You know her as the embodiment of French high fashion, but Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel has
more hidden in her past than she would’ve admitted during her lifetime.
Her style and design put her at the very tip of Parisian culture, getting her in contact
with the top echelon of the European elite.
And yet, in spite of her associations with composers, movie stars, royalty, and politicians,
there is one connection that is often snubbed by the history books.
In this video, we’ll see how Coco Chanel built a fashion empire that she eventually
tried to leverage in service of the Third Reich.
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Coco Chanel was an innovative designer with many contributions to the world of fashion
and beyond: from popularizing the suntan as a mark not of the working class, but of beauty
and aristocracy to finally ending the dogmatic century-long popularity of corsets.
Her beginnings, though, were quite humble.
She was born in France in 1883 in poverty and after the death of her mother at age 12,
her father sent her to live in an orphanage for girls.
That’s where she mastered sewing and after ageing out of the orphanage, she found work
as a seamstress, while singing on the side for some extra cash.
Now, Chanel was a smart woman and she was born with pretty good looks, so considering
her circumstances it should come as no surprise that she found herself a wealthy patron very
early on.
Her charms captured the heart of a very rich man: Etienne Balsan, the heir to the largest
textile company in France that among other things produced uniforms for the French army.
By 1906 when she was 23 years old, she had become his mistress and through him, she began
mingling with the upper class.
Two years later, Coco began an affair with one of Etienne’s friends, an English aristocrat
and she would actually play them off of each other: they’d compete for her love by showering
her with gifts and fulfilling her every wish.
One of those wishes was to indulge Coco in her dream of opening a fashion boutique in
Paris, which she did in 1910 thanks to funding from her wealthy lovers.
Now, despite her patronage, Coco’s success was a product of her own skill: her hats and
dresses brought with them a unique and alluring style that attracted socialites from across
Europe.
What truly kickstarted her global ascent, however, was Chanel’s entry into the perfume
business.
In 1921, Coco released her first fragrance, which you can probably recognize today: Chanel
No. 5.
Sold in a simple glass bottle, the perfume’s success helped to further spread Chanel’s
fame across the world.
But as her ambitions expanded, Coco ran into a problem: selling fashion items and perfume
in Paris was pretty straightforward, while selling them throughout Europe and North America
was not.
The capital required to build a global supply chain and distribution network was beyond
even the means of Coco’s aristocratic friends, which is why she had no other choice, but
to turn to venture capital.
Her connections did prove useful: she got in touch with Pierre Wertheimer, the owner
of an international conglomerate that sold perfumes and cosmetics in America and Europe.
He was exactly the man that Coco needed, and together they created Parfums Chanel, the
company that would make Coco one of the richest women in the world within ten years, even
though she only owned 10% of the company.
There was only one problem … Pierre was Jewish and Coco was one of the most fervent
anti-semitists in Paris.
At first, Coco was willing to put her prejudice on the side, since she needed Pierre’s help
to establish a global business.
But once things got rolling, she increasingly started viewing him as a leech, who was unjustly
benefitting from her ideas.
Her views on Jewish-owned businesses were becoming increasingly common during the 1930s,
especially after Hitler’s rise to power in Germany in 1933.
Coco’s chance for revenge against Pierre would take another seven years to emerge:
in the wake of the German blitzkrieg and the rapid defeat of France, Coco saw an opportunity.
On June 14th, German forces entered Paris, taking control of the city.
Coco closed her stores, putting 4,000 women out of work in the process, and moved in at
the Hotel Ritz, because in her opinion “now was not the time for fashion”.
Officially, she declared that “now was not the time for fashion,” but her move had
different motives.
The Hotel Ritz was the headquarters for many high-ranking German officials in occupied
France.
It was here that Chanel would first meet Baron Hans Gunther Von Dincklage, personally appointed
as a “special attache” by Joseph Goebbels.
In other words, he was a German spy.
Chanel quickly fell in love with Dincklage, and the two of them remained together for
many years after the war.
His associations with the Abwehr, the German intelligence service, introduced Chanel to
the Nazi war efforts.
In 1941, she officially joined the German cause to aid in their wartime plan.
She became Agent F-7124, with the codename ‘Westminster’, based on her previous relationship
with the Duke of Westminster.
From 1941 on, Chanel was deployed to Madrid to connect with Allied personnel under the
guise of business plans.
Of course, Coco wasn’t helping the Nazis out of the kindness of her heart: she was
hoping they would restore her full ownership in Parfums Chanel under their policy of Aryanization.
Unluckily for her, Pierre was smart: he had seen the writing on the wall and had given
control of the company to a Christian friend of his before promptly fleeing to America.
For several years Coco would try reclaiming her business by collecting intelligence for
the Nazis, but ultimately her efforts were in vain.
By 1944, it had become clear that the tide of war was turning in favour of the Allies.
In a last-ditch effort, Chanel was tasked by Heinrich Himmler himself to negotiate a
surrender to the Allies when Stalin’s resurgent Red Army seemed all but certain to make its
way to Berlin.
Her mission was ultimately a failure, and by the time Paris had been liberated, Coco
had fled to Switzerland with Baron Dincklage.
Now, after the French Liberation, 10,000 Parisians were tried for treason.
Chanel was not one of them, having only been questioned and then released due to a lack
of evidence.
It is rumored that Winston Churchill personally intervened to keep her safe, since she knew
so much about the British elite and high-ranking politicians.
After the war, Chanel tried suing Pierre in a last effort to reclaim her company.
Ultimately, they came to an agreement, reducing her stake in the company to just 2% and merging
the perfume business with the fashion business.
Pierre would cover all of Coco’s expenses for the rest of her life, and he assisted
her comeback to the world of fashion a decade later in 1954.
With her passing in 1971, the company became fully owned by the Wertheimers, and to this
day it is owned by Pierre’s grandsons.
At the end of the day, it’s understandable why they chose not to publicize Coco’s past:
it would’ve almost certainly destroyed her brand and harmed their profits, with little
to gain if people knew of her work as a spy.
Learning about the world of espionage during World War 2 might not benefit the Wertheimers,
but it’s certainly gonna be entertaining and the best way you can do that is by watching
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It’s a really great service and to show you what I mean, I’ll give you a 30-day
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Anyway, I’d like to thank you for watching this video.
I hope you enjoyed it and if you did, you should subscribe to catch my new videos every
other Friday.
We’re gonna hear each other again in two weeks and until then: stay smart.