Now, with “Aryanization” laws forcing Jews to give up their businesses, Chanel saw the opportunity to reclaim a lucrative branch of her empire. Then there were her business interests: Since 1924, when the Jewish Wertheimer family had backed the launch of her perfume line in exchange for most of the profits, the fashion maven had sought to renegotiate things on more favorable terms. Most pressing was her need to see to the release of her nephew André Palasse, who was imprisoned in a German stalag in 1940. Their romance enabled Chanel to move into comfortable living quarters at Paris' Hôtel Ritz, then doubling as a German headquarters, and kept her firmly entrenched in high society, which also had been infiltrated by German officers.Ĭhanel’s relations with Dincklage also allowed her to deal with important personal matters.
Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster Coco Chanel and Winston Churchill Getty Images Chanel dated a German military officerĪfter the Nazis took over Paris in 1940, Chanel cozied up to Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, an officer in Abwehr, the German military intelligence. Along with hobnobbing with artistic luminaries like Pablo Picasso and Serge Diaghilev, she became friends with Winston Churchill and mistress of Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster.Ĭhanel's prominent standing and connections helped her regain control over her life at a crucial time, as Adolf Hitler’s forces began closing in on Germany’s neighbors in the late 1930s. Her meteoric rise thrust her into the stratosphere of Europe's most powerful and influential figures.
Chanel grew up in poverty but rose through the ranks of society by the start of WWIIīorn into poverty in 1883 and sent off to a convent-orphanage at age 12, Chanel overcame her rough beginnings to debut her visionary women's wear by World War I. In recent years, however, the availability of declassified French government documents has revealed her covert work for Nazi military intelligence during World War II. 5 perfume, Coco Chanel is credited with transforming sartorial tastes for the modern woman of the 20th century, her name becoming synonymous with impeccable fashion sense. Thanks to her introduction of the little black dress, trademark suits and Chanel No.
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