Ernst Hanfstaengl and
his wife Helene as
portrayed in the film
Fritz Gerlich and his
wife Sophie as
portrayed in the film
Adolf Hitler’s parents - Klara and Alois Hitler
Close-up photographs of the portraits on their grave in Leonding, Austria
Alois Hitler in the uniform of an Austrian customs official
Hitler’s family tree
A more detailed family tree
Angela Raubal (Hitler’s half sister) and her daughter Angela (“Geli”)
Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl
Ernst Hanfstaengel, the son of a wealthy publisher, was
born in Munich, Germany, on 2nd February, 1887. He
had an American mother and was sent to Harvard
University where he graduated in 1909.
Hanfstaengel remained in the United States during the
First World War and did not return to Germany until
1919. After hearing Adolf Hitler at a meeting he joined
the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).
He became one of Hitler's earliest financial supporters
and provided the money to buy the Volkische
Beobachter.
Hanfstaengel took part in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923
and afterwards hid Hitler in one of his country homes.
The two men remained close and in 1931 Hanfstaengel
was appointed Foreign Press Chief of the Nazi Party.
Over the next few years he tried to use his contacts to
improve the image of Hitler in other countries.
Hanfstaengel had a dispute with Joseph Goebbels and
was informed in March 1937 he was in danger of being
murdered. He fled to United States where he was
employed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a "political and
psychological warfare adviser in the war against
Germany.”
After the Second World War Hanfstaengel returned to
Germany where he published his book, Hitler: The
Missing Years (1957). Ernst Hanfstaengel died in
Munich on 6th November, 1975.
“Putzi” is a German nickname meaning “little one”.
Hanfstangl was 6 foot 4 inches (190 cm) tall!
Putzi the piano player
In November 1938 the magazine Home and Garden did a piece on
Hitler’s mountain home, the Berghof. In the final paragraph,
Hanfstaengl’s role as the piano man is mentioned.
“But I have said enough to convey the idea of a sunny sub-alpine
home, hundreds of miles from Berlin's uproar, and set amid an
unsophisticated peasantry of carvers and hunters. This is the only
home in which Hitler can laugh and take his ease -- or even
"conduct tours" by means of the tripod telescope which he himself
operates on the terrace for his visitors. "This place is mine," he
says simply. "I built it with money that I earned." Then he takes
you into his library, where you note that quite half the books are
on history, painting, architecture, and music. When it is fine
enough to dine in the open air, one sees a piano made ready for the
after-dinner concert. Local talent will supply violin and cello for
pieces by Mozart or Brahms. But at the piano itself it is always
that English-speaking giant (he is 6 ft. 4 ins.) -- Dr. Ernst ("Putzi")
Hanfstaengl who presides as a composer of all-German renown.”
Note that the “builder” pictured in the top photograph with Hitler is Albert Speer.
Hitler’s membership card in the DAP (German Workers’ Party
He is indicated as member number 555 but was actually member 55. All early member numbers were inflated to give an
impression that the party was larger and more popular than it really was.
Ernst Röhm
Leader of the SA, killed on Hitler’s orders on
the “Night of the Long Knives” - 30 June 1934
Hitler and Röhm reviewing SA troops in the Hauptmarkt in Nuremberg
Theodor Eicke, the man who shot Röhm
Rudolf Hess
Deputy Führer,
participant in the 1923
Putsch and imprisoned
with Hitler in
Landsberg prison in
the wake of the putsch
Heinrich Hoffmann
Hitler’s photographer in Munich who made a fortune from his photographs of Hitler.
Eva Braun was employed by Hoffmann when Hitler met her when she was aged 17.
Hoffmann
greeting the
leader of the
SS, Heinrich
Himmler
Youth around Hitler
One of the many picture books featuring
Hitler published by Heinrich Hoffmann
Eva Braun
After Geli Raubal’s suicide, Hitler began a relationship
with Eva Braun who had worked as an office and lab
assistant and a part-time model for Heinrich Hoffman.
Hermann Göring
Lieutenant Göring (above) in a
fighter plane during World War
One, as an SA leader in the 1920s
(left) and in uniform in 1932
(right).
The Bürger Bräu Keller
This was the site at which Hitler
stormed a meeting of conservatives on
the night of 8 November 1923. He
attempted to force von Kahr, von
Lossow and von Seisser to support his
attempted putsch. They informed on
him and organised opposition to the
putsch as soon as they were able to get
away. Von Kahr was also to be
murdered on the Night of the Long
Knives.
The meeting photographed
above is a Nazi meeting held
in the Bürger Bräu Keller in
1923.
On the right, Nazis are
photographed with the
“blood flag” on the 10th
anniversary of the putsch as
they prepare to retrace the
steps of the putschists took
on 9 November 1923
Von Kahr’s body was found in a wood outside Munich. It seems he had been hacked to death by pickaxe.
The end of the putsch
The Feldherrnhalle (the Field Marshall’s Hall) is
Munich’s war memorial. It was at the side of this
memorial that the Nazis confronted the police.
Fourteen Nazis were killed (two more were killed
elsewhere that morning) and four policemen died.
The dead Nazis would be commemorated thereafter
as the Blood Martyrs (Blutzeugen) of the Movement.
The bloodied flag they carried would become know
as the Blood Flag (Blutfahne)
The view the putschists would have had on the
Residenzstrasse as they approached the police
at the Feldherrnhalle.
The view the police would have had at the
Feldherrnhalle as the Nazi putschists approached.
The plaque honouring the police can be seen on
the ground next to the Feldherrnhalle.
The Feldherrnhalle, viewed from the Odeonsplatz. The battle took place in Residenzstrasse on the left hand side of the war memorial.
The site of the battle today and the memorial the Nazis
built to honour the dead. Adolf Hitler can be seen below
saluting the dead at the side of the Feldherrnhalle in the
presence of the Blood Flag.
Ludendorff, Hitler, Röhm and others during their trial following the failed Munich putsch
Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison
Hitler shortly after his release from Landsberg Prison
Landsberg Prison today and Rudolf Hess and his
companions at the front of the gaol on the occasion of their
release on 30 December 1924
Mein Kampf (My Struggle) - the book Hitler commenced while in prison in Landsberg. It has two volumes or parts:
First Part: A Reckoning
Second Part: The National Socialist Movement
Zirkus Krone (Crown Circus)
One of the venues at which Hitler spoke in Munich - and it’s still there!
Müller’s Cabinet 1928 - the last democratic cabinet
Sitting: Erich Koch-Weser Justizminister (Demokrat), Hermann Müller, Reichskanzler (Sozialdemokrat), Wilhelm Groener,
Reichswehrminister (parteilos), Wissell, Reichsarbeitsminister (Sozialdemokrat),
Standing: Hermann Dietrich (DDP)-Baden, Ernährung (Demokart), Rudolf Hilferding, Finanzen (Sozialdem.), Dr. Julius Curtius,
Wirtschaft (Dtsch. Volkspartei), Severing Juneres (Sozialdem.), Theodor von Guérard besetztes Gebiet und Verkehr (Zentr.), Georg
Schätzel, Post (bayer. Volkspartei).
The President and his Chancellor
Heinrich Brüning
Rivals for the Chancellorship
Franz von Papen
Kurt von Schleicher
Fritz Gerlich
Headline: Does Hitler have Mongol blood?
Headline: Hitler the bankrupt
1 February 1933
Just two days after Hitler’s
appointment as Chancellor the headline
in Der Gerade Weg was “Germany’s
Path of Suffering” or “Germany’s Way
of the Cross”. The religious allusion
was appropriate for a Catholic
newspaper.
“There remains only one thing: Hope”
Hitler photographed in the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin on 17 January 1932 with copies of Der Gerage Weg on the table.
Pope Benedict, Fritz Gerlich and „Der Gerade Weg“ (The Straight Way) A newspaper against Hitler
After Cardinal Ratzinger’s election to the Papacy and in particular during his visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, people wondered how the
young Joseph Ratzinger lived through the era of National Socialism.
An interview in the London Times helped to shed some light on this question, as the Pope himself gave important insight and references to the Catholic
environment that shaped his youth and his perception of National Socialism. He made further references to these formative years in his book “Salz der
Erde” (Salt of the Earth).
But it was his family’s reading of the anti-Nazi newspaper, “Der Gerade Weg”, which played a central role in these memories. In this newspaper, Fritz
Gerlich debates in a critical and polemical way the emerging Third Reich and its protagonists, especially Adolf Hitler. This newspaper, which Gerlich
had started with the help of influential friends, developed a large readership and was published with a circulation of 100,000 copies in 1932/33.
“Der Gerade Weg“ was not only read by the opponents of National Socialism, but also by those affiliated with the Nazi Party; even Adolf Hitler
carefully observed the work of his adversaries in journalism. A photo shows him reading a January 17, 1932 issue at his desk in Berlin’s Kaiserhof
Hotel.
Fritz Gerlich was born in Stettin, northern Germany, in 1883. After his schooldays in Stettin he moved to Munich in 1901 to study history at the local
university. He finished his studies with a Ph.D. in 1907 and started working as a civil servant in the Bavarian state archives.
Gerlich became politically active in the leftist- and national-liberal spectrums both before and during the first World War. These affiliations helped gain
him a position on the list of the German Democratic Party (DDP) for the elections to the first parliament of Weimar, and also brought him into contact
with the leading personalities of Bavarian politics and business.
In 1920, he became Editor-in-Chief of the “Münchner Neueste Nachrichten”, the newspaper with the largest distribution in the south of Germany and
precursor to the present “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. In this position, he not only became one of the most influential journalists in Southern Germany, but he
also bore witness to the early history of Adolf Hitler and the rise of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party). In 1923 Gerlich met Hitler
three times privately. He would later be summoned as a witness in the high treason case before the Munich court that tried the so-called “Hitlerputsch”,
the failed coup d’état by Hitler in 1923.
In 1927, Gerlich left the “Münchner Neueste Nachrichten”, converted to Catholicism and in 1930, founded the weekly newspaper ‘Der Gerade Weg”
with the support of influential friends. From this time forward, he wrote (supported by his friend the Capuchin Friar P.Ingbert Naab) in a sharp manner
against the great “isms” of his time, namely National Socialism, Communism and Antisemitism
“Der Gerade Weg” (which was called “Illustrated Sunday” until 1932) was at first printed in a publishing house in the Schellingstraße in Munich. The
editor’s office of the “Völkischer Beobachter” (the Nazi periodical of Hitler) also resided in this building and it was due to the proximity of these two
offices that Hitler and Gerlich were mutually informed about the editorial plans of the “other side”.
When the National Socialists seized power in Bavaria on March 9, 1933, the SA (battle troop) assaulted the editor’s office of “Der Gerade Weg” in
Munich, mistreated Gerlich and arrested him. On June 30, 1934 – on the occasion of the so called “Röhm-Putsch” – Dr. Fritz Gerlich was killed in the
Dachau concentration camp.
Fritz Gerlich’s workplace, now the offices of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Plaques honouring Gerlich and Der Gerade Weg are placed on the wall
on the building.
Dr Fritz Gerlich 1883-1934
Editor of Münchner Neuesten Nachrichter (Munich’s Latest News)
1920-1928
He wrote in 1932:
National Socialism means lies, hatred, fratricide and no boundaries
.
After arrest and torture in the night on 1 July 1934 he was murdered
On 9 and 13 March 1933 were
But freedom of speech survived:
South German Times
“By no censorship bound,
By no moral constraint gagged”
From 1 to 6 October 1945
For freedom, truth and right
Der Gerade Weg
Münchener Post
Münchener Neueste Nachrichten
Destroyed, disempowered, expropriated
Hitler appointed Chancellor
30 January 1933
Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen (second from right) was under the illusion that he
could tame and control Hitler (seventh from left). Papen believed that a cabinet
consisting chiefly of national-conservative politicians would be able to restrict
Hitler's room for maneuver. Aside from Hitler, only two National Socialists
belonged to the new government: Wilhelm Frick (seventh from right, wearing a
swastika) as Reich Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Gˆring (eighth from left)
as minister without portfolio and as acting Prussian Minister of the Interior. The
photo also shows Joseph Goebbels (fifth from left), whom Hitler would name
Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda on March 13, 1933. Papen was
so confident about the political dominance of the cabinetís conservative majority
that he was heard saying, "Within two months we'll have pushed Hitler so far into
the corner that he'll squeak." Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann.
The Reichstag, now located near streets
named after pro-republican politicians
of the Weimar Republic. Marinus van
der Lubbe with his head bowed, on trial
for setting fire to the Reichstag.
The Reichstag Fire Decree - Decree of the Reichspresident for the Protection of the People and the State
Enacted under Article 48 of the constitution
Elections - 5 March 1933
Hitler, in coalition with Hugenberg’s
Battle Front Black White Red finally win
a majority in the Reichstag
The day after the elections
Communists being rounded up and arrested by members of the SA on 6 March 1933 - the day after the election
The Enabling Act
On March 7, 1933, Hitler presented his cabinet with a
plan for the definitive dissolution of the Reichstag. He
intended to transfer legislative powers to his
administration, which would then be “enabled” to make
laws independent of the Reichstag and the president.
Such a fundamental alteration to the Weimar
Constitution required a two-thirds majority in the
Reichstag. But even after the illegal exclusion of the
Communist Party (KPD) deputies, the NSDAP/DNVP
coalition still lacked 31 votes. Hitler therefore opened
negotiations with representatives of the German Centre
Party, and they ultimately accepted his proposed
measure. In return, the Centre Party was promised that
the integrity of the Catholic Church would be respected
in Germany. The official Reichstag vote occurred on
March 23, 1933; only the Social Democrats offered
resolute opposition to the “Law to Remove the Distress
of the People and the State” (also known as “The
Enabling Act”), which henceforth formed the pseudolegal basis of the Nazi dictatorship.
Newspaper of 24 March 1933 reporting the passing of the Enabling Act
The Night of the Long Knives - Operation Hummingbird
The Hotel Hanslbauer at Bad Weissee where Hitler personally arrested Ernst Röhm and other SA
leaders on the night of 30 June 1934 as part of Operation Hummingbird, carried out by the SS.
The Nazi Newspaper Volkischer Beobachter (People’s Observer) on 1 July 1934 with news of the Röhm purge
Even before "Operation Hummingbird,"
Hitler saw to it that rumours were spread
about a possible coup d'état being planned by
the SA. The day after the purge, propaganda
minister Joseph Goebbels declared that Ernst
Röhm and Kurt von Schleicher had been
plotting a "second revolution," which the
Nazis had managed to thwart, thus saving the
country from chaos. The National Socialist
press also stressed the homosexuality and
alleged perversion of Röhm and his
followers, who, as the party emphasized, no
longer presented any moral danger to the
German people. On July 3, 1934, the regime
decreed the "Law on State Self-Defense
Measures" [Gesetz über Maßnahmen der
Staatsnotwehr, or Staatsnotwehrgesetz],
which retroactively legalized the political
murders committed on what became known
as "the Night of the Long Knives."
The main headline of the July 3, 1934,
edition of the Völkischer Beobachter reads:
"The 'Second Revolution': Pledges of Loyalty
to the Führer from throughout the Reich. –
The Impression the 'Cleansing-Action' Made
Abroad – Reich Minister Dr. Frick to Civil
Servants." Other headlines read: "A Strong
Fist and an Iron Will Rule in Germany," "The
Reich President to the Führer: The German
People Saved from Serious Danger," and
"The People Greet the Führer."
Our
last
hope:
Hitler