On 21 October, the Duke of Windsor inadvertently caused a bit of an embarrassment for his hosts. After visiting a factory, he decided that he would like to see the Württemberg Royal Palace in Stuttgart, where he had spent some weeks in 1913 with the King. Unbeknownst to him, the palace was now a museum, and it was currently hosting an “anti-British colonial exposition.” The New York Times reported, “The Duke seemed unmoved. Making no remarks and asking no questions, he displayed a courteous but not very cordial interest. The various functionaries making up his brown-shirt entourage withdrew discretely to corners and tried to discover who should be held responsible for the blunder.”1
The Duke also visited an automobile works and the Daimler-Benz workers’ colony, where workers are permitted to buy their own five-room home over the course of twenty years at a rate of 40 marks monthly. He also met with Mercedes racing car drivers Rudolf Caracciola, Manfred von Brauchitsch and Richard Seaman. The Duchess joined the others for lunch in a 15th-century council house at Esslingen. Afterwards, they both visited the Index Company machinery works nearby.
The evening was spent with workers and peasants in the great Stuttgart municipal auditorium at a Strength Through Joy festival. There was a pageant and a play. Afterwards, they departed in their private train car and headed for Berchtesgaden, where a meeting with Adolf Hitler was scheduled for the following day.
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