Sefton Delmer

Denis Sefton Delmer (24 May 1904, Berlin, Germany – 4 September 1979, Lamarsh, Essex) was a British journalist of Australian heritage and propagandist for the British government during the Second World War.

In 1917, the Delmer family was repatriated to England in a prisoner exchange between the British and German governments.

Fluent in German, he became friendly with Ernst Röhm, who arranged for him to interview Adolf Hitler in 1931.

During the war, he led a black propaganda campaign against Hitler by radio from England.

It was so successful that Delmer was named in the Nazis' Black Book for immediate arrest after their planned invasion of Britain.

Denis Sefton Delmer, known familiarly as "Tom", was born in Berlin as a British subject, as a son of Australian parents living in Germany.

His father, Frederick Sefton Delmer, was British of |Australian heritage, born in Hobart, Tasmania, who became Professor of English Literature at Berlin University and author of a standard textbook for German schools.

On the outbreak of the First World War his father was interned in Ruhleben internment camp, near Berlin, as an enemy alien.

Whilst in Germany, he became friendly with Ernst Röhm, who arranged for him to become the first British journalist to interview Adolf Hitler, in April 1931.

In the 1932 German federal election, Delmer travelled with Hitler aboard his private aircraft.

He was "embedded with Nazi party activists" at this time, "taking copious notes on everything from the style of the would-be Führer's oratory to the group think that lay behind the bond he was forming with the German people."

He was also present in 1933 when Hitler inspected the aftermath of the Reichstag fire.

During this period, Delmer was criticised for being a Nazi sympathiser, and for a time, the British government thought he was in the pay of the Nazis.

At the same time, the Nazi leaders were convinced Delmer was a member of MI6; his denials of any involvement only served to strengthen their belief that he was not only a member, but an important one.

In 1933, Delmer was sent to France as head of the Daily Express Paris Bureau.

In 1936, Delmer married the artist Isabel Nichols.

He was brought up to speak only German until the age of five, and as late as 1939 spoke English with a slight accent.

Delmer was educated at the Friedrichswerdersches Gymnasium, Berlin, St Paul's School, London, and Lincoln College, Oxford, where he obtained a second-class degree in modern languages.

After leaving university, Delmer worked as a freelance journalist until he was recruited by the Daily Express to become head of its new Berlin Bureau.

Delmer covered important events in Europe including the Spanish Civil War and the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in 1939.

He also reported on the German western offensive in 1940.

Delmer returned to Britain and worked for a time as an announcer for the German service of the BBC.

After Hitler broadcast a speech from the Reichstag offering peace terms, Delmer responded immediately, stating that the British hurl the terms "right back at you, in your evil-smelling teeth".

Delmer's instant, and unauthorised rejection had a great impact on Germany, where Joseph Goebbels concluded it had to have come from the government.

That gave an impact any authorisation would have prevented and produced consternation in Whitehall.

The effect was desirable, but it was unclear whether such a spokesman would again happen to say what the government wanted.

Delmer considered that British wartime attempts to counter German propaganda were misguided, with broadcasts aimed at anti-Nazis who did not need convincing, in what today we call an echo chamber of like-minded people.

When he was in a position to do so, he broadcast posing as a fanatical Nazi who was critical of the Nazi leadership, using salacious material about officials' sadomasochistic orgies, luring in listeners and breaking taboos about insulting Nazi officials.

About 40% of German soldiers listened to Delmer's stations; they were among the top three in Munich, and very effective.

In September 1940, Delmer was recruited by the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) to organise black propaganda broadcasts to Nazi Germany as part of a psychological warfare campaign.

Leonard Ingrams of the PWE gained clearance for Delmer to work for the Political Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office.

The operation joined a number of other "research units" operating propaganda broadcasts, based at Wavendon Tower (now in Milton Keynes), but in Spring 1941 Delmer was given his own base, a former private house in nearby Aspley Guise.

The concept was that the radio station would undermine Hitler by pretending to be a fervent Hitler-Nazi supporter.

Under Delmer's leadership a number of notable people played a part: Muriel Spark, Ellic Howe, and Delmer's college friend, the cartoonist Osbert Lancaster.

Some of Lancaster's Daily Express cartoons were reprinted into booklets aimed at civilians under German occupation and dropped by the RAF.

Delmer's first, most notable success was a shortwave station: Gustav Siegfried Eins (Gustave Siegfried One), G3 in the Research units.

It was "run" by the character "Der Chef", an unrepentant Nazi, who disparaged both Winston Churchill ("that flatfooted son of a drunken Jew") and the "Parteikommune", the "Party Commune" supporters who betrayed the Nazi revolution.

The station name, "Gustav Siegfried Eins" (phonetic alphabet for "GS1") left a question in listeners' minds – did it mean Geheimsender 1: (Secret Transmitter 1) or Generalstab 1 (General Staff 1)?

GS1 went on the air on the evening of 23 May 1941—earlier than intended, to exploit the capture of Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess, in Britain.

Peter Seckelmann, a former German writer of detective stories who had fled Nazi Germany, was recruited from a Pioneer Corps bomb-disposal squad in London and he was the first member of the team to arrive at the discreet house known as "The Rookery" in Aspley Guise.