Fernand de Brinon

Fernand de Brinon, Marquis de Brinon (French pronunciation: ​[feʁnɑ̃ də bʁinɔ̃]; 26 August 1885 – 15 April 1947) was a French lawyer and journalist who was one of the architects of French collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. He claimed to have had five private talks with Adolf Hitler between 1933 and 1937.

Born into a wealthy family in the city of Libourne in the Gironde département, Ferdinand de Brinon studied political science and law at university but chose to work as a journalist in Paris. After the First World War, he advocated a rapprochement with Germany. He became friends with Joachim von Ribbentrop.

Ferdinand de Brinon married Jeanne Louise Rachel Franck, a.k.a. Lisette, the Jewish former wife of Claude Ullmann; she converted to Catholicism.

The Brinons became leading socialites in 1930s Paris, and close friends of the political right-wing elite. A leading advocate for collaboration following France's defeat by Germany in the Second World War, in July 1940 Brinon was invited by Pierre Laval, Vice-Premier of the new Vichy regime, to act as its representative to the German High Command in occupied Paris. In September of that year he also established the Groupe Collaboration to help establish closer cultural ties between Germany and France. In 1942, Philippe Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, gave him the title of Secretary of State.

...
Wikipedia