Chanel with the scent of Nazism: was the legendary fashion designer a German spy?
Without a doubt, Coco Chanel was one of the most outstanding women of the 20th century. Throughout the world, this personality is associated with style, sophistication and luxury. Chanel outfits are worn by royalty, wives of top government officials and movie stars. It seems that Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's reputation is impeccable, but it is not. There are moments in this woman’s life that are difficult to forgive. It's hard to believe, but the legend of world fashion collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
In 1940, when France was occupied by German troops, Coco Chanel decided to stay in Paris. Many famous patriotic people did the same: singers Maurice Chevalier and Edith Piaf, writer Jean Cocteau and the future president of the country Francois Mitterrand. But no one realized that Chanel had a completely different reason for not leaving her homeland.
After the war, rumors began to spread about Chanel's connections with the Nazis. Writer Hal Vaughan, author of In Bed with the Enemy, argues that they were not without reason. The trendsetter actually collaborated with German intelligence during the war years.
Vaughan also noted the unusual life position of this woman. She was completely uninterested in politics and was indifferent to the troubles that surrounded her. The main ideal in her life was fashion, and Coco didn’t care that the Nazis were in power.
She lived in the fashionable Parisian Ritz hotel, where only high-ranking Germans were accommodated. Chanel was in constant contact with the Nazi occupation regime. An ugly story also surfaced about her affair with a 44-year-old German officer, Baron Hans Gunther von Dinklage.
This German is usually described as a real playboy who loved beautiful women, expensive cars and tennis. But Hal Vaughan writes that behind the mask of a playmaker was a cunning employee of the Abwehr (German military intelligence). Von Dinklage infiltrated the Parisian elite back in the late 20s and clearly carried out his assigned tasks.
Coco Chanel and the German intelligence officer manipulated each other. Each used their partner for their own purposes. Von Dinklage facilitated the accommodation of his 57-year-old mistress in an expensive hotel, where he himself lived. He helped her in other matters as well. For example, he rescued Chanel’s nephew Andre Palasse from a prisoner of war camp.
The woman was also promised to return control of the Chanel perfume brand, which she sold to the Jewish Wertheimer brothers back in 1924. True, nothing came of it. Chanel did not know that the law “on the return of Aryan property” by the Jews did not work in her case. The business owners outwitted everyone: after fleeing the Nazis to the USA, they registered the enterprise under the name of a figurehead - a Christian.
In the Abwehr, Coco Chanel's agent had the call sign "Agent F-7124" and the code name "Westminster". She received a nickname with a British flavor because her second lover was an English duke. In August 1941, the woman went on a reconnaissance mission to Madrid.
Hal Vaughan is sure that Chanel was a completely untalented and therefore useless spy. In the capital of Spain, she decided on the affairs of her company, and “undercover work” was limited to exchanging pleasantries with a British diplomat. The writer claims that the fashion designer never photographed military installations or obtained secret documents. She simply helped the Nazis solve some issues, using her rich connections in Spain. And she used their location for personal gain.
After the fall of the Third Reich, Coco Chanel was threatened with trial for collaboration. So she fled to neutral Switzerland. Vaughan writes that she had to sit there until Winston Churchill himself vouched for her person. Chanel managed to return to Paris only in 1954. Ironically, the main investor in restoring her business was Pierre Wertheimer. Yes, it was one of the Jewish brothers from whom the insidious lady tried to take away the company.
Coco Chanel left this world in January 1971. She died on her bed in a room at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. The same place where her lover von Dinklage once helped her settle. Yes, the German also did not suffer the punishment he deserved. He also hid in Lausanne, Switzerland, and, they say, continued his meetings with his lady love there. Only this time Chanel helped him with money and connections.