Johannes Steele

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Johannes Steel (born Herbert Stahl; 1908–1988) was a German-born American writer best known for his 1934 book The Second World War. His wife was sculptor Rhys Caparn.

Steel grew up in Elberfeld, near the Germany–Netherlands border, as the son of a German-Dutch landowner. He studied in Heidelberg, Oxford, Geneva, and Berlin, then worked as a journalist. When the Nazis came to power, he fled to France and Britain, and later moved to the United States. In the U.S., he wrote for The Nation and the New York Post, where he was foreign news editor.

The Second World War argued that Nazi plans pointed toward aggression and drew historical parallels. It predicted the war would begin in 1935, which did not happen, but the book gained attention after World War II began in 1939 and many saw his analysis as accurate. He became a well-known radio commentator during the war.

In 1946, Steel ran for Congress in New York’s 19th district in a special election caused by Samuel Dickstein’s resignation. He ran on the American Labor Party ticket and finished second with about 38% of the vote.

There were later allegations that Steel had ties to Soviet intelligence during World War II. A deciphered Venona cable from July 1944 reports that Steel told Soviet agent Vladimir Pravdin that Roman Moszulski, head of the Polish Telegraphic Agency and aligned with Poland’s government-in-exile, was secretly pro-Communist and should stay in his post to aid the Soviets, with a meeting arranged. The cable notes that Moszulski offered to help and provided a list of Polish exiles and Polish-Americans. In Soviet files, Steel was given the cover names DICKY, DICKI, or DIKI.