developing his orator’s talent Hitler asked quite reasonable questions:
“You are absolutely right. But how can I drum my ideas into the heads of the German people without being published? Newspapers completely ignore me. How can I think about my oratory successes with our damned Völkischer Beobachter that comes out weekly? We will not achieve anything until it is published daily”[96].
It was the year of 1923. In November Hitler would make an attempt of the coup d’etat. He badly needed propaganda to get support of the people. And propaganda required financing. Too bad it was nowhere to get the financing. Possibly the future Führer would be a simple orator forever who made speeches at Munich beer feasts if not for a saying: rather have a hundred friends than a hundred rubles.
Adolf Hitler did not have a hundred of friends but he had one true friend. And that was enough because his friend was Ernst Hanfstaengl. He would be the one to finance propaganda! “In March 1923 Hanfstaengl gave Hitler a loan in the amount of one thousand dollars. During those times such sum was a lot of money”[97].
Don’t get confused about the word “loan”. There are many grounds to suppose that Putzi didn’t rush Hitler to return that money. And one thousand was really a great sum of money in those times! According to Hanfstaengl even one dollar was a fortune not to mention a thousand![98]
Members of the Nazi party used the money to purchase two new printing machines for their newspaper Völkischer Beobachter. At that moment Hitler’s newspaper was no longer a small piece of paper, but became a regular newspaper that came out daily. It was not the only Hanfstaengl’s contribution in creating Nazi’s major mouthpiece. He personally attracted a cartoonist Schwarzer to develop the new bright heading, the “cap” and suggested the new motto for the newspaper – “Labour and Bread”[99].
When publishing was arranged smoothly, Hanfstaengl helped Hitler in other small but very important matters. He was the one who explained Hitler that music was extremely important to throw the crowd into ecstasies and to force historic enthusiasm. As example Putzi played for Führer Harvard marches and Hitler even made SA orchestra to memorize the melody. Afterwards Hanfstaengl composed about ten new march melodies for the Assault Division![100] when Hitler was elected Chancellor, the Assault Division would be marching under the Brandenburg Gate to those “pathetic marches” composed by an American.
At the same time the fact of Putzi’s supporting Nazi and transfer of the money was thoroughly hidden by Hanfstaengl. Several times he mentions that in his memoirs: “I decided to secretly support the nationalistic-socialistic party”; “I… understood that any support which I provided had to be kept secret”; “I still kept in secret my support of the Nazi and could not allow any fuss about it”[101].
What was the reason to hide it? Explanations were quite unconvincing: “I am a member of the family firm”. So what important business did Hanfstaengl have with Hitler that it was allowed to walk with him in the street but not allowed to help him with money? Upon arrival from America to the native land the future Führer’s fan was engaged not in trading or brokerage but in studying of the Bavarian king-patron Ludwig II[102]. It is all the same as being afraid of being compromised during Yeltzin’s time for studying the favourites of empress Catherine II or Elisabeth. What else Hanfstaengl was engaged in other than teaching Hitler, sponsoring him and going into business trips with him? It is hard to understand from his memoirs. He did not include detailed descriptions of his commercial activities.
Yet he did remember to tell the reader about the content of Hitler’s book shelve which he once observed while visiting Führer. Would you be interested to find out what the head of the political party read in his free time? I guess so. You would look at the shelf, wouldn’t you? Would you remember all the names? You would probably have a look and remember some of them. But you would hardly be able to reproduce the exact list of books when you wrote memoirs 25 years after. That’s because you are an ordinary person. While Ernst Hanfstaengl, such a great friend of the Nazi leader made something extraordinary for an ordinary person “Books were all different. Finding some time I made a list of them”[103], – wrote the American. Such behaviour that seems extraordinary for an average person is quite typical for an intelligence agent.
It seems that contacts with Hitler and collection of information were the major activity and work of his friend Hanfstaengl. The rest was only a kind of disguise. So, for example, Hanfstaengl supposedly wrote the script for a movie and supposedly it took him almost a year. But this movie was never even screened! Why? Because Putzi never wrote a script. He was systematically busy with the only thing really – preparing the future Führer for Germany. While telling about his script-making was a good reply to any question about his professional life. After all there was no such profession as supporting Hitler.
“The party always lacked money”[104], – wrote Hanfstaengl in his book. Why then the two-meter friend and sponsor gave only one thousand dollars, not two, or three, or ten if he was so close to Hitler for a reason? Very simple: His legend was that he was rich but not a billionaire; he could not donate amounts that exceeded reasonable extents of the rich bourgeois. One thousand dollars was fine but not ten, no. Yet he could introduce Hitler to the right people, he could give good advice. Soon came the time, just before the putsch, when Hitler went to Switzerland to get some money. This country had always been home for intelligence services of all the countries of our world. Was it again the true friend who directed him there?
This fact is left unknown but we know for sure another thing: After failure with the putsch Hitler ran away to Hanfstaengl house located in settlement Uffing, 60 km from Munich[105]. At that moment Hitler was in despair, his hysterical personality was extremely stressed. Seeing no way out Hitler made a decision to shoot himself and put the revolver against his temple. As we know well it never happened. Who should we thank for saving the life of one of the most terrible savage in the history? Hanfstaengl’s wife, she was the one who knocked out the revolver from Hitler’s hand. It was in this house that Hitler got arrested by policemen and sent to prison where he began to classify his ideas (told by Hanfstaengl) into a book. The first thing Hitler did after coming out of prison was not visiting Göring or Rosenberg but visiting Hanfstaengl’s new house behind the river Isar…
Hanfstaengl couple managed to save Hitler’s life twice. For the first time it happened in 1923 during their car trip to Berlin. The road was going through Saxony which was practically under the power of communists. That is why in that part of Germany there existed an order to arrest Hitler and “was even assigned a price for his head”. The unit of communistic militia stopped the car on the road. Then it was really the question of life and death. And at that very moment Hanfstaengl took out the Swiss passport out of his pocket (he used it to return from the USA) and explained that he was a foreigner going to the Leipzig Fair and accompanied by the driver and the footman. “You saved my life”, said Hitler then. In the next years Hitler always remembered that incident with appreciation. While Hanfstaengl wrote in his book that “Hitler was offended that I called him the footman”.
Grateful Hitler did not forget his friend and appointed him to the responsible position of the Press Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the party. Besides Putzi was in the head of the department of foreign press in the staff of Führer’s deputy. In his business trips abroad he was actively advertising new German powers.
Skeptic would say that these facts do not prove anything. And he would be absolutely right! Yet Hanfstaengl’s biography includes some more interesting
Ibid. P. 50–51.
Ibid. P. 48.
Ibid. P. 39, 55.
Ibid. P. 52.
