Pre-Second-World-War Celebrities Quiz

Answer: Adolf Hitler

The putsch had been the so-called beerhall putsch in which also Goering had participated. Bruening (1885-1970) was the leader of the Catholic Centre Party. In 1930 he became Chancellor of Germany. He was forced to resign by President Hindenburg in 1932, and was replaced by von Papen (1879-1969) who later was to become the man who smoothed the road to Hitler's Chancellorship.

Other celebrities on the "Time Magazine" cover that year were Sir Oswald Mosley, Pierre Laval (1883-1945, a key figure in the Vichy government) and Lyautey (1854-1934, Marshal of France and colonial administrator. 1931 also was the year of Boris Karloff in 'Frankenstein' and Bela Lugosi as 'Dracula'.

These movie-monsters did not make it to the cover of "Time" however.

Answer: Senator Huey P. Long

Huey P. Long (1893-1935) was born in Winnfield, LA, started his career as a farm boy, then became a travelling salesman, lawyer and successful politician. After being defeated for governor of Louisiana in 1924, he was swept into office in 1928. A programme of road building, creation of state-owned hospitals and the extension of the school-system increased his popularity until in 1929 he was impeached on charges of bribery and gross misconduct.

He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930. His 'Share the Wealth'-platform was his answer to Roosevelt's 'New Deal'.

He advocated a guaranteed family annual income, but was murdered by Dr. Carl A. Weiss before he got a real chance to become the new resident of the White House. Lippman(1889-1974) had been on the cover of Time Magazine in 1931.

After a short career as Assistant Secretary of War in World War I he had become a columnist for New York Herald Tribune, Washington Post, was an early supporter of FDR and of his New Deal, won himself a Pulitzer Prize citation in 1958.

Other celebrities on the "Time Magazine" cover in 1931 were Mosley (1896-1980, the leader of Britain's Hitlerite 'Union of Fascists'), Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, and Willa S. Cather.

Answer: Engelbert Dollfuss

Also on a cover of Time Magazine in 1933 was General Italo Balbo (1896-1940), the Italian fascist leader and aviator who was prominent in the organisation of Mussolini's March on Rome, became his minister of aviation from 1929-1933, governor-general of Libya from 1933 till 1940.

Other celebrities that year: Noel Coward, Gertrude Stein, Neville Chamberlain, Fiorello La Guardia, the French general Maxim Weygand, Edouard Daladier, who still had to become the French co-signer of the Munich Pact in Sept. 1938. Engelbert Dollfuss (1892-1934) was the Christian Social politician who became Chancellor of Austria in 1932 and assumed quasi-dictatorial powers to combat the Austrian National Socialist party, which he decided to dissolve in June 1933. Came under the influence of Mussolini however. July 25, 1935 he was assassinated by Austrian Nazis.

Answer: fashion-designer

Schiaparelli (1890-1973) was one of France's most daring and flamboyant fashion innovators. Stakhanov was the figurehead of a movement which began in the Soviet Union in 1935. Stakhanov, a coal miner in the Donetz Basin, had (it was claimed) increased the daily output of his team sevenfold, by organising a more efficient division of the labour system. Irving Berlin (born in Russia in 1888; died in 1989) wrote for the 'Ziegfeld Follies', composed 'Alexander's Ragtime and', 'God Bless America', ' There is No Business like Show Business', the music-hall 'Annie Get Your Gun' (1946). Fred Perry (1909-1995), the British tennis player, was three times the winner at Wimbledon.

Answer: Il Duce

This was the year that Huey Long was assassinated in Baton Rouge, that Italy invaded Ethiopia, that Hitler officially rejected the Treaty of Versailles and that Stalin began to wipe out his old comrades. Other stars were: John Edgar Hoover, the new Boss of the F.B.I. who was to stay in charge of it under eight presidents and often directly participated in the arrest of dangerous gangsters. Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962), during Second World War, fled her country with her government, but from her residence in London she was to actively support the Dutch resistance. Joseph P. Kennedy, the Boston-born father of John, Robert and Edward Kennedy, became U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain in 1937 and remained in office till 1940. Stanley Baldwin, cousin of Rudyard Kipling, was the Prime Minister who 'ousted' Edward VIII as King of England.

Answer: an anthropologist

Boas (1858-1942) was born in Minden, Germany. As an anthropologist he did fieldwork on the Eskimos on Baffin Island, then among the Native Americans in British Columbia. Began to lecture at Columbia University in 1896. Was professor from 1899 till 1936. Joe di Maggio (1914- 1999), born in California, retired in 1951 after a brilliant baseball career and was admitted to the 'Baseball Hall of Fame' in 1955 . Shirley Temple ( b. 23d of April 1928), starred at six in 'Little Miss Marker', at nine in 'Heidi'. Leni Riefenstahl (born as Berta Helene Amalie Riefenstahl in 1902) earned herself some fame with her films 'Triumph of the Will' 1935, 'Olympia' 1938. Though esthetically brilliant, they were seen as glorifying the Nazi ideology. John Pierpont Morgan (1867-1943) was the son of John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), the founder of U.S. Steel Corporation, who himself was the son of Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-1890). Salvador Dali: Spanish surrealist painter who emigrated to U.S.A. in 1940. Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) known as a singer, a movie star and in her old age as the prettiest grannie ever.

Answer: Canada

The exact place was Callander, Ontario. Apart from the Dionne siblings it was mostly the usual politicians (among them Francisco Franco; Josef Stalin; Leon Trotsky; Fiorello La Guardia) and some artists (including Walt Disney; Jean Sibelius, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway) who made the news in 1937.

Answer: Joe Louis

Dempsey (1895-1983), nicknamed the 'Manassa Mauler', had won the world's heavy weight title from Jess Willard. He lost it in 1926 from Gene Tunney. He also lost the return fight but Tunney's victory was dubious one because of a legendary 14-second 'long-count'. Rocky Marciano's real name was Rocco Francis Marchegiano (1924-1969).

He knocked out Joe Louis in 1951 and Joe Walcott in 1952. He retired in April 1956. Joe Louis (real name: Joseph Louis Barrow) had been defeated already by Schmeling in 1936, but in 1938 it was the 'Brown Bomber's turn to knock him out. Louis had been born in Lafayette, Alabama in 1914.

He had won his first world champion's title in the heavy weight category in 1937. He retired in 1949.

Answer: Paderewski (Poland)

Gamelin (1872-1958), served on General Joffre's staff in the First World War. Became Chief of Staff of National (lack of ?) Defence in 1938. Was blamed at the Riom Trial in 1942 for the weak performance of the French Army - which was a clever trick on the part of the Vichy Government to get rid of a few opponents. Daladier (1884-1970), a Radical Socialist, was Prime Minister of France in 1933, 1934, was brought down by the Stavisky Affair, but surfaced again as Premier in April 1938.

He signed the Munich Pact in September 1938, resigned in March 1940 and was arrested by the Vichy Government and sent to Germany. Liberated in 1945, he became a member of the French Assembly again and remained an influential figure there from 1946 till 1958. Francisco Franco Bahamonde was born at El Ferrol in Spain, 1892.

He rebelled against the legally chosen Government of his country after the fall of Primo de Rivera, and became the country's dictator. Stayed out of Second World War. Died in 1975 after having appointed the present King Juan Carlos as his successor. Paderewski: pianist, composer and ... statesman. Played a moderator's role in Poland's history. Became Prime Minister a first time in 1918 . Later he was President while Pilsudski led the country as Prime Minister.

He became ill while in the U.S.A. to ask for more help against the Nazis and died there on June 29, 1941.

Answer: Martin Niemoeller

Niemoeller (1892-1984) was a war hero in First World War, but after having sided with the Nazis for a short while, he began to preach vigorously against Hitler. Arrested in 1937. Imprisoned again in 1937 until his liberation in 1945 by the Allies. After the war he became President of the Council of all German Protestant Churches.

He wrote an autobiographical book "Vom U-Boot zur Kanzel" ("From the Submarine to the Pulpit".) Goering was a First World War hero too, but not as a submarine commander.

His thing was 'airplanes'. He escaped from Germany after the failed Beer Hall putsch in 1923 and stayed in Sweden till 1927. Became President of the Reichstag in 1932. Founded the Gestapo and was its leader till 1934. Air minister in 1933 after Hitler's take over of power. Was designated as Hitler's successor in 1939.

In 1943 Hitler deprived him of all formal authority. Was main defendant at the Nuremberg Trial. In spite of his brilliant (cynical) self-defence he was convicted and sentenced to death, but managed to commit suicide some hours before his scheduled hanging. Von Falkenhorst was a leading Nazi general in Norway and was condemned to death at the Nuremberg trial.

His sentence was converted however. Himmler (1900-1945) was the head of the SS or Schutzstaffel. Later he also got formal control of the Gestapo. Fanatic racist. Superb bureaucrat. Cold-blooded dictator. At the very end of the war he tried to save his skin by making a deal with the Allies, which led to his expulsion from the party. Arrested by British troops in May 1945, he swallowed poison.