Hugh Legat and Paul von Hartmann's former friendship

Hugh Legat and Paul von Hartmann's former friendship was formed at Oxford before Hitler came to power and interrupted by the upheavals that followed. Their separation gives their expected reunion in Munich, six years after they last saw one another there, a personal dimension amid the political crisis of September 1938.

Oxford and the Friendship

Legat and Hartmann had been great friends at Oxford. The account establishes their bond before Hitler’s rise to power, but does not specify how they met or describe particular episodes from their student years. Their closeness is presented as a shared past that predates the political roles they later occupy.

Separation and the Munich Reunion

The two had not seen one another since their last meeting in Munich six years earlier. By September 1938, Legat is one of Neville Chamberlain’s private secretaries, while Hartmann is a German diplomat and member of the anti-Hitler resistance. Their different positions place the old friends on opposite sides of the immediate political divide, even as both travel toward a crisis that threatens Europe’s future. Their paths are destined to cross again in Munich: the city of their previous meeting becomes the setting for a reunion shaped by changed circumstances and secrets each carries.