HANFSTAENGL, ERNST PUTZI

HANFSTAENGL, ERNST ‘‘PUTZI'' (1887–1975), journalist; the NSDAP's foreign press chief during 1931–1934. Born to a family of Munich art connoisseurs, he studied at Harvard during 1905–1909 and, to his regret, spent World War I in the United States. He returned to graduate work at Munich and took a doctorate in 1930. During his studies he met Rudolf Hess* and in 1921 joined the NSDAP. The scion of a well-known art publishing house, he ensured the Party some bourgeois respectability. In November 1923 he took part in the Beerhall Putsch.* As Hitler's foreign press chief, Hanfstaengl served as principal propagandist outside Germany. However, disillusioned with the jealous intrigues that marked Party life, he fled to England in 1937. Interned as an alien early in World War II, he was soon released, whereupon he went to Canada. He returned to Germany in 1946 and assisted with the BBC's 1957 production ‘‘Portraits of Power: Hitler, FDR, Stalin, Churchill.'' His memoirs, Hitler: The Missing Years, appeared in 1957.