In the mid-1930s, the 58-year-old Swedish multimillionaire Axel Wenner-Gren was one of the wealthiest men in the world and oversaw a global business empire that included Electrolux vacuum cleaners, a Swedish arms company, and a Swedish aircraft manufacturer among others (see Blog, “Was Athenia’s Rescuer a Nazi Spy?” Aug. 1, 2014).
Well acquainted with the world’s elite businessmen, as well as politicians, celebrities, and royalty, he traveled in very exclusive circles. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor hosted Wenner-Gren and his American-born wife, Marguerite, for a weekend at the White House in 1936. A few months later, Wenner-Gren met Hermann Gӧring, the number two man in the Nazi government. Wenner-Gren, who was educated in Germany, enjoyed business connections there that stretched back three decades, so it was not surprising that he might meet with Gӧring, particularly as both men had a keen interest in aviation. Nevertheless, within a few years Wenner-Gren’s German association would be seen by some in a more troubling light.
While traveling the world on his yacht, Southern Cross, in the fall of 1938, Wenner-Gren visited several South American countries looking for possible joint-business opportunities. As the threat of war loomed, he grew increasingly concerned about bringing Germany and England together to bridge their differences. His efforts came to a head in May and June, 1939, when he met separately with Gӧring and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The meetings led to an exchange of memoranda and a peace proposal from Wenner-Gren. In the end, however, nothing came of his efforts and this led some individuals to hint that Wenner-Gren’s real mission had been to report to the Nazi’s on Britain’s war preparations.
Having failed in his attempt to broker peace talks between England and Germany, Wenner-Gren became convinced war was coming to Europe. He planned to sail from his home in Stockholm to the Bahamas and oversee his business operations from the British Crown colony. When his wife, Marguerite, reportedly awoke from a troubling dream in which she had seen a man carrying a child with a bloody face, she insisted they leave immediately for the Bahamas. Wenner-Gren ordered the Southern Cross to be readied as soon as possible and they sailed two days earlier than planned.
Their hasty departure put Southern Cross in the vicinity of the British passenger liner Athenia when she radioed for help after being torpedoed northwest of Ireland by a German U-boat the evening of Sept. 3, 1939. Wenner-Gren responded and Southern Cross rescued 376 Athenia survivors. He received commendations from the British, American, and Canadian governments for his rescue efforts. And yet, some people found it suspicious that Southern Cross had been in the right place at the right time to rescue the victims of a German attack.
The F.B.I. opened an investigation of Wenner-Gren and filled their files with rumors and speculation. Even his friendship with the Duke of Windsor, who had spoken in favor of appeasement before the start of the war, was seen as a black mark against the millionaire. In 1942, Wenner-Gren’s name appeared on the U.S. “Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals.” He was blacklisted in America and Great Britain, and the British government froze his assets in Nassau. The humiliation was a bitter pill for this proud man to swallow.
After World War II, Wenner-Gren won a measure of redemption. He was able to show that the reason for his “blacklisting” had nothing to do with vague innuendos of Nazi spying. Instead, it was the economic and political contacts he made in Latin America and Mexico that caused U.S. business and diplomatic interests to see him as a threat to America’s influence in the Western hemisphere. Alluding to possible Nazi interests had been a convenient way to wall off this visionary and influential businessman.
In the end, Wenner-Gren was likely guilty of nothing more than mistakenly believing his business acumen would transfer to the complicated world of diplomatic machinations. He recovered his footing in the post-war years, continuing his success with Electrolux vacuums, investing in monorail train systems (his ALWEG Company built the original Disneyland monorail system), and other railroad projects; he was an early participant in building large-scale business computers; and he endowed many research institutes, covering such varied disciplines as anthropology, medicine and aeronautics.
Axel Wenner-Gren died in 1961 at the age of 80. To the end he remained a private person, not even offering his opinions and insights in the pages of a personal diary he kept from 1924 until his death. Rumors of Nazi spying eventually faded into history. Today, Wenner-Gren’s fortune continues to fund applied scientific research through the foundations he established.
