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The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany
For fans of unheralded women’s stories, a captivating look at Sigrid Schultz—one of the earliest reporters to warn Americans of the rising threat of the Nazi regime
“No other American correspondent in Berlin knew so much of what was going on behind the scene as did Sigrid Schultz.” — William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Today we face an alarming upsurge in the spread of misinformation and attempts by powerful figures to discredit facts so they can seize control of our political and cultural narratives. These are threats American journalist Sigrid Schultz knew all too well. The Chicago Tribune's Berlin bureau chief and primary foreign correspondent for Central Europe from 1925 to January 1941, Schultz witnessed Hitler’s rise to power and was one of the first reporters—male or female—to warn American readers of the growing dangers of Nazism. She was one of the last to leave Berlin before it was too late.
In The Dragon From Chicago, historian Pamela Toler tells the story of Schultz’s years spent courageously reporting the news from Berlin, from the revolts of 1919 through the Nazi rise to power and Allied air raids over Berlin in 1941. At a time when women reporters rarely wrote front-page stories, Schultz regularly reported the truth about Nazi Germany in the face of censorship and the threat of expulsion, internment, or death.
The Nazis called Schultz “that dragon from Chicago.” One of her fellow correspondents called her “Adolph Hitler’s greatest enemy.” Schultz herself claimed to be “just a reporter.” Her story is a powerful account of one woman standing up for truth in an era marked by the spread of disinformation and propaganda spawned by hate.
Reviews
Foreign correspondent Sigrid Schultz (1893–1980), who reported from Berlin between 1919 and 1941, was one of the first and most vocal journalists to document the growing threat of Nazism, according to this exhilarating biography. Historian Toler (Women Warriors) shows that Schultz was the only journalist of her era to systemically analyze in her reporting (which regularly appeared in the Chicago Tribune) how the Nazis manipulated the media—both by misrepresenting facts to the German public and by bribing and threatening the foreign press. Schultz, who was born in Chicago but raised in Europe, had “a European’s understanding of Europe,” which she worked to her advantage, cultivating informants who faced incredible risk for communicating with her. Toler’s propulsive narrative, which chronicles Schultz’s investigative escapades and scoops (like a 1939 visit with Hitler’s astrologers that allowed her to break the news of Germany’s nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union), is a journalistic adventure story of the highest caliber (it opens with a riveting scene of Schultz grilling Hermann Göring over press freedom; “You’ll never learn to show the proper respect for state authorities,” he tells her. “I suppose that is one of the characteristics of people from that crime-ridden city of Chicago”). The portrait of Schultz that emerges is dazzling (“small, blond, and surprisingly formidable,” she was, according to one fellow correspondent, “Hitler’s greatest enemy”). This is stellar. (Aug.) --Publisher's Weekly. Starred review
“A fascinating portrait of a trailblazing reporter who was an eyewitness to history.”--Kirkus. Starred review
Vivid, insightful, and meticulously researched, Toler's biography turns a well-deserved spotlight on Schultz and her career. --Katie Noah Gibson. Shelf Awareness
“As the Chicago Tribune’s bureau chief in Berlin, Sigrid Schultz interviewed Hitler, broke the story of the Nazi-Soviet pact, and reported firsthand from the death camps. She deserves to be far better known than she is, and in The Dragon from Chicago, Pamela Toler admirably rescues her legacy. Intelligent, perceptive, and thoughtfully written, this is the definitive work on a foreign correspondent who shattered gender stereotypes and fought for the truth against lies and propaganda—a valuable lesson for our time as well as her own.”—Matthew Goodman, author of Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World
“With documents and historical context presented in crisp, inviting prose, Pamela Toler has re-notched the place of Sigrid Schultz in that intriguing band of American correspondents of the 1920s to the 1940s—both men and women—who worked at the forefront of international reporting and news analysis.”—Brooke Kroeger, author of Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism
“A wildly inspirational tale. I’m so glad that Toler rescued Schultz’s legacy.”—Julia Scheeres, coauthor of Listen, World! How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America’s Most-Read Woman