Bombshell

Ludwig Leidig Copyright 2013 All rights reserved — Ludwig Leidig

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission, in writing, from the publisher. ttcs pty. ltd.

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ISBN: 978-1-62857-149-3

Typography and page composition by J. K. Eckert & Company

This book is dedicated to Barbara in recognition of her courage and her fight for freedom.

Contents

Foreword ...... vii Preface and Acknowledgments ...... ix Introduction ...... xi

Chapter 1—Early Life ...... 1

Chapter 2—An African Adventure, 1936 ...... 7

Chapter 3—The Böttcherstrasse, Hitler, and Focke-Wulf ...... 15

Chapter 4—Life with Roselius...... 27

Chapter 5—Another World War...... 35

Chapter 6—The Death of Ludwig Roselius and the Missing Will ...... 55

Chapter 7—Life after Death ...... 61

Chapter 8—Bombed into Submission ...... 83

Chapter 9—Corresponding with Dr. Leidig...... 101

Chapter 10—The English Books ...... 151

Chapter 11—Life in Post-war Germany...... 157

Chapter 12—Life in Australia ...... 171

Chapter 13—Barbara Returns to Germany...... 183

Appendixes ...... 189 Bibliography ...... 233 About the Author...... 235 Index ...... 237

v

Foreword

Incredible as it may seem, this is a true story. The documents and letters on which it is based were always there, although at the bottom of a trunk, and I first remember reading snippets of them over fifty years ago. Even today, many people do not want the truth emerging as it may upset the ruling para- digm. My mother, Barbara Leidig (née Götte or Goette), died in October 1997 at age eighty-nine, in Adelaide, Australia; and for the last fifteen years I have been piecing together her puzzling life during the Third Reich in Nazi Ger- many. This book has taken just over a year to write with a great deal of research and editing. Thinking about this story has occupied my whole life. Shortly before Barbara died, she told me that I would eventually find every- thing. Who was Dr. Ludwig Roselius? How did an American multinational cor- poration (ITT) become majority shareholder in the German aircraft manufac- turer Focke-Wulf during World War II? Why did Hitler change his mind when Dr. Roselius’ museums, art collections, and above all, his cultural and reli- gious views clashed sharply with Nazi dogma? Why did Barbara risk her life and why was she willing to sacrifice everything for this man? This book deals with a great adventure story that happened during a tumul- tuous century. Barbara, a modern, intelligent, and liberated female, a sophisti- cated woman of the world, was “all class” according to a friend who met her in the 1970s. She was highly disciplined, with a love for travel, challenges, and even dangerous events, a heroine with a guardian angel. She takes the reader along at a fast pace, and there is excitement at every turn. Some events were quite disturbing, but as she told her husband when they married, life would certainly not be boring. Bombshell is historically factual and it deals with good and evil, money and power, a brutal dictatorship, and the need for women’s rights. Barbara often

vii viii BOMBSHELL told us that if there were a knock on the door at 3 a.m., then it was probably the end. Who are the good guys and who are the villains? It has all finally been laid bare. Seventy years of cover-ups, intentional and unintentional, are examined here. A riveting account would be an understatement. I invite the reader to participate in a most exciting, unusual, and important story that I have had the privilege to reveal.

—Ludwig Leidig, Christmas, 2012 Preface and Acknowledgments

My mother, Barbara, deserves posthumous praise for the meticulous records she kept. Although unintentional, the letters and other correspondence she treasured have enabled her family and others to experience, not only her own fascinating story, but also an insight into German families before and after World War II. I would sincerely like to thank my editor, Karen Collins, for her belief in Barbara’s story, and Kevin Lower, my researcher, who pro- vided me with a great deal of new material. I am greatly indebted to both of them. My daughter, brother, and nephews are also to be praised for the sup- port they have given me during the writing of this book. Special thanks go to German President Joachim Gauck, who kindly assisted me with inquiries to authorities in Bremen. I thank the many support- ers in Bremen including the State Archives, and historians Dr. Brigitte Hamann, Arn Strohmeyer, and Lukas Aufgebauer. Locally, I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the Burnside and Payneham libraries that assisted me with computer technology and encouraged me at all times. Profes- sor Elizabeth Tumasonis, John Strehlow, Dr. Max Lohe, Ron and Julia Curtis, Chris Rothe, Russell Jamison, Dr. Maurice Schild, and Dr. Martin Davey also provided valuable and constructive criticism.

ix

Introduction

In 1935, when twenty-six-year-old Barbara Goette (or Götte) was about to start her PhD in philosophy, she met renowned Bremen industrialist and huge global player, Dr. Lud- wig Roselius. Before World War I, Ludwig Roselius had established himself in New York by manufac- turing decaffeinated coffee through his Kaffee HAG Corpora- tion. When Dr. Roselius asked Barbara to put her studies on hold to join him in the HAG conglom- erate, she agreed, and over time became his closest collaborator. She was propelled into a sequence of astonishing, exciting, and dan- gerous events. Over a nine-year period, Barbara saw the world; she travelled first-class, stayed in the best hotels, ate at the most exclu- sive restaurants, and met people we still read about today. She wrote articles and books with Dr. Roselius, and nursed him dur- ing his many bouts of illness until Dr. Roselius and Barbara (around 1936) his death from an embolism in 1943. At the time, it was easy to put the Nazis and a world war to the back of her mind, and in later years, Barbara acknowledged how privileged she was to have survived such turbulent times in style, while others were far less fortunate.

xi xii BOMBSHELL

After Barbara’s death in 1997, I inherited a treasure trove of documents dating from almost the turn of the century. Many were written in the old Ger- man script, not used after 1941, which have taken many years to translate. While I knew something of my mother’s life in Germany, the information contained in the documents reinforced for me how fascinating her story really was. Finally, in 2011, together with my friend Kevin, I began comprehensive investigations into the lives of both my mother and Ludwig Roselius in pre- and post-war Germany. Being bilingual, I was able to access and interpret accounts in both written and spoken German, including telephone conversa- tions with historians, Arn Strohmeyer and Dr Brigitte Hamann, whose advice has proved invaluable; relatives and other contacts still living in Germany have all helped me to piece together my mother’s story. This account explores the special relationship between Barbara and Rose- lius and his ongoing ill-health; the restoration and destruction of his beloved Böttcherstrasse, a quaint street in Bremen renowned for its museums and expressionist architecture; his connections with the Nazi Party and American tycoons, including Henry Ford and Colonel Sosthenes Behn; his involvement with aircraft manufacturer, Focke-Wulf; the disappearance of the codicil to his will in 1943; and his death at the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin, where both Hitler and Göring had suites. Considerable intrigue surrounded Roselius’ political leanings, business dealings, and acquaintances. Translated documents, letters, telegrams, diary extracts, photographs, and the stories my mother shared with my brother and me as we were growing up provide an impression of the couple’s relationship, including their families, friends, hobbies, achievements, and disappointments. This story also looks at Barbara’s life after the death of Roselius—the contin- uation of her studies, her marriage, the birth of her sons, the family’s move to Australia, and her husband’s tragic death. It is the story of my mother, Barbara Leidig (née Götte), an intelligent, independent, and hardworking individual, who was ahead of her time, and whose life spanned two world wars, two continents, and two men: one, her soul mate, a clever, shrewd, but kindly billionaire whose business dealings and associates, by virtue of the dark period in which he lived, continue even today to be questioned; and the other, an academic, the father of her children whom she loved, but who lived always in the shadow of the other. xiii

1 Early Life

In Naumburg, Germany, on July 26, 1908, Heinrich and Helene Götte welcomed Lucie Helene Barbara Hildegard Götte to their family. Lucie was their first daughter, and a sister to twelve-year-old Ivo. Heinrich was a provin- cial court judge and, because of his work, the family relo- cated every seven years to various cities across Ger- many. The Göttes were wealthy, well connected, and respected, and little Lucie grew into an inquisitive, confident, but polite child who adapted easily to new situations and people. When Lucie was two, the family moved to Posen1 where they stayed for the next seven years before settling in Kas- sel in central Germany. A few years later, Lucie told her parents that she didn’t like her name and wanted to be called Barbara. Helene (Buko), Barbara and Heinrich circa 1910

1 Poznań is one of the oldest cities in Poland. When Barbara’s family moved there in 1910, Po- sen, as the Germans referred to it, was part of the German Empire.

1 2BOMBSHELL

Class distinction2 was still very much in vogue during the Weimar Repub- lic3 and the family employed domestics to help run the household. And while Helene sometimes exhibited a certain degree of elitism where the servants were concerned, Barbara did not. But perhaps Helene was a product of the times in which she grew up. The family attended the Reformed Church4, and on Sundays, Barbara, who was always in a hurry, would skip happily ahead of her parents and brother as they walked to church. This weekly ritual ended when Barbara left home to go to university, and it was not until 1945, when she married, that she attended church regularly again. From an early age, Barbara excelled in mathematics and was often asked to demonstrate the solutions to particularly complex problems. It was the beginning of Barbara’s passion for learning and the sharing of knowledge, and the start of many fulfilling years in the classroom. In 1927, her father, a long-time sufferer of angina, died of a heart attack. Despite her loss, Bar- bara immersed herself in her studies and matriculated from the Gymnasium5 in 1928 with excellent results. A good education was important to Barbara, and it meant a lot to both her parents that she did well. Barbara had fond memories of her school years, and at the age of eighty, she travelled from her home in Australia back to Germany to attend the sixtieth anniversary reunion of her class. After finishing school, Barbara completed a standard first year of mathe- matics, physics, and chemistry at the university in Freiburg before moving to the much larger University of Kiel to concentrate on mathematics, physics, and philosophy. At Kiel, Barbara was one of only three females reading math- ematics. She studied under Professor Kaluza, the German mathematician who pioneered early string theory. Quantum Mechanics was in its infancy during this period, but the mathematics moved ahead rapidly. Professor Kaluza was impressed by Barbara’s accuracy and at how quickly she was able to grasp concepts. Her love of mathematics and philosophy never wavered and remained with her all her life.

2 World War II finally put an end to class distinction. Some historians even think of the two world wars as revolutions that ushered in European socialism. I once asked my mother about the Leidigs and she said that they were a class below the Göttes. 3 The Weimar Republic existed between the wars and eventually gave way to the 12-year Nazi Third Reich. See ‘Antidemokratisches Denken in der Weimarer Republik’ by Kurt Sontheimer, 1957. 4 The Reformed Church was Protestant and Calvinist. In 1948, it became part of the Evangelical Church in Germany. 5 A gymnasium is a secondary school with a strong emphasis on academic learning, much like the British grammar Schools, or prep schools in the United States. EARLY LIFE 3

Helene also excelled educationally, and was dux of her school. She had dreamed of attending university, but it was not until 1904 that women were able to enroll officially in tertiary studies. Barbara, on the other hand, grew up during a time of great social turmoil and change, and although she retained many of the old values instilled in her by her parents, she took full advantage of the educational opportunities that were now available to young women. University life suited Barbara. While at first, many of her friends struggled with the extra freedom and independence that it afforded them, Barbara rev- eled in it. In the year leading up to her university examinations, when other students chose skiing over study, Barbara would revise for eight hours a day, six days a week. She had other interests aside from the study of matter and motion, and mathematical formulas, and it was while at university that she discovered and developed a love for ballroom dancing. On Sunday after- noons, she would attend the popular Tanztees, or tea dances, as they were known outside of Germany. She pursued her love of ballroom dancing throughout her entire life for as long as she was able. In 1933, while Barbara was at university, Helene and Ivo moved to an apartment in the exclusive Nikolsburger Platz in Berlin. Ivo stayed there until he married just a few years later. He once quipped that he preferred living in Berlin, as “there were too many coffee sacks in Bremen!” The apartment was luxurious and occupied the entire fourth floor of the building. My mother told me that while Ivo was courting Irmi in Berlin, he would come home with a new, tantalizing, and fantastic story about Roselius almost every evening. She later checked these stories with him and he assured her that they were mostly untrue and greatly exaggerated. During the early 1930s, unemployment was high, and there was frequent unrest in the streets of Berlin. Nevertheless, Ivo found success as a concert singer and pianist in the city, and he later became professor of music at the Berlin University where he trained opera singers, including the famous German baritone, Herbert Fliether. Barbara was close to her mother and brother, and would often stay at the apartment when visiting the capital; she enjoyed the atmosphere—the cafés, opera, concerts, dancing clubs, and theatres, and she told me once that when the lively Jewish popula- tion left, life in Berlin became quite boring. It was not until early 1945, after a series of bombing raids destroyed the entire Nikolsburger Platz, leaving only Helene’s apartment house standing, that Barbara’s mother finally agreed to join her son and daughter-in-law in Halberstadt.6

6 Halberstadt, although about 200 kms west of Berlin, was just inside the border of the former East Germany. Over 90 percent of Halberstadt was destroyed during World War II. Barbara’s grandfather, August Götte, co-founded one of the largest firms that manufactured alcohol for in- dustrial uses in Germany—D. Götte & Zimmermann A.G. In the 1950s, the communists usurped this company. 4BOMBSHELL

In 1934/35, Barbara completed her state examinations in mathematics, physics, and philosophy—the equivalent today of an honors degree, with high distinctions. Barbara had planned to start her PhD studies in philoso- phy immediately, but when her brother Ivo became engaged to the youngest daughter of billionaire industrialist Dr. Ludwig Roselius, life over the next nine years and beyond was to change dramatically for Barbara. Ludwig Roselius was sixty, with two grown up daughters from a first marriage and a young son from his second, when he was introduced to Barbara and her mother by his daughter Irmgard and future son-in-law, Ivo, who later had a seat on the board of Kaffee HAG. Roselius was born in Bremen in 1874 to coffee importer Diederich Roselius, and the main source of his wealth came from decaffeinated coffee, which he had helped to develop in 1906, and which he marketed under the brand name Kaffee HAG. By the time Roselius met Barbara, decaf- Dr. Ludwig Roselius feinated coffee was one of the most popular beverages in Europe and America. The Kaffee HAG corporation comprised a number of other successful businesses, including the Angelsachsen-Verlag Publishing House, the Bremen-Amerika-Bank, Focke-Wulf Flugzeugbau A.G., a cos- metics and dye factory, a book export company, and the Böttcherstrasse, a narrow street that runs from the market square in Bremen down to the banks of the river Weser, and which Roselius had gradually and lovingly restored between 1922 and 1931 with the specific purpose of housing museums and art galleries. The street today is a popular tourist attraction, and perhaps, after the creation of decaffeinated coffee and Kaffee HAG, it is Ludwig Roselius’ most significant achievement. The bond between Roselius and Barbara, and indeed the Götte family, was immediate and reciprocal. Barbara found Roselius to be exciting, intel- ligent, and patriotic, with multi-faceted interests that included a genuine interest in philosophy and an enthusiasm for art and architecture. Given his EARLY LIFE 5 huge wealth, he was also surpris- ingly modest. Barbara’s respect for Roselius increased as their friend- ship deepened, and she saw first- hand that the success of his businesses was achieved through relentless hard work, perseverance, dedication, and loyalty to his employees. Roselius believed very much in the dignity of the common person, and improved working conditions for his employees including the introduction of a library, canteens, and rotating shifts, and he allowed his accoun- tants to sit rather than stand. While not always visible, Roselius was actively involved in all aspects of his vast empire. He remained the person in charge, and final deci- sions rested with him. Barbara told me that he was suspicious of The Böttcherstrasse and the ‘Tree of Life’ people’s motives and detested being photographed. He also enjoyed an occasional visit to a casino, but Barbara found games of chance rather uninteresting. Roselius said that he could never be a successful speculator as he saw developments too soon. He once said that the United States would crash one day, but would not predict when this would occur. Although he had immense wealth and power, Roselius was not a well man. He had developed kidney disease whilst a lieutenant colonel at the front during World War I, and in 1934, a rare form of cancer caused the amputation of his left leg. He also suffered from fevers and indeterminate illnesses, which sometimes laid him low for days. These setbacks were an annoyance for a man who had no time for idleness. Roselius was impressed with the sophisticated young university graduate, and her practical and disciplined approach to life, and he urged Barbara to interrupt her university studies and join him at the HAG conglomerate. In a letter from 1944, she wrote that perhaps it had been a mistake in retrospect, and she should have completed her studies first. 6BOMBSHELL

Nine years after she first went to work for him, Barbara was to pay homage to Roselius’ character in a posthumous biographical essay, which was eventu- ally released by the Historical Society of Bremen, and which appears, in its entirety, in chapter seven.

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