Disney in Germany.

[Bror Hellman]

Hi everyone from a lon absentee member of this list.

I have a friend in the U.S. who have been involved in a dispute with a
theatrical producer about relationships between Disney and Hitler.

The producer states that Disney and Adolf Hitler did meet in 1935 when
Disney visited Germany. There are no records of what Disney did in germany
in 1935 in the Disney Archives (or any other U.S. source that we could find)
and the producer quotes a 1935 issue of the german paper Völkische
Beobachter and unnamed Münich papers wrote about this. Both I and my friend
are very interested in this, but because neither of us reads or speaks
german, I send this question to this list.

Perhaps one of you have better information or perhaps you speak German and
have a library you visit?

I would be greatful for any help locating articles about Disney and which
people he met. Preferrably if there is a source for the papers or at least
someone who can quote issues and pages and a general description of what it
says... I could propably research the rest from there...

The actual quote I saw from the producer was this:
"Firstly, the evidence for the meeting of Disney and Hitler is in the Disney
Archives and in the Volkische Beobachter, the German Nazi newspaper. The
Archives point out that Munich newspapers, in the summer of 1935, welcomed
Disney (with headlines, no less) as "the great white hope against the Jews
of Hollywood."

There is no evidence of this in the Disney archives, but because of the
language barrier (my German is lousy) I have a hard time checking the other
statements.

... and besides it is interesting to know more about Disney's german
adventure anyhow.

// Steamboat Willie