Hitched to the crack Nord Express out of Paris for Berlin, a privately chartered sleeping car was hailed in the dead of night at Cologne this week with shouts of "Heil Windsor!" Sliding into Berlin early next morning, the Duke and Duchess were met on the platform by Nazi Labor Front Leader Dr. Robert Ley who presented a bouquet of red roses. Excited German women cried "We schön sie aussieht" ("how well she looks!") while the Duchess' two maids pointed out to porters her 30 pieces of luggage, most of it still labeled "W. S." (Wallis Simpson).
Windsor, whose family name at his birth was Saxe-Coburg mid Gotha, spoke German like a native with Dr. Ley who promptly drove Germany's guests to the Kaiserhof Hotel, generally considered Berlin's No. i Nazi rendezvous. There Dr. Ley presented a huge box of chocolates with card addressed to "Her Royal Highness, the Duchess of Windsor"—although the Duchess has not yet been raised by His Britannic Majesty to the rank of Royal Highness.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Windsor, duly confirmed by George VI in that rank, was slated to be received by Der Führer and Chancellor Adolf Hitler at his Bavarian snuggery on Oct. 22, to sail with the Duchess from Cherbourg on the Bremen on Nov. 6 for Manhattan.
While the Duchess rested at the Kaiserhof, Dr. Ley started the Duke out on what is to be an intensive fortnight's tour of German factories, housing and worker recreation projects by driving H. R. H. to the "model machine works" of R. Stock & Co. Taking England's onetime King repeatedly and vigorously by the coat lapel, Dr. Ley proved himself a buttonhole orator, talking loud enough to be heard ten feet away by correspondents above the whirr of machines.
"This was a great rubbish heap—this factory!" the Nazi roared in Windsor's ear. "It was worse than a rubbish heap because it was fouled by communists. And then The Leader Adolf Hitler came along and all that was changed! Look at the happy workingmen! LOOK AT THEM!!"
While the Duke lit a cigaret to gain elbow room, Buttonhole Orator Ley singled out a worker, crying: "You are happy here, are you not, my worker comrade?"
On the wall a few feet away a huge placard: "HUSH! Remember it is your duty to be silent!" The worker looked at Dr. Ley, then at the placard, then at Dr. Ley again and answered: "Ja, ja. Yes, yes."
After His Royal Highness and the Labor Front Leader had passed on, another German workman told correspondents, "It would be better for Germany if he had stayed on the throne." Germans seemed this week to think that Windsor must be ardently pro-German, reacted by waiting about the Kaiserhof in crowds of as many as 300, cheering and all but mobbing H.R.H. at every opportunity.