Guenther Reinhardt

Last updated
Guenther Reinhardt
Born
Günther Reinhardt

(1904-12-13)December 13, 1904
Mannheim, Germany
DiedDecember 2, 1968(1968-12-02) (aged 63)
New York City
NationalityGerman
CitizenshipAmerican
Education Heidelberg University
Occupation(s)journalist, writer, investigator
Years active1926-1968
Employer(s)newspapers, magazines; US Government
Notable workCrime Without Punishment (1952)
SpouseHelen I. Williams
Parent(s)Philipp Victor Reinhardt, Lilli Johanna Zimmern

Guenther Reinhardt (1904-1968) was a German-American writer and investigator, best known for his book Crime Without Punishment: The Secret Soviet Terror Against America (1952). [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Background

Guenther Reinhardt was born Günther Reinhardt on December 13, 1904, in Mannheim, Germany to a banking family. His parents were Dr. Philipp Victor Reinhardt and Lilli Johanna Zimmern. He attended school at the Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in Switzerland. [8] In 1922, he received a BA from the Royal College of Mannheim, in 1925 a BS in Economics from Mannheim and an MA from Heidelberg University. Later in 1925, he began post-graduate research at Columbia University through 1927. [1] [3] [6]

Career

Initially, Reinhardt worked as a statistician, first at Ladenburg, Thalmann & Company in New York City (1926-1929), then as chief statistician at Toerge & Schiffer (1929-1930)—"his first job as a private investigator." [3] In 1925, Reinhardt began contributing to Swiss newspapers. In 1932, he became a special correspondent for the McClure Newspaper Syndicate through 1938—"while still a private investigator for Wall Street banks." [3] He ghosted a McClure's column went called "European Whirligig." [lower-alpha 1] In 1939, he joined the staff of the New York Daily News through 1940. In 1946, he was a correspondent for the International News Service. Overall, he contributed to newspaper syndicates and national magazines for more than three decades, 1932-1968. Publications include Life and Look American magazines and Der Bund Swiss newspaper. In the late 1940s, he became a contributor to Plain Talk . [1] [3]

Government investigator

In 1931, Reinhardt became an American citizen. In 1934, he became a consultant to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) through 1935. In 1936 or 1937, he became a special employee (codenamed "Hal Hart") of the Federal Bureau of Investigation through 1943; he infiltrated the news business and reported to FBI special agents George J. Starr and Edward A. Tamm. One of his best sources was Boston Globe reporter Gardner Jackson, who told Reinhardt (based on hearsay from Stanley Reed and Jerome Frank) that J. Edgar Hoover was a "queer." [3] In his 1952 memoir, Reinhardt claimed that in 1941 Ludwig Lore had tipped him off about "an extremely clever operative of the Soviet espionage underground in this country," whom the FBI should visit, and "That is how Whittaker Chambers' first contact with the FBI came about!" [5] correlated by a brief account about in Chambers' own 1952 memoir. [10]

In 1943, Reinhardt became a research consultant the Republican National Committee through 1944. In 1944, he became a consultant to the Office of United States Company-Ordinator of Inter-American Affairs through 1945 and then with Counter Intelligence Corps, United States Forces, European Theatre of Operations through 1947. During that time, Reinhardt tried to hunt down six Hungarian SS guards who had murdered downed American airman and accused US Army officials of smuggling "Nazi gold" into the USA. [11] [12] In 1947, he served as expert consultant to the US Secretary of the Army through 1948. He served as an interpreter during the Nuremberg Trials (1948-9) [1] [3]

Private investigator

In 1949, Reinhardt became a private investigator for Bartley Crum, a San Francisco lawyer and co-publisher of the New York Star through 1959. In 1960, he worked for Silas R. Franz, a life insurance company in New York City. [1]

David L. Robb's non-fiction book The Gumshoe and the Shrink depicts Reinhardt as a "gumshoe" who exposed Richard M. Nixon's secret meetings with psychotherapist Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, a discovery which helped John F. Kennedy win the presidency. Robb claims that Reinhardt "set out to destroy Richard Nixon." In September 1960, Reinhardt had discovered that Nixon was seeing a "shrink" (psychotherapist) and wrote a 12-page report on Nixon's psychotherapy with Dr. Arnold Hutschenker. [3] [13] [14] [15]

In 1964, Reinhardt was arrested for stealing documents from the New York State Liquor Authority to sell to detectives who were posing as "underworld agents." By April that year, he had appeared in court 37 times already. [16] [17]

Personal life and death

On August 5, 1937, Reinhardt married Helen I. Williams. [3]

Reinhardt joined the Foreign Press Association (or Association of Foreign Journalists) in 1937 and National Press Club in the 1930s. [3]

Guenther Reinhardt died age 63 on December 2, 1968, in New York City. [1]

Legacy

Ralph de Toledano, with whom Reinhardt was a long-time friend and fellow anti-communist crusader and journalist, [3] wrote of Reinhardt in the 1950s:

Guenther Reinhardt brings to any assignment not only a wide journalistic background but a decade of top-level intelligence experience... Many of the exposes now making headlines were wrapped up in his files many years ago. Through his work with the FBI and the U.S. Counterintelligence Corps, he has amassed a tremendous knowledge of the secret world of espionage and subversion which few Americans ever glimpse. He has repeatedly broken through the security curtain of Nazi and Communist operations, both here and abroad. The story he has to tell is of vital importance to the nation. [3]

Author David L. Robb described Reinhardt in 2012 as:

Cut from the Sam Spade school of private detecting and the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest school of personal behavior, Reinhardt was a bipolar Don Quixote, a manic-depressive knight errant in search of adventure and a fast buck. [3]

Works

In his best known work, Crime Without Punishment (November 1952), Reinhardt recounts several cases related to Soviet espionage in the United States, including the death of Juliet Stuart Poyntz (for whom his major source was Ludwig Lore), Arkadi Maslow, Leon Trotsky, Otto Ruhle, Horst Berensprung, Ellen Knauff, and Karl Nierendorf. [5] [7] Reinhardt objected to points made by New York Times reviewer John H. Lichtbau (also a former colleague in the Counterintelligence Corps in Germany). To the criticism that Karl Nierendorf's name goes unmentioned in authoritative accounts on German communism, for example, Reinhardt retorted that of course the name did not appear openly because "I deal with secret agents." [18]

Books

Articles

Notes

  1. ↑ With regard to the "European Whirligig," Frederick Sondern Jr., prior to serving as an editor for Reader's Digest and also writing for Brotherhood of Evil: The Mafia, was the name appearing on the McClure column, "European Whirligig." [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Gandy</span> American civil servant (1897–1988)

Helen Wilburforce Gandy was the American longtime secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover, who called her "indispensable". Serving in that role for 54 years she exercised great behind-the-scenes influence on Hoover and the operations of the Bureau. Following Hoover's death in 1972, she spent weeks destroying his "Personal File," thought to contain the most incriminating material Hoover used to manipulate or blackmail the most powerful figures in Washington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Edgar Hoover</span> American law-enforcement administrator (1895–1972)

John Edgar Hoover was an American law-enforcement administrator who served as the final Director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). President Calvin Coolidge first appointed Hoover as director of the BOI, the predecessor to the FBI, in 1924. After 11 years in the post, Hoover became instrumental in founding the FBI in June 1935, where he remained as director for an additional 37 years until his death in May 1972 – serving a total of 48 years leading both the BOI and the FBI and under eight Presidents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Watergate scandal</span> 1970s political cover-up scandal in the US

The Watergate scandal was a significant political controversy in the United States during the presidency of Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974, ultimately resulting in Nixon's resignation. It originated from attempts by the Nixon administration to conceal its involvement in the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate Office Building in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alger Hiss</span> An alleged Soviet agent and American diplomat (1904–1996)

Alger Hiss was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. The statute of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. Before the trial Hiss was involved in the establishment of the United Nations, both as a US State Department official and as a UN official. In later life, he worked as a lecturer and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep Throat (Watergate)</span> Alias of Mark Felt, Watergate scandal whistleblower

Deep Throat is the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information in 1972 to Bob Woodward, who shared it with Carl Bernstein. Woodward and Bernstein were reporters for The Washington Post, and Deep Throat provided key details about the involvement of U.S. president Richard Nixon's administration in what came to be known as the Watergate scandal. In 2005, 31 years after Nixon's resignation and 11 years after Nixon's death, a family attorney stated that former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Associate Director Mark Felt was Deep Throat. By then, Felt was suffering from dementia and had previously denied being Deep Throat, but Woodward and Bernstein then confirmed the attorney's claim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Schorr</span> American journalist

Daniel Louis Schorr was an American journalist who covered world news for more than 60 years. He was most recently a Senior News Analyst for National Public Radio (NPR). Schorr won three Emmy Awards for his television journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Anderson (columnist)</span> American newspaper columnist (1922–2005)

Jack Northman Anderson was an American newspaper columnist, syndicated by United Features Syndicate, considered one of the founders of modern investigative journalism. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret U.S. policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. In addition to his newspaper career, Anderson also had a national radio show on the Mutual Broadcasting System, acted as Washington bureau chief of Parade magazine, and was a commentator on ABC-TV's Good Morning America for nine years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Felt</span> Watergate scandal whistleblower (1913–2008)

William Mark Felt Sr. was an American law enforcement officer who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 1942 to 1973 and was known for his role in the Watergate scandal. Felt was an FBI special agent who eventually rose to the position of Deputy Director, the Bureau's second-highest-ranking post. Felt worked in several FBI field offices prior to his promotion to the Bureau's headquarters. In 1980, he was convicted of having violated the civil rights of people thought to be associated with members of the Weather Underground, by ordering FBI agents to break into their homes and search the premises as part of an attempt to prevent bombings. He was ordered to pay a fine, but was pardoned by President Ronald Reagan during his appeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. Frederick Reinhardt</span> American diplomat

George Frederick Reinhardt (1911–1971) was an American foreign service officer and diplomat from 1937 until 1968. He was considered by his peers to be among the finest diplomats of his era. Reinhardt was the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam (1955–1957), to the United Arab Republic and North Yemen (1960–1961) and to Italy (1961–1968). In Vietnam, he worked to improve relations between the United States and South Vietnamese Prime Minister Ngo Dinh Diem.

Ralph de Toledano was an American writer in the conservative movement in the United States throughout the second half of the 20th century. A friend of Richard Nixon, he was a journalist and editor of Newsweek and the National Review, and the author of 26 books, including two novels and a book of poetry. Besides his political contributions, he also wrote about music, particularly jazz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Chennault</span> Chinese war correspondent and member of the China lobby

Anna Chennault, born Chan Sheng Mai, 陳香梅, also known as Anna Chan Chennault or Anna Chen Chennault, was a war correspondent and prominent Republican member of the U.S. China Lobby. She was married to American World War II aviator General Claire Chennault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Wiener</span> American writer

Jon Wiener is an American historian and journalist based in Los Angeles, California. His most recent book is Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, a Los Angeles Times bestseller co-authored by Mike Davis. He waged a 25-year legal battle to win the release of the FBI's files on John Lennon. Wiener played a key role in efforts to expose the surveillance, as well as the behind-the-scenes battling between the government and the former Beatle, and is an expert on the FBI-versus-Lennon controversy. A professor emeritus of United States history at the University of California, Irvine and host of The Nation's weekly podcast, Start Making Sense, he is also a contributing editor to the progressive political weekly magazine The Nation. He also hosts a weekly radio program in Los Angeles.

Plain Talk was an American monthly anticommunist magazine that was published for 44 months from 1946 to 1950. Its editor-in-chief was Isaac Don Levine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Weiner</span> American reporter and author (born 1956)

Tim Weiner is an American reporter and author. He is the author of five books and co-author of a sixth, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.

Leo Katcher was an American reporter, screenwriter, and author. As West Coast Correspondent of the New York Post in 1952, he helped to break the story about Nixon's election expenses, which provoked Nixon into making his televised defence, still remembered as the Checkers Speech. In 1956, Katcher was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for The Eddy Duchin Story.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arkadi Maslow</span> Communist politician in Weimar Germany

Arkadi Maslow, born Isaak Yefimowich Chemerinsky was a communist politician in the German Republic, Along with his partner Ruth Fischer, he was a leading figure in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) through both the May 1924 and December 1924 federal elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ludwig Lore</span> American editor and writer (1875–1942)

Ludwig Lore was an American socialist magazine editor, newspaper writer, lecturer, and politician, best remembered for his tenure as editor of the socialist New Yorker Volkszeitung and role as a factional leader in the early American communist movement. During the middle 1930s, he wrote the daily foreign affairs column "Behind the Cables" for the New York Post. Later still, he was charged with having secretly worked recruiting potential agents and gathering information on behalf of the Soviet foreign intelligence network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Origins of global surveillance</span>

The origins of global surveillance can be traced back to the late 1940s, when the UKUSA Agreement was jointly enacted by the United Kingdom and the United States, whose close cooperation eventually culminated in the creation of the global surveillance network, code-named "ECHELON", in 1971.

Arnold Aaron Hutschnecker was an Austrian-American medical doctor with a specialisation in psychiatry.

Elaine Shannon is an American investigative journalist and former correspondent for Newsweek and Time considered an expert on terrorism, organized crime, and espionage. Describing her also as "a leading expert on the evil alliances of drug kingpins and corrupt officials", Newsweek said Shannon "could rightly claim to be the Boswell of thugs and drugs."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Guenther Reinhardt, 63, Dies; Was a Writer and Investigator". New York Times. 3 December 1968. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Who Was Who in America, Volume 5". Marquis-Who's Who. 1973. p. 559. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Robb, David L. (2012). The Gumshoe and the Shrink: Guenther Reinhardt, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, and the Secret History of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Election . Santa Monica Press. pp.  8 (Sam Spade, September 1960), 9-10 (Toledano), 20-1 (bio), 22 (crime without punishment), 22-24 (FBI) 23 (marriage), 23-4 (National Press Club, 24 (Gardner Jackson), 28 (Association of Foreign Journalists), 260-1 (National Press Club). Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  4. ↑ "Guenther Reinhardt". DocumentsTalk. 2008. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Reinhardt, Guenther (1952). Crime Without Punishment: The Secret Soviet Terror Against America. Hermitage House. pp. 19-37 (Poyntz), 21 (Ludwig Lore), 24 (Lore), 25 (European Whirligig, Whittaker Chambers), 27-29 (Lore), 31-3 (Lore), 41-3 (Lore), 109 (Lore). Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 Reinhardt, Guenther (1939). Benjamin Pettengill Adams; B.P. Adams (eds.). You Americans; fifteen foreign press correspondents report their impressions of the United States and its people. Funk & Wagnalls. pp. 144 (bio). Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  7. 1 2 Lichtbau, John H. (1939). "Murder and Mystery". New York Times. pp. 144 (bio). Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  8. ↑ Pettengill Adams, Benjamin, ed. (1939). You Americans: Fifteen Foreign Press Correspondents Report Their Impressions of the United States and Its People. Funk & Wagnalls Company. p. 144.
  9. ↑ "Frederic Sondern Jr., an Editor For Reader's Digest, Dies at 55". New York Times. 5 August 1966. p. 24. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  10. ↑ Chambers, Whittaker (May 1952). Witness. New York: Random House. p. 392. ISBN   9780895269157 . Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  11. ↑ Sayers, Ian; Botting, Douglas (1984). Nazi Gold: The Story of the Worlds̓ Greatest Robbery - and Its Aftermath. Granada Publishing. pp. 290–2, 323. ISBN   9780246117670 . Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  12. ↑ "Robbing the Reich". New York Times. 5 May 1984. pp. 7–18. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  13. ↑ Robb, David L. (2012). The Gumshoe and the Shrink: Guenther Reinhardt, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, and the Secret History of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Election . Santa Monica Press. LCCN   2011049062.
  14. ↑ Robb, David L. (2012). The Gumshoe and the Shrink: Guenther Reinhardt, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, and the Secret History of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Election. Santa Monica Press. ISBN   9781595800664 . Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  15. ↑ "The Gumshoe and the Shrink: Guenther Reinhardt, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, and the Secret History of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Election". Publishers Weekly. 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  16. ↑ "A Judge Confesses He Does Not Know What Blackjack Is". New York Times. 29 February 1964. p. 23. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  17. ↑ "Investigator Taken to Court 37th Time". New York Times. 1 April 1964. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  18. ↑ Reinhardt, Guenther (7 December 1959). "Mr. Reinhardt Objects". New York Times. p. 181. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  19. ↑ Reinhardt, Guenther (1939). Benjamin Pettengill Adams; B.P. Adams (eds.). You Americans; fifteen foreign press correspondents report their impressions of the United States and its people. Funk & Wagnalls. LCCN   39027957.
  20. ↑ Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim (1950). Nathan the Wise (Nathan der Weise). Translated by Guenther Reinhardt. Barron's Educational Series. LCCN   52024133.
  21. ↑ Reinhardt, Guenther (1952). Crime Without Punishment: The Secret Soviet Terror Against America. Hermitage House. LCCN   52012850.
  22. ↑ The Jews in Nazi Germany. American Jewish Committee. 1935. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
  23. ↑ Reinhardt, Guenther (24 May 1944). "Invasion Prayers Are Ready". New York Times: 18. Retrieved 29 December 2019.
Quill and ink-US.svg

This article about an American writer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Flag of Germany.svg Quill and ink.svg

This article about a German writer or poet is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.