Hitler's Piano Player
Hitler's Piano Player

Author: Peter Conradi

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2006-01-12

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780786716913

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Through newly declassified documents, interviews with surviving members of the Hanfstaengl family, and original writings by Putzi, historian and author Peter Conradi weaves Putzi's captivating tale. It was at a Munich Beer Hall in 1922 that this German man first saw Hitler speak, introduced himself and made his way in 20th-century history. Acting as haughty court jester, soothing pianist, and savvy foreign press chief for Hitler, Putzi became a close ally of the Fuehrer. Yet, once Putzi fell out of Hitler's graces, he escaped Germany, was interned in Britain, transferred to Canada and finally to America. Here, in an unusual turn of allegiance, Putzi began working with FDR, an acquaintance from New York's Harvard Club, and became the star of Roosevelt's "S-Project." He provided the White House with biographical information on hundreds of leading Nazis, analyses of Hitler's speeches, and a 68-page psychological portrait of Hitler —describing his education, diet and even his sex life. Filled with revelations about Hitler's personal life and descriptions of American psychological warfare, Hitler's Piano Player is a gripping book about a man torn apart by the most antagonistic of loyalties and history's missing personal link between Hitler and FDR.

Hitler's Piano Player
Hitler's Piano Player

Author: Peter Conradi

Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780715633731

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The incredible story of Ernst Hanfstaengl, the only person to have worked directly for both Hitler and Franklin Roosevelt, who funded Mein Kampf and helped create the monster of Nazism before later working to destroy it Ernst Hanfstaengl was court jester, pianist, and foreign press chief for Hitler during his political climb. He later played a lead role in Roosevelt's top-secret project to use disinformation and black propaganda against the Nazis. Filled with revelations about Hitler's personal and political life and descriptions of American psychological warfare, Hitler's Piano Player is a shocking story of a man torn apart by opposing loyalties. A Harvard-educated German, Hanfstaengl was living in Germany in 1922 when he first heard Adolf Hitler speak in a Munich beer hall. Introducing himself after the speech, Hanfstaengl began one of the strangest relationships in 20th century politics. As he tried to introduce Hitler to Munich high-society and polish his image in the eyes of the world, Hanfstaengl also helped finance Mein Kampf, claimed to have devised the chant of Sieg Heil, and attempted to set Hitler up with the American ambassador's beautiful young daughter. was interned, and then transferred to America. There, he worked for his old friend from the Harvard Club in New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The star of Roosevelt's 'S-Project, ' Hanfstaengl provided the White House with biographical information on four hundred leading Nazis, analyses of Hitler's speeches, and a detailed psychological portrait of Hitler, describing his education, diet, and even his sex life. Through newly declassified documents, interviews with surviving members of Hanfstaengl's family, and original writing by Hanfstaengl himself, Peter Conradi recounts the remarkable life of history's personal link between Hitler and FDR

Hitler's Piano Player
Hitler's Piano Player

Author: Peter Conradi

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780786712830

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A portrait of the man who served Hitler as both pianist and foreign press chief before turning on the Nazis and helping the Allies defeat them recalls his role in helping American and British intelligence agencies in assembling a psychological profile of Hitler.

Hitler's Piano Player
Hitler's Piano Player

Author: Peter Conradi

Publisher: Duckworth

Published: 2006-02-23

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780715635285

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Ernst Hanfstaengl was court jester, pianist, and foreign press chief for Hitler, he even claimed to have devised the chant of Sieg Heil, but when the two men fell out he fled to Britain, where he was interned and transferred to America. There he worked as the star of Roosevelt's 'S-Project,' informing on 400 leading Nazis and creating a detailed psychological portrait of Hitler. Through newly declassified documents, interviews with surviving family members and original writing by Hanfstaengl himself, Peter Conradi recounts a remarkable life.

Hitler
Hitler

Author: Ernst Hanfstaengl

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-08-01

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1628721391

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Of American and German parentage, Ernst Hanfstaengl graduated from Harvard and ran the family business in New York for a dozen years before returning to Germany in 1921. By chance he heard a then little-known Adolf Hitler speaking in a Munich beer hall and, mesmerized by his extraordinary oratorical power, was convinced the man would some day come to power. As Hitler’s fanatical theories and ideas hardened, however, he surrounded himself with rabid extremists such as Goering, Hess, and Goebbels, and Hanfstaengl became estranged from him. But with the Nazi’s major unexpected political triumph in 1930, Hitler became a national figure, and he invited Hanfstaengl to be his foreign press secretary. It is from this unique insider’s position that the author provides a vivid, intimate view of Hitler—with his neuroses, repressions, and growing megalomania—over the next several years. In 1937, four years after Hitler came to power, relations between Hanfstaengl and the Nazis had deteriorated to such a degree that he was forced to flee for his life, escaping to Switzerland. Here is a portrait of Hitler as you’ve rarely seen him.

Olympic Affair
Olympic Affair

Author: Terry Frei

Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications

Published: 2012-12-16

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 1589796993

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Though not a member of the National Socialist Party, Leni Riefenstahl was the filmmaker darling of the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. First a successful dancer and actress in Germany, she became more notorious when she produced and directed Victory of Faith and Triumph of the Will, the chilling documentaries about Nazi Party Congresses at Nuremberg. Glenn Morris was an All-American farm boy from tiny Simla, Colorado, as well as a former college football star and student body president at the school now known as Colorado State University. At the 1936 Olympics, he won the decathlon, earning him the label “the world’s greatest athlete.” Among the American heroes at the Berlin Games, he was considered second only to Jesse Owens, who won four gold medals. Riefenstahl and Morris: An unlikely couple? Perhaps, but in her 1987 memoirs, the German filmmaker belatedly confirmed she had an affair with the American athlete during the filming of Olympia, Riefenstahl’s documentary about the Berlin Games. In fact, she portrayed it as much more than a dalliance, saying that she had dreamed of marrying Morris and that he broke her heart. Morris, who went on to Hollywood, the National Football League, and military service, spoke sparingly of the relationship, but mused late in life that he “should have stayed in Germany with Leni.” In Olympic Affair, author Terry Frei turns to historical fiction in a novel researched in much the same fashion as his widely praised works of nonfiction, including Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming and Third Down and a War to Go. Using deduction, imagination and narrative skill to augment documented fact (as well as debunk myths parroted for many years), Frei tells the story of their ill-fated affair . . . and beyond. Read the first chapter of Olympic Affair here.

Hitlerland
Hitlerland

Author: Andrew Nagorski

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2012-03-13

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 1439191026

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World War II historian Andrew Nagorski recounts Adolf Hitler’s rise to and consolidation of power, drawing on countless firsthand reports, letters, and diaries that narrate the creation of the Third Reich. “Hitlerland is a bit of a guilty pleasure. Reading about the Nazis is not supposed to be fun, but Nagorski manages to make it so. Readers new to this story will find it fascinating” (The Washington Post). Hitler’s rise to power, Germany’s march to the abyss, as seen through the eyes of Americans—diplomats, military officers, journalists, expats, visiting authors, Olympic athletes—who watched horrified and up close. “Engaging if chilling…a broader look at Americans who had a ringside seat to Hitler’s rise” (USA TODAY), Hitlerland offers a gripping narrative full of surprising twists—and a startlingly fresh perspective on this heavily dissected era.

Hitler's Fatal Miscalculation
Hitler's Fatal Miscalculation

Author: Klaus H. Schmider

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-01-28

Total Pages: 615

ISBN-13: 1108890326

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Hitler's decision to declare war on the United States has baffled generations of historians. In this revisionist new history of those fateful months, Klaus H. Schmider seeks to uncover the chain of events which would incite the German leader to declare war on the United States in December 1941. He provides new insights not just on the problems afflicting German strategy, foreign policy and war production but, crucially, how they were perceived at the time at the top levels of the Third Reich. Schmider sees the declaration of war on the United States not as an admission of defeat or a gesture of solidarity with Japan, but as an opportunistic gamble by the German leader. This move may have appeared an excellent bet at the time, but would ultimately doom the Third Reich.

Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives
Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin, and a Century in Two Lives

Author: Karin Wieland

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2015-10-05

Total Pages: 478

ISBN-13: 1631490966

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Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography) Named of the Best Books of the Year by the Washington Post and the Boston Globe Magisterial in scope, this dual biography examines two complex lives that began alike but ended on opposite sides of the century’s greatest conflict. Marlene Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl, born less than a year apart, lived so close to each other that Riefenstahl could see into Dietrich’s Berlin apartment. Coming of age at the dawn of the Weimar Republic, both sought fame in Germany’s burgeoning motion picture industry. While Dietrich’s depiction of Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel catapulted her to Hollywood stardom, Riefenstahl—who missed out on the part—insinuated herself into Hitler’s inner circle to direct groundbreaking if infamous Nazi propaganda films, like Triumph of the Will. Dietrich, who toured tirelessly with the USO, could never truly go home again; Riefenstahl could never shake her Nazi past. Acclaimed German historian Karin Wieland examines these lives within the vicious crosscurrents of a turbulent century, evoking piercing insights into "the modern era’s most difficult questions, about illusion and mass intoxication, art and truth, courage and capitulation" (New Yorker).

In the garden of beasts
In the garden of beasts

Author: Erik Larson

Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 466

ISBN-13: 0307952428

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The time is 1933, the place, Berlin, when William E. Dodd becomes America's first ambassador to Hitler's Germany. A mild-mannered professor from Chicago, Dodd brings along his wife, son, and flamboyant daughter, Martha. At first Martha is entranced by the parties and pomp, and the handsome young men of the Third Reich with their infectious enthusiasm for restoring Germany to a position of world prominence. Enamored of the 'New Germany,' she has one affair after another, including with the suprisingly honorable first chief of the Gestapo, Rudolf Diels. But as evidence of Jewish persecution mounts, confirmed by chilling first-person testimony, her father telegraphs his concerns to a largely indifferent State Department back home. Dodd watches with alarm as Jews are attacked, the press is censored, and drafts of frightening new laws begin to circulate. As that first year unfolds and the shadows deepen, the Dodds experience days full of excitement, intrigue, romance - and ultimately, horror, when a climactic spasm of violence and murder reveals Hitler's true character and ruthless ambition.