Adolf Hitler & Henry Ford kept framed pictures of each other on their desks

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Another one.
Thomas Weber, in his "Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi," writes:

As the New York Times reported in December 1922,
“The wall beside his desk in Hitler’s private office is decorated with a large picture of Henry Ford.”
The newspaper also reported that the office’s antechamber was full of copies of the German translation of The International Jew.

That's not true; the NYT reported it as rumors from Germany, not facts. And the rumors were discredited during the libel suit. But it gets even better.

Even during the Second World War, Hitler would still refer in his monologues at his military HQ to Henry Ford’s work on anti‐Semitism.

and the source is "Hitler, Monologue, 255, monologue of February 2, 1942."

The great success of the Americans consists essentially in the fact that they produce quantitatively as much as we do with two-thirds less labor. We’ve always been hypnotized by the slogan: “the craftsmanship of the German worker.” ... That’s merely a bluff of which we ourselves are the victims.
American cars, for example, are made with the least possible use of human labor. ... In this respect, we are far behind the Americans. Moreover, they build far more lightly than we do. A car of ours that weighs eighteen hundred kilos would weigh only a thousand if made by the Americans.
I was reading Ford’s books that opened my eyes to these matters. ...
In America everything is machine-made, so that they can employ the most utter cretins in their factories. Their workers have no need of specialized training, and are therefore interchangeable.
Gerhard L. Weinberg. Hitler's Table Talk 1941-1944: Secret Conversations (p. 212)

So Hitler was reading Ford's books on manufacturing (and he wrote several of them), not on anti‐Semitism.

[George L Gregory]

From "Henry Ford and the Jews: the mass production of hate" by Neil Baldwin.

Volume Two of Mein Kampf, The National Socialist Movement, is also noteworthy for its tribute to "only a single great man, Ford, [who], to [the Jews'] fury, still maintains full independence ... [from] the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions."

It's supposedly from page 639, but the German edition is only 462 pages long, and there is no "Ford" there either.

I found the quote in an edition of Mein Kampf.

He already sees the present-day European states as will-less tools in his fist, whether indirectly through a so-called Western democracy, or in the form of direct domination by Jewish Bolshevism. But it is not only the Old World that he holds thus enmeshed, the same fate menaces the New. It is Jews who govern the stock exchange forces of the American Union. Every year makes them more and more the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions; only a single great man, Ford, to their fury, still maintains full independence.

https://mondopolitico.com/library/meinkampf/v2c13.htm

The German edition is 818 pages long.

https://ia804508.us.archive.org/5/items ... 3818S..pdf

[George L Gregory]

According to the German Wikipedia, the earlier editions of the book that had “ein einziger Großer, Ford, steht steht […] noch heute unabhängig da“) “a single great, Ford, [...] still stands independently today” was removed from the 1931 edition and on wards of the book because of rumours that Ford had been funding the Nazi Party.

In the German edition that is from 1943 that I linked above on page 723:

Er sieht die heutigen europäischen Staaten bereits als willenlose Werkzeuge in seiner Faust, sei es auf dem Um- weg einer sogenannten westlichen Demokratie oder in der Form der direkten Beherrschung durch russischen Bolsche- wismus. Aber nicht nur die Alte Welt hält er so umgarnt, sondern auch der Neuen droht das gleiche Schicksal. Juden sind die Regenten der Börsenkräfte der amerikanischen Union. Jedes Jahr läßt sie mehr zum Kontrollherrn der Arbeitskraft eines Einhundertzwanzig-Millionen-Volkes aufsteigen; nur ganz wenige stehen auch heute noch, zu ihrem Zorne, ganz unabhängig da.

He already sees today's European states as helpless tools in his fist, be it in the form of a so-called Western democracy or in the form of direct domination by Russian Bolshevism. But not only does he keep the old world ensnared, the same fate threatens the new as well. Jews are the regents of the stock market forces of the American Union. Each year it makes more and more the masters of the labor power of a hundred and twenty million people; only a very few, to their anger, still stand there completely independently.

Is there an earlier edition of the book available online?

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I found it.
The Ralph Manheim translation of Mein Kampf explains that "second edition substitutes 'only very few' for 'a single great man, Ford.' "

It was probably removed because of Ford's trip to "Canossa." There are other substitutes in the second edition; it's not the only one.
It's now obvious that "He" wasn't Hitler, as I mistakenly assumed but "the Jew."

It's of little importance anyway; the entire story (Ford massively financing the Nazis, the portrait, and a large table covered with books) was obviously invented by Bavarian socialists in 1923.
Remarkably Kershaw doesn't mention the story in any of his books.

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According to this the second edition was published in 1926.

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Henry Ford explains his obsessions early on, it refutes his later declaration he wasn't aware of what was going on:

Ford explans attacks.jpg

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More wisdom from Henry Ford:

how many times Greek Flew kites.jpg

[Stiltzkin]

More wisdom from Henry Ford:

So, not only was he a convinced antisemite, but also oblivious to the developments of world politics, technology and history, taking aside the audacity to speak about class differences in the States from his perspective and position.
This stands in stark contrast to his convictions as an entrepreneur, which ultimately redeemed him by making motorization and products more accessible, setting him apart from the wider class of world industrials.

It is perhaps Ford who may help us understand how the industrials in Germany would be torn between jumping on Hitler's sword and any given alternative - on the one side business opportunities, on the other side one of the greatest critics that emerged from this sector.
Totalitarian turn-overs were confined to agrarian societies, as it occurred in Eurasia, making Germany somewhat of a unique case, as Nazism would have never gained widespread support in the United States. Fords statements however do resemble the "Kruppian" school of thought of the 20th century, minus (and this is essential) the feudalist mentality.

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The Peace Ship was the ocean liner Oscar II on which Ford traveled to Europe in 1915 to trigger massive disobedience among the fighting soldiers.

peace ship.png