British “Press baron” Viscount Rothermere on Adolf Hitler
“Great numbers of people in England regard Herr Hitler as an ogre, but I would like to tell them how I have found him. He exudes good-fellowship. He is simple, unaffected and obviously sincere. It is untrue that he habitually addresses private individuals as if they were public meetings.
He is supremely intelligent. There are only two others I have known to whom I could apply this remark— Lord Northcliffe and Mr. Lloyd George. If you ask Herr Hitler a question, he makes an instant reply full of information and eminent good sense. There is no man living whose promise given in regard to something of real moment I would sooner take.
He believes that Germany has a divine mission and that the German people are destined to save Europe from the designs of revolutionary Communism. He has a great sense of the sanctity of the family, to which Communism is antagonistic, and in Germany has stopped the publication of all indecent books, the production of suggestive plays and films, and has thoroughly cleaned up the moral life of the nation.
Herr Hitler has a great liking for the English people. He regards the English and the Germans as being of one race. This liking he cherishes notwithstanding, as he says, that he has been sorely tried by malicious personal comments and cartoons in the English Press.
I was talking with Herr Hitler some eighteen months ago when he said, ‘Certain English circles in Europe speak of me as an adventurer. My reply is that adventurers made the British Empire.’
[…]
Herr Hitler is proud to call himself a man of the people, but, notwithstanding, the impression that has remained with me after every meeting with him is that of a great gentleman. He places a guest at his ease immediately. When you have been with him for five minutes, you feel that you have known him for a long time.
His courtesy is beyond words, and men and women alike are captivated by his ready and disarming smile.
He is a man of rare culture. His knowledge of music, painting and architecture is profound.”
– Harmsworth, Harold (1st Viscount Rothermere), in: Viscount Rothermere: Warnings and Predictions, London: Eyre and Spottiswoode 1939, p. 135 f. Source: Alfrothul
See also: . . . I Talked To Hitler by the Right Honourable David Lloyd George