for a further three years.
It gave Stephanie belated satisfaction to be invited to President Johnson’s inauguration on 20 January 1964. After all, there had been a time when the country called her a ‘Nazi spy’ and wanted to deport her, and now she was honoured in this way.
While preparing for the second interview with President Johnson, Pearson had supplied her with a mass of important material. But at that precise moment Quick was sold by its publishers, and Hagen parted company with the magazine. This led to some complications for Pearson, as Stephanie’s best informant. He wrote to her on 29 April 1966:
Dear Stephanie,
It’s been good talking to you over the phone! What a pity it is that Hagen has picked this time to leave Quick, when for once I had gotten the desired appointment in Texas without postponement or hitch of any kind, which has now ironically gone to waste.
As for the new interview Quick wants, I must first get all the details concerning the new person they want to send: a curriculum vitae, name, age, background etc., before I can take the responsibility for asking for one. Because I must be able to vouch for the person they will send. But please tell them, with the war in Vietnam and the political situation as it is, it will not be an easy job for me to get the desired interview. However, I will endeavour my very best to get it.
I rely on your friendship to tell me truthfully if this new situation with Quick protects my best interests.
I took it upon myself to introduce Hagen to the most important people in Washington DC on the three occasions he came here. I arranged one interview for him with Kennedy and two with Johnson. He met Rusk and MacNamara, Senator Fulbright, Johnson when Vice-President, Hubert Humphrey as Senator and later Vice-President, to name only a few. I have given Quick and Hagen a terrific build-up, and will now have to explain the sudden change. I naturally trust you and rely on your judgement, as I did with Hagen. I hope you will remind the editorial office of Quick that it is after all the President of the US, and not just anybody.
I believe it would be advantageous if you could come here for a few days. I would arrange a dinner-party and you could explain the newly developed situation. It would be more plausible and effective coming from you. I’m thinking particularly of Bill Moyers [President Johnson’s press secretary], whom you can handle much better than I.
Take care of yourself – with best wishes
Sincerely yours
Drew
PS: The Secret Service is very demanding these days about who is admitted to the White House. For this reason alone I have to have the new man’s credentials.
Even after Karl-Heinz Hagen’s resignation, Stephanie stayed in close touch with him and he wrote her a particularly nice ‘farewell letter’: ‘It was only through your efforts that I was able to obtain an interview with the late President Kennedy; it was through your mediation that I have been able to talk to Vice-President Johnson, Messrs MacNamara and Dean Rusk and a great many American senators. Thanks to your intervention, in 1964 Quick achieved that sensational interview with President Johnson, in which he spoke of the Soviet Union’s fear of Federal Germany and made a plea to the Germans to strive for a better understanding with the Russians. This interview had enormous resonance all over the world and brought great prestige to Quick.’ Unfortunately, as it turned out, Stephanie did not hit it off with the new owner of Quick. This was also noticed by Quick’s chief competitor, Stern, who had been courting her for a long time.
At that time Stephanie often used to stay in Munich. She attempted to sell her collection of letters and documents to the Institute for Contemporary History in that city, but was unsuccessful. The then director of the institute, Prof. Helmut Krausnick, was very attracted by the 75-year-old princess, who really did not look her age. What is more, she acted ‘a good dozen years younger’, looking like an American woman with a lot of make-up and her hair in a ponytail. In Munich she looked for a ghost-writer for her memoirs. In this connection she thought of the Austro-Hungarian author, Hans Habe, but he was ‘booked up’ for the next three years. Another of her contacts living in Munich was the Hungarian Josef von Ferenczy, today a big entrepreneur in the media. But she was unable to do a deal with him either.
At the beginning of July 1966 Stephanie officially signed up with Stern magazine. The publisher at that time, Dr Gerd Bucerius,2 invited the princess to a meeting at his Hamburg headquarters. On 1 August Stephanie was introduced to the editor o
f Stern, Henri Nannen.3
Within a few days she was receiving interim payments totalling $2,000 in respect of her first month’s salary. In the middle of August the Gruner & Jahr company, publishers of Stern, sent her a contract, with a covering letter from Dr Bucerius.
Dear Princess,
You have been employed by us since 10 July 1966; your task is to develop story opportunities for Stern; in particular you have said you are willing to use your connection with figures in public life, or of public interest, in order to give our reporters and photographers the opportunity to produce stories about these personalities for Stern.
You have agreed to remain continuously in touch with us in order to make such proposals and to receive proposals from us, and if these proposals are accepted, to lend your support in despatching reporters and photographers.
For this work you will receive the monthly sum of $2,000.
Travel and other expenses arising from editorial assignments will be reimbursed by us.
You will work exclusively for Stern.
This contract terminates on 30 September 1967, unless renewed before that date.
I am sure we will enjoy a pleasant and successful collaboration.
Yours sincerely,
Gerd Bucerius
For the interview with President Johnson, she and Pearson together were paid $20,000 by Stern. During the preparations in Washington, Bucerius told Stephanie that Henri Nannen would be bringing with him the political editor of Die Zeit, Theo Sommer. The two men were invited to lunch by the president, were driven round his ranch, and were able to discuss German problems and many other topics. (The second interview between Henri Nannen and President Johnson took place in the summer of 1967. Drew Pearson took part in the five-hour conversation, which was also held at LBJ’s Texas ranch.) In general, working with Pearson became difficult, since his attitude towards the Kennedy clan, and especially towards the president’s widow, was rather hostile. This meant that his articles, or the material he offered to Stern, were not free from prejudice, though they were accepted nonetheless.
The next people Nannen wanted to interview for his magazine were Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and the Supreme Court judge, Earl Warren, who had headed the commission investigating the circumstances surrounding Kennedy’s assassination. The commission had concluded in effect that this had been a senseless act committed by a lone individual, and that there was no political conspiracy behind it. The findings of the investigation were revealed to the readers of Stern in a series of three articles.
The year 1966 would end with particular difficulties for Princess Stephanie. She was furious that the British consul in Geneva had refused her a visa to visit Britain. She was still regarded there as a Nazi spy. Her son, Prince Franz, was now working in the London branch of the Swiss bank that employed him. Franz telephoned the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins,4 then went to call on him in person and explained his mother’s wish for a visa to enter the United Kingdom. Stephanie herself wrote to the Home Secretary:
Dear Mr Jenkins,
Please accept my heartfelt thanks for being kind enough to receive my son when he called on you, I believe rather unceremoniously, two weeks ago in London.
I understand you told him you knew nothing of my case, but that you would order a personal investigation. I am immensely relieved to know that you are taking this matter into your own hands. However, since you know nothing about me, I am wondering if you may not think that my son exaggerated when he said that my case could be of great importance to you. Especially at the present time. Believe me, he was not exaggerating!
None of this is contained in my Home Office file, made up for the major part of newspaper stories, gossip, hearsay and a great deal of deliberate distortion.
I beg of you not to turn over my file to a subordinate but to deal with it yourself, your time permitting. […]
She ended the letter with a PS:
After the outbreak of war on 20 December 1939, my mother, Baroness Szepessy, and I left London for the United States. In other words, we lived in wartime London for a full three months with the British authorities’ knowledge and consent, unlike so many other foreigners who were immediately interned.
Stephanie wanted to be allowed to speak personally to Roy Jenkins, but to do so she needed an entry permit, even if it was only for 24 hours. She suggested as an alternative that Jenkins should choose someone trustworthy to meet her outside England. She added emphatically that she had no intention of coming to England with a view to settling there. Two weeks later, Roy Jenkins’ private secretary informed the princess that she could immediately apply for a British visa.
One of Stephanie’s most successful interviews was with Princess Grace of Monaco, the former Hollywood actress, Grace Kelly. Stephanie had a meeting with Prince Rainier’s press secretary in the fashionable Neuilly district of Paris. The ruler of Monaco agreed to the interview since Stern’s circulation of 1.4 million would guarantee huge publicity for his tiny principality.
Stephanie’s next coup was with another monarchy: she interviewed the wife of the Shah of Iran, Queen Farah Dibah. Drew Pearson then worked assiduously to set up an interview with Lady Bird Johnson, the wife of the US President. On 9 October 1967 he sent these precise instructions from the States:
Dear Stephanie,
I was sorry to miss your telephone call, but I have been on an ungodly rat-race through the Middle West on a speaking tour.
Here are the points the White House would like to make regarding an interview with Lady Bird:
(1) They would like to have questions prepared. These do not have to be submitted in advance but on the day of the interview.
(2) Mrs Johnson will speak into a tape-recorder. She finds this is a little easier for her and perhaps for the interviewer.
(3) It is suggested that I do the interviewing. However, I don’t believe this is any more necessary than it was with the President. In other words, a representative of Stern can be present and ask some or most of the questions. Mrs Johnson said she would feel a little more comfortable if I were there, in effect conducting the interview (my name does not have to appear in the matter at all).
(4) It is suggested that a Stern photographer could go with her on some of her trips any time in the near future. The White House has a lot of unused photos which are available, but they recognize that Stern would like to take some originals. This is agreeable.
… I have put in a request for a ticket to the Lynda Bird wedding [the Johnsons’ daughter] but I’m afraid it’s about hopeless. Space in the East Room is very limited and most of the correspondents are working through a ‘pool’ arrangement … I suggest that the interview be held early and saved for the week when Lynda is getting married.
The interview with Lady Bird Johnson was conducted in Washington by Anneliese Friedmann, who wrote under the name ‘Sybille’. The reporter thanked Stephanie von Hohenlohe – ‘Her Royal Highness’ – and added that Mr Pearson had looked after her ‘like an angel’.
However, Henri Nannen noticed that the princess had suddenly become less active than hitherto and was often not seen for weeks on end. He concluded that she was no longer interested in renewing her contract when it expired. And that was indeed the case.
Karl-Heinz Hagen, her former boss at Quick, was now working for Axel Springer.5 Hagen warmly recommended Stephanie as the ‘cosmopolitan princess’ with contacts in important political circles. According to one journalist, Springer was ‘the final Caesar to her Cleopatra, on the stage of her life’. What the German publishing tycoon found so fascinating was that Stephanie worked with the popular but much-feared American columnist Drew Pearson.
The first person to research and painstakingly document the Springer–Hohenlohe relationship was a Czech-born historian, Boris Celovsky: ‘On 4 June 1967 one of the Springer companies drew up a one-year contract with Stephanie, securing her exclusive services in establishing contacts in Germany and other countries. The contract provided for a monthly salar
y of $2,000, plus $190 for office costs and, of course, an expense account. In the spring of the following year the Axel Springer Verlag AG renewed the contract for a further three years. In 1971 Stephanie, now all of eighty years old, signed a new contract with Springer. This time her monthly salary was $2,500 plus expenses. The contract ran until 31 December 1975.’
When Stephanie began working for the Springer Group, Drew Pearson was still on hand in the early stages. In May 1968 he wrote to Springer: ‘I was very pleased to get the papers about your endowment at Brandeis University. I have taken a look at the campus and it is really very interesting. It was also a pleasure for me to write something about you and about the attempts by Berlin students to attack you on account of your honest behaviour. However, in my opinion, only part of the whole story has been told so far. I have uncovered a conspiratorial link between left-wing students, which runs from Berlin, via Paris, to New York. I am in the process of writing some articles on this really important subject.’
Brandeis University is in Waltham, Massachusetts, not far from Boston. The endowment of a professorship there was Axel Springer’s personal contribution to making recompense, at least in a small way, for the appalling wrongs done to the Jews in the Second World War.
When Pearson finished one of the articles mentioned, he sent a copy to Springer with a covering letter: ‘Princess Hohenlohe has been very helpful to me by obtaining information. I am sure you were unaware that when the students stormed your building, this was intended to be the start of an almost worldwide student revolt. If you like, you are free to publish this article. I will quickly send the rest to Princess Hohenlohe, or direct to you, as I finish them.’