Ernst Hanfstaengl

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 someday come to power. As Hitler's fanatical theories and ideas hardened, however, he surrounded himself with rabid...