Heil Hitler on The Mall: The day London played host to a Nazi funeral . . . within yards of Buckingham Palace

 

By Paul Harris
Last updated at 5:13 PM on 04th November 2009


It looks like a scene from Britain's worst wartime nightmare. 
A coffin is paraded down The Mall in sight of Buckingham Palace, hailed by arms raised in Nazi salutes. 
The flag on the coffin bears a swastika. The respectful silence is broken only by the stamp of military boots. 
 

Moving: Shots of Leopold Von Hoesch's state funeral in 1936, to be shown on Wartime London with Harry Harris on the Discovery Channel

Were it not for the Grenadier Guardsmen, the extraordinary top photograph might have been taken after Hitler's plans to dominate Britain and Europe came to fruition in London. 
But this was 1936, three years before the start of the Second World War, and the event was the funeral of the German ambassador, Leopold von Hoesch.

 

It was a spectacular tribute with crowds lining the roadside as the coffin was transferred to a gun carriage for its journey down The Mall. 

It was accompanied by bearskin-clad British bandsmen playing solemn music. 
 

Revealed: This extraordinary scene of Nazi salutes at the German ambassador's funeral will also be shown in the programme

Carrying: Von Hoesch's coffin shown covered with a flag bearing the swastika

Above, from a balcony on Carlton House Terrace, scores of embassy staff and colleagues held arms aloft. Years later, that salute would take on a sinister significance. 
 

Von Hoesch was well liked by British statesmen and was a trusted consort of Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, who joined the procession that day. He was not a true Nazi and frequently argued with Hitler. In fact he was widely regarded as the country's best hope for improving Anglo-German relations. 

But his death dramatically changed the climate. His replacement was the notorious Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler's favourite foreign policy adviser, later to be hanged for war crimes. 

Film of von Hoesch's funeral was uncovered by London cab driver and historian Harry Harris, and forms part of a Discovery Channel programme, Wartime London with Harry Harris, to be screened on Sunday. 
The German embassy building in The Mall had been remodelled by Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer, to lend some Third Reich grandeur to the heart of London. 

An Italian marble staircase, donated by Mussolini, was installed. 
The building is now the home of the Royal Society, whose executive secretary Stephen Cox said: 'It must have been striking to see Grenadier Guards and Nazi soldiers marching together down The Mall. 
‘They could easily have been facing each other on the battlefield only a few years later.'
 

Troops: Grenadier Guards march along The Mall ahead of Von Hoesch's swastika-draped coffin

Carlton House Terrace also houses the grave of Von Hoesch's dog Giro, who died in 1934 after coming into contact with a live wire.

Giro, who was much-loved by his owner, was buried in what was the front garden of the property, and his grave is marked by a tombstone bearing the words Giro: Ein treuer Begleiter (translated as Giro: A true companion). Interestingly, Giro's grave is the only Nazi memorial in London.