Visit of the Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George, OM, MP to Germany, September 2nd-26th, 1936

The size of the window in Hitler’s ‘Book Room’ in his newly revamped house - the Berghof (formerly Haus Wachenfeld) – may have given his visitors pause for thought. Here was a man operating, very obviously, on a grand and ambitious scale. But Lloyd George was impressed by the major works taking place under the National Socialist regime – motorways, new party headquarters, land reclamation – all of which were (forcibly) reducing unemployment, a problem shared by Britain.

Lloyd George, who visited Hitler alone on 4th September and then returned for tea on the 5th with his entourage, was accompanied on this trip by a number of people, including his son Gwilym, his daughter Megan, Dr Thomas Jones (Deputy Secretary to the cabinet), T P Conwell Evans (academic, German speaker, Secretary of the Anglo-German Fellowship), Bertrand Dawson/Lord Dawson of Penn (Royal Physician and author of a report published in 1920 on the provision of medical services nationwide, a report which was influential in discussions later on the setting up of the National Health Service) and his private secretary, A. J. Sylvester, who recorded the events on film.