- Ernst Hanfstaengl
Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl (
Munich ,February 2 ,1887 -November 6 ,1975 ) worked for bothFranklin Delano Roosevelt andAdolf Hitler .Early life
Ernst Hanfstaengl, nicknamed "Putzi", was born in
Munich, Germany , the son of a wealthy German art publisher,Edgar Hanfstaengl , and an American mother. He spent most of his early years inGermany and later moved to theUnited States . His mother was Katharine Wilhelmina Heine, daughter of William Heine, a cousin ofJohn Sedgwick . His godfather was Duke Ernst II. He had one sister, Erna. He attendedHarvard University and became acquainted withWalter Lippmann and John Reed. A gifted pianist, he composed several songs for Harvard's football team. He graduated in 1909. According to John Tolland's biography of Hitler, Hanfstaengl was a tall man, almost six and a half feet tall; his nickname, "Putzi", was a sort of a joke, since it means "little" or "cute".He moved to
New York City and took over the management of the American branch of his father's business, the Franz Hanfstaengl Fine Arts Publishing House. Every morning, he would practice on the piano at the New York Harvard Club, where he became acquainted with both Franklin andTheodore Roosevelt . Among his circle of acquaintances were the newspaper baronWilliam Randolph Hearst , authorDjuna Barnes , and actorCharlie Chaplin .Upon the outbreak of
World War I , he asked the German military attache in New York to smuggle him back to Germany. Slightly baffled by the proposal, the attache refused and Hanfstaengl remained in the U.S. during the war. After 1917, the American branch of the family business was confiscated as enemy property.On
February 11 ,1920 , Hanfstaengl marriedHelene Elise Adelheid Niemeyer ofLong Island . Their only son, Egon Ludwig, eventually enlisted in the US Army air corps. A daughter, Herta, died at the age of five.Hitler's Confidante
Returning to Germany in 1922, he was living in his native
Bavaria when he first heard Hitler speak in aMunich beer hall. A fellow member of the HarvardHasty Pudding club who worked at the U.S. Embassy, asked Hanfstaengl to assist a military attache sent to observe the political scene in Munich. Just before returning toBerlin the attache, Captain Truman Smith, suggested to Hanfstaengl to go to aNazi rally as a favor and report his impressions of Hitler. Hanfstaengl was so fascinated by Hitler that he soon became one of his most intimate followers, although he did not formally join the Nazi party until 1931. "What Hitler was able to do to a crowd in 2½ hours will never be repeated in 10,000 years," Hanfstaengl said. "Because of his miraculous throat construction, he was able to create a rhapsody of hysteria. In time, he became the livingunknown soldier of Germany."Hanfstaengel introduced himself to Hitler after the speech and began a close friendship and political association that would last through the 1920s and early 1930s. After participating in the failed
Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, Hanfstaengel briefly fled toAustria , while the injured Hitler sought refuge in Hanfstaengel's home inUffing , outside of Munich. Hanfstaengel's wife, Helene, allegedly dissuaded Hitler from committingsuicide , when the police came to arrest him.For much of the 1920s, Hanfstaengel introduced Hitler to Munich high-society and helped polish his image. He also helped to finance the publication of Hitler's "
Mein Kampf ", and theNSDAP 's official newspaper, the "Völkischer Beobachter ". Hitler was the godfather of Hanfstaengl's son Egon. Hanfstaengl wrote both Brownshirt andHitler Youth marches patterned after his Harvard football songs and, he later claimed, devised the chant "Sieg Heil ". Included among Hanfstaengl's friends during this period wereHanns Heinz Ewers and fellow Nazi party worker and journalistKurt Lüdecke .Fluent in English, with many connections to higher society both in
England and the United States, he became head of the Foreign Press Bureau in Berlin. Aside from this official position, much of his influence was due to his friendship with Hitler, who enjoyed listening to "Putzi" play the piano. Hanfstaengl later claimed to have alerted Hitler andHermann Göring about theReichstag fire .Fall From Power
As the NSDAP consolidated its power, several disputes arose between Hanfstaengl and Germany's Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels . Hanfstaegl was removed from Hitler's staff in 1933. He and Helene divorced in 1936. Hanfstaengl fell completely out of Hitler's favour after he was denounced byUnity Mitford , a close friend of both the Hanfstaengls and Hitler.In 1937, Hanfstaengl received orders to parachute into an area held by the nationalist side of the
Spanish Civil War , to assist in negotiations. While onboard the plane he feared a plot on his life and learned more details from the pilot about the mission, who eventually admitted he had been ordered to drop Hanfstaengl over loyalist-held territory, which would have meant almost certain death. Hanfstaengl convinced the pilot to let him escape.This version of the story was related by
Albert Speer in his memoirs, who stated that this "mission" to Spain was nothing more than an elaborate practical joke concocted by Hitler and Goebbels, designed to punish Hanfstaengl after he'd displeased theFührer by making "adverse comments about the fighting spirit of the German soldiers in combat" in the Spanish Civil War. Hanfstaengl had been issued sealed orders from Hitler, which were not to be opened until the his plane was in flight. These orders detailed that he was to be dropped in "Red Spanish territory" to work as an agent forFrancisco Franco . The plane, according to Speer, was merely circling over Germany containing an increasingly disconcerted Hanfstaengl, with false location reports being given to convey the impression that the plane was drawing ever closer toSpain . After the joke had played itself out, the pilot declared he had to make an emergency landing and landed safely at theLeipzig airport. [Albert Speer , "Inside the Third Reich ", (Sphere Books, 1971), Chpt.9, pp. 188-9.] Hanfstaengl was so alarmed by the event that he defected soon afterward.He made his way to
Switzerland and after securing his son Egon's release from Germany, he moved to England where he was imprisoned as an enemy alien after the outbreak ofWorld War II . He was later moved to a prison camp inCanada . In 1942, Hanfstaengl was turned over to the U.S. and worked for President Roosevelt's 'S-Project,' revealing information on approximately four hundred Nazi leaders. He provided 68 pages of information on Hitler alone, including personal details of Hitler's private life, and he helped ProfessorHenry A. Murray , the Director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, andpsychoanalyst Walter C. Langer and other experts to create a report for the OSS, in 1943, designated the "Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler "." In 1944, Hanfstaengl was handed back to the British, who repatriated him to Germany at the end of the war.William Shirer , aCBS journalist who resided in Nazi Germany until 1941 and was in frequent contact with Hanfstaengl, described him as an "eccentric, gangling man, whose sardonic wit somewhat compensated for his shallow mind."Hanfstaengl wrote "Unheard Witness" (1957) about his experiences. In 2004, his story was told by author
Peter Conradi in his book "Hitler's Piano Player: The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl, Confidante of Hitler, Ally of FDR".In popular culture
Hanfstaengel has rarely been mentioned or portrayed in dramatizations of Hitler's life or of life in
Nazi Germany . He was, however, an important supporting character in both the TV movie "" (in which he was portrayed byLiev Schreiber ) and authorRon Hansen 'shistorical fiction novel "Hitler's Niece".References
Further reading
*Hanfstaengl, Ernst 'Putzi'. "Hitler: The Missing Years". London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957. Arcade Publishing, reprint 1994 ISBN 1-55970-278-8
*Peter Conradi Carroll & Graf. "Hitler's Piano Player: The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl, Confidante of Hitler, Ally of FDR", 2004 ISBN 0-7867-1283-X
*Metcalfe, Philip. "1933". New York, The Permanent Press, 1988. ISBN 0-9329-6687-Xee also
*
List of Adolf Hitler books
*""External links
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0413419/ imdb link: A German documentary]
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERhanfstaengel.htm UK resources for school work]
* [http://www.neemeyer.com/html/more_contacts.html Neemeyer Genæology]
* [http://www.qedcorp.com/pcr/pcr/si04.html Putzi Lives!]
* [http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/00_03/letters.html Yale Alumni Magazine]
* [http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_08.htm Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler] byAntony C. Sutton
* [http://www.zmag.org/ZSustainers/ZDaily/1999-06/june_4raptis.htm "Hitler's Americanization" by Nikos Raptis (Z Magazine)]
* [http://www.sedgwick.org/na/library/books/sed1961/sed1961-143.html Sedgewick Genæology]
* [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=504501 Historian: Harvard Was Tied to Nazis]
* [http://www.aish.com/SSI/articleToPrint.asp?PageURL=/jewishissues/jewishsociety/The_Nazi_Who_Returned_to_Harvard.xml&torahportion=notparshapage&author=Jeff+Jacoby&teaser=New+research+shows+that+Harvard%2C+like+other+elite+institutions%2C+was+largely+unmoved+by+the+early+horrors+of+the+Hitler+regime%2E The Nazi Who Returned to Harvard]
* [http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=126&article=23989&archive=true He played piano for Hitler — and FDR; Otto Doelling, Associated Press 2/23/71]
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