Eric Jan Hanussen: Hitler's Jewish Clairvoyant

Product Information

A fundamental problem in dealing with Hanussen pre-1920s is that most of what is known about him comes from a single source, his 1930 autobiography, Meine Lebenslinie (“My Lifeline”). To call it self-aggrandising is an understatement, though it seems accurate enough as regards time and place. The author dances around the matter of ethnic origins, stating that he was born in Vienna (true), not in Denmark, Sicily or Tarnopol, the latter a largely Jewish town in the far reaches of the old Empire. 12 If he is to be believed, his psychic powers first manifested in the womb, when he willed his unwed parents to marry. 13 Exactly when and how Hanussen met Hitler is a matter of uncertainty and debate. Writer Juri Lina asserts, improbably, that their association began in 1920. 39 Gordon argues that the pair met, via Helldorf, in late June or early July 1932. Palacios thinks the intermediary may have been Ewers and that the meeting occurred towards the end of 1932, while Magida wonders if the two ever met at all. 40 In 1943, Walter Langer compiled a “Psychological Profile” of Hitler for the American OSS. One of his sources was dissident Nazi Otto Strasser, himself a former admirer of Hanussen, who reported that “during the early 1920’s Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from a man named Hamissen [sic] who was also a practicing astrologer and fortune teller.” 41 In his own writing, Strasser simply puts the meeting in the “post-war period” and describes Hanussen as a “super-clairvoyant” who acted as Hitler’s “medium.” 42 In World Diary, contemporary American journalist Quincy Howe identifies 1930 as the year in which Hitler “constantly consulted a Jewish hypnotist who had changed his name from Steinschneider to Hanussen.” 43 While this obviously won't play out in a future Kingsman movie, a direct sequel to The King's Man could see the newly-formed organisation attempt to stop World War II from breaking out.

Hess’s friend, Karl Haushofer, had told him that he’d had a dream in which he’d seen Hess walking through English castles, bringing peace between Britain and Germany. Hess spoke to his astrologer, who told him that six planets would be in Taurus and that the Moon would be full on May 10, which would be an auspicious day to make a journey of peace. [9] And so he flew to Scotland, convinced it was his destiny. Oxford reveals that he bought The Kingsman shop and converted the upstairs pattern room into the meeting room we know from the original movies. There he establishes The Kingsman Agency, which will be the covert actors working beyond the Treaty of Versailles to preserve peace and life above government oversight. He extends an offer of membership to those seated at the table, all of whose code names are based on the Knights of the Round Table.Filmed by Beat Presser, this single-shot, handheld wander round what looks like the location used for the Zishe family home shows how it was before the production design crew got to work on it. This is a dark comedy but is equally a deeply dramatic story, involving the mainly secular Jews of Berlin. Included is interaction between Breitbart, an attractive stage musician Marta, their boss Hanussen, who abuses her, and some very top level Nazis. Ultimately Breitbart becomes disgusted and dismayed. Nazi coffers had been drained dry by the campaign. Hitler had endured significant defections from his movement and threatened suicide. Some Nazis began to wonder if he had the right stuff to be their Führer. A more historically realistic version of Hanussen was depicted in the Werner Herzog film Invincible (2001) where Hanussen (as played by Tim Roth) is seen as nasty and bullying. Herzog’s film concerns the also true character of a Jewish-Polish strongman that is hired as part of Hanussen’s act but caused a sensation when he refused to deny his ethnicity.

Mario Muigg, “Geheim-und-Nachrichten-Dienste in und aus Oesterriech, 1918-1938.” SIAK-Journal, #3 (2007), 64-72.As a drama, the film gets off to a hesitant start, the result of requiring non-professional first-timers to deliver dialogue in what is a second language both for them and their writer-director. There’s certainly a slight imbalance in the screenplay, with some of the dialogue and monologues so well written that it can leave some of the personal interplay feeling a little flat by comparison, and it will probably come as no surprise that real-life Finnish strongman Jouko Ahola was making his film acting debut as Zishe. The thing is, while his inexperience gives these first scenes a slightly awkward feel, as the film progresses, it actually works for his character, giving him an air of almost childlike innocence that makes him disarmingly easy to sympathise and even empathise with, as well as adding weight to his eventual embrace of his Jewish heritage. In the early scenes we see the world through Zishe’s eyes, as his journey to Berlin is aided by the kindness and friendliness of those he meets, and as he observes the theatrical world with awed delight. He also has one of the most charming smiles I’ve seen on screen all year. Seriously, how could you not like this guy? His fascination with the theatre’s pianist Marta is nicely balanced by the fact that she is played by Russian concert pianist Anna Gourari, who is also new to acting and tonally very much on Ahola’s wavelength. That she has become the plaything of her employer, who violently mistreats her and regards her more as a possession than a partner, sees that innocence and her underlying sadness cast her as a victim of circumstance, trapped in a relationship without which she would have no job and be forced to leave the country.

a b c d e f Randi, James (1992). Conjuring. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-08634-2. OCLC 26162991. Kugel, Wilfried. 1998. Hanussen: die wahre Geschichte des Hermann Steinschneider. Düsseldorf: Grupello. Predicting the Reichstag fire, a decisive event that allowed recently appointed Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler to seize absolute power in 1933, was Hanussen's most famous feat of clairvoyance. [9] It also was possibly a miscalculated use of inside information that led to his death shortly thereafter. [10]

Contribute to This Page

But Hanussen wasn’t content with wealth and fame. Sensing the rising influence of the Nazi party, the mentalist ingratiated himself into the Reich by befriending storm troopers and eventually finding a seat as a confidant of Adolf Hitler himself. In a divided Berlin, Hanussen's powerful friends could assure his safety. His ego told him he could manipulate them as easily as he did the civilians who marveled at his stage presence. During their session, Hanussen told Hitler that there would be a favorable rise in his future, but a hindrance stood in their way. Hanussen promised Hitler he would use a magical spell to ensure Hitler’s success. He would get a mandrake root from a butcher’s yard and bury it in the town of Hitler’s birth under the light of the full Moon. Palacios, J. (2005) Erik Jan Hanussen, la vida y los tiempos del mago de Hitler, Barcelona: Oberón. Where flamboyant tech billionaires want to control people and/or destroy the world in the Matthew Vaughn films, The King’s Man acts as a thesis for the agency, beyond the gadgets and snazzy suits. The saying “Oxfords, not brogues” in the first two Kingsman movies is derived from the Duke of Oxford explaining the importance of being a gentleman - being “Oxfords, not rogues.”