from  to  johnson openly sympathized with the extreme populist movements of huey long governor of louisiana and father charles coughlin as a correspondent for coughlins newspaper social justice he made several trips to germany sympathetically covering the huge nazi rally at nuremberg and the german invasion of poland in  the american correspondent william shirer who also covered the german invasion of poland noted his enthusiasm for the germans and called him "the american fascist" however there is no other evidence that he was a fascist or member of the nazi party he actively helped refugees from germany including walter gropius and ludwig mies van der rohe to emigrate and become established in the united states he later described his activities in germany as "stupid" he was embarrassed many years after the war when hitlers architect albert speer who admired johnsons work sent a copy of his own book as a gift to johnson the fbi investigated him for his past contacts with the german government but he was not found to be a threat and he served honorably in the military regarding this period in his life he later said "i have no excuse for such unbelievable stupidity i dont know how you expiate guilt" in  donated his design for a building of worship to what