Max Stephan


Max Stephan was a German-born American citizen convicted of treason for aiding Peter Krug, a German pilot who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp in Canada. Stephan was initially sentenced to death by hanging. However, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, believing a death sentence was too harsh, commuted his sentence to life in prison just nine hours before he was scheduled to be executed. Stephan died in prison in 1952.
Stephan became the first person to be convicted of federal treason charges in a civilian court since the 1790s Whiskey Rebellion. Had Roosevelt not commuted his death sentence, he would have been the first to be executed.

Background

Germany

Stephan's biographical details were chronicled at length in the August 1942 court judgment sentencing him to death. Except where other sourcing is noted, the following summary is based on the details set forth in that judgment.
Stephan was born in Cologne, Germany, in 1892. He entered the Imperial German Army at age 20 for two years of compulsory military service. When World War I began, he held the rank of lance corporal and was promoted to sergeant. He was injured in battle in 1915. Out of 120 men in his infantry unit, only six survived.
After recovering from his injuries, Stephan served until 1917 as a guard at a military prison camp for deserters. During the final year of the war, he was assigned to a military post office, where he was tasked with reading and censoring soldiers' mail.
After the war, Stephan worked as a police officer in Cologne. He married in 1922. In 1924, he completed 12 years of national service and became eligible for a reward of 6,000 German marks. He then retired from the police service and used the money to open a saloon in Cologne.

Windsor, Ontario

In 1928, Stephan left Germany for Canada, arriving in Quebec and moving three months later to Windsor, Ontario. In a letter to the court, Stephan described his emigration from Germany:

In 1928, business was getting bad in Germany so that I decided to sell my saloon there and move to America to start one. Oct. 1928 I moved to Windsor, Canada. In November 1928 I started to work for General Motors, Windsor, as a repairman, till about July 1929. I did my work to their satisfaction and quit to start a restaurant.

Stephan's wife, Agnes, joined him in Windsor in 1929. They operated a restaurant in Windsor. According to the judgment written by Judge Tuttle, Stephan also sold "moonshine liquor" and operated "a disreputable house for the accommodation of unmarried couples." Stephan and his wife later relocated their restaurant business to another spot in Windsor. Judge Tuttle found that Stephan also sold liquor and operated a "disreputable bedhouse" at the second location.

Detroit

In 1933, Stephan and his wife moved to Detroit. He purchased a restaurant in Detroit, an area with a large concentration of recent German immigrants that became known as "Sauerkraut Row". Stephan and his wife applied for and received American citizenship in 1935. Judge Tuttle concluded that, in their citizenship applications, both Stephan and his wife had misrepresented the length of their residence in the United States. Stephan contended that he was going back and forth to Detroit and felt at home there.
From 1935 to 1941, Stephan's restaurant was known as "German Restaurant". Stephan expanded the restaurant in 1936 by adding a meeting hall. The Detroit Free Press published a story in August 1939 exposing the restaurant as a regular meeting place for the German American Bund, an organization promoting a favorable view of Nazi Germany. At the time, Stephan denied any connection to the Bund and stated that he rented the restaurant's hall, which had seating for 150 persons, to several German societies. Stephan claimed that the meeting hall was used by numerous organizations for banquets, weddings, birthday parties and other events. He denied being a member of the Bund and told the Bund there was to be "no uniforms, no swastika and no heil in my place, otherwise, no hall." He told the Free Press:

There is no fuss or noise. If there were, I wouldn't let them meet here any longer. The men do not wear uniforms, and there is never any drilling.

Stephan also claimed that, during the time he lived in the United States, he never communicated with anyone in Germany and completely cut off his connections with Germany. As proof of his loyalty, Stephan noted that, after the war with Germany began, he purchased two $50 war bonds on December 17, 1941.

Krug affair

Escape from Bowmanville

Lieutenant Hans Peter Krug was a bomber pilot in Germany's Luftwaffe. During the Battle of Britain, he was shot down over the English Channel in 1941 during a bombing mission. He was captured and sent to the Bowmanville POW camp, located east of Toronto, Canada.
Krug escaped from Bowmanville on April 16, 1942. He made his way to Toronto where he was stopped by military police. He satisfied their suspicion by showing them a forged document identifying him as "Jean Etiat", a carpenter on the crew of the French ocean liner SS Normandie. The police introduced him to a Catholic priest, Father McGrath, who bought him a bus ticket to Windsor, Ontario. From Windsor, he rowed across the Detroit River in a stolen rowboat, arriving on Detroit's Belle Isle at approximately 9 p.m. He spent the night of April 17 sleeping in a doorway and inside a vegetable cart.

April 18–19, 1942: Stephan assists Krug

On the morning of Saturday, April 18, 1942, Krug went to the home of Margareta Bertelmann, a German citizen who had sent Red Cross packages of cookies and clothing to the German prisoners of war in Bowmanville. Krug had memorized her address from the packages she had sent. Unsure how she could help Krug, Bertelmann called Stephan whom she knew from his restaurant. Stephan arrived a short time later and told Krug he did not have a chance and that he should turn himself in. Krug refused to do so, and Stephan drove Krug to his restaurant. Stephan fed Krug, and they later visited several bars. Stephan then took Krug to a prostitute, as it was the eve of Krug's 22nd birthday.
Stephan also took Krug to a shop operated by Theodore Donay, a German veteran of World War I. Donay gave Krug $20. A store clerk and fellow German immigrant, Dietrick Rinterlen, reported the incident to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
After showing Krug "a good time" for his birthday, Stephan sent Krug to the Field Hotel to sleep.
On the night of April 18, William J. Nagel visited Stephan's restaurant. Nagel was a prominent member of Detroit's German-American community; he had served as Detroit postmaster, Detroit city controller, managing director of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, and president of the Grosse Pointe Savings Bank. Stephan claimed that he had told Nagel about Krug and sought his advice. According to Stephan, Nagel advised that the war was over for Krug, that it was impossible for him to leave the country, and that if Nagel had the time he would personally drive him to Chicago to enjoy a couple days more of freedom. As Nagel was busy, he advised Stephan to take Krug to the bus station where the first bus for Chicago left at 10 a.m. Nagel advised that the bus was preferable to the train. According to Stephan, Nagel also gave him $3 for Krug, a sum Stephan used to purchase Krug's bus ticket. When questioned by the FBI, Nagel denied having spoken to Stephan or knowing anything about Krug.
On Sunday morning, April 19, Stephan picked up Krug from the Field Hotel and drove him to the bus station, where he bought Krug a bus ticket to Chicago.

Arrest of Stephan and capture of Krug

Acting on the tip from Rinterlen, Stephan was arrested by FBI agents the next day. In the days following his arrest, Stephan granted interviews to reporters. In a jailhouse interview with James Melton of the Detroit Times, Stephan reportedly admitted that he was aware that Krug sought to escape in order to return to the fight and help Germany win the war. Stephan was quoted as saying:
All he wants to do is to get a stick in his hands again. And he'll do it, too... Krug plans to go to South America and get on a Spanish boat for Germany... He says the Germans will win the war next fall, so he has to get back in the fight fast.

Following Stephan's arrest, a manhunt was launched to capture Krug before he could reach neutral territory in Mexico. Krug was arrested on May 1, 1942, in San Antonio, Texas. Krug was returned to Detroit as a witness in the Stephan case.

Prosecution

Push for a treason charge

Stephan was initially charged with harboring an alien fugitive, but John C. Lehr, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, sought permission to charge Stephan with treason. The local press also advocated for the higher charge, the Detroit Free Press stating in an editorial:
There is but one charge that can be sensibly made against this man and that is treason.... are laughing at us! Stephan is charged with the panty-waist accusation that he 'harbored' an alien.... Yes, this is a free country; but freedom does not include treason according to the Constitution – contrary to a lot of soft-headed parlor-pink theorizing. We are at war.

Through mid-May, the U.S. Attorney General refused to charge Stephan with treason. The Detroit Free Press repeated its cry for the heightened charge:

The police authorities, on the other hand, say that what Detroit needs more than anything else just now, is a trial for treason which will show that the Government means business. This alone, they say, would do more to discourage friends of the Axis powers here – and they figure Detroit alone has several thousand – than anything else.

The Detroit Times described Stephan as "an insignificant pawn" and called his specific act to be "negligible in consequence." Nevertheless, the Times urged that Stephan be given "short shrift" in order to demonstrate to Nazi and Japanese followers that Americans are not "softies and dilettantes in the war business" and to deliver "a severe blow to the entire fraternity" of "phoney naturalized citizens of German birth."
On June 2, 1942, a federal grand jury was impaneled in Detroit to consider treason charges against Stephan. The grand jury heard from 17 witnesses, including Krug.
On June 17, the grand jury indicted Stephan for treason. The indictment charged Stephan with 11 overt acts of treason as follows:
  1. Driving to Margareta Bertelmann's home for the purpose of taking Krug under his protection;
  2. Obtaining money from Bertelmann for Krug's benefit;
  3. Escorting Krug from Bertelmann's home to his restaurant;
  4. Providing Krug with food, drink, personal effects and clothing;
  5. Making inquiry regarding Detroit-Chicago train schedules with intent to aid Krug;
  6. Escorting Krug to Haller's Cafe, 1407 Randolph Street, and buying drinks for Krug and concealing Krug's identity by introducing him as "one of the Meyer boys";
  7. Taking Krug to the Progressive Club, 3003 Elmwood Avenue, buying him drinks, and introducing him as a friend from Milwaukee;
  8. Taking Krug to Theodore Donay's business, 3152 Gratiot Avenue, and obtaining money which was given to Krug;
  9. Escorting Krug to a disorderly house;
  10. Taking Krug back to Stephan's restaurant, feeding him, and introducing him as a friend from Milwaukee; and
  11. Taking Krug to the bus terminal and buying him a ticket to Chicago, the start of a journey intended to return Krug to active status with the German army.
Stephan was arraigned on June 20, and the trial was set to start nine days later.