Ernst Hanfstaengl and his wife Helene as portrayed in the film

1. Ernst Hanfstaengl and his wife Helene as portrayed in the film Fritz Gerlich and his wife Sophie as portrayed in the film

2. Adolf Hitler’s parents - Klara and Alois Hitler Close-up photographs of the portraits on their grave in Leonding, Austria

3. Alois Hitler in the uniform of an Austrian customs official

4. Hitler’s family tree

5. A more detailed family tree

6. Angela Raubal (Hitler’s half sister) and her daughter Angela (“Geli”)

7. Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl Ernst Hanfstaengel, the son of a wealthy publisher, was born in Munich, Germany, on 2nd February, 1887. He had an American mother and was sent to Harvard University where he graduated in 1909. Hanfstaengel remained in the United States during the First World War and did not return to Germany until 1919. After hearing Adolf Hitler at a meeting he joined the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). He became one of Hitler's earliest financial supporters and provided the money to buy the Volkische Beobachter. Hanfstaengel took part in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 and afterwards hid Hitler in one of his country homes. The two men remained close and in 1931 Hanfstaengel was appointed Foreign Press Chief of the Nazi Party. Over the next few years he tried to use his contacts to improve the image of Hitler in other countries. Hanfstaengel had a dispute with Joseph Goebbels and was informed in March 1937 he was in danger of being murdered. He fled to United States where he was employed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a "political and psychological warfare adviser in the war against Germany.” After the Second World War Hanfstaengel returned to Germany where he published his book, Hitler: The Missing Years (1957). Ernst Hanfstaengel died in Munich on 6th November, 1975. “Putzi” is a German nickname meaning “little one”. Hanfstangl was 6 foot 4 inches (190 cm) tall!

8. Putzi the piano player In November 1938 the magazine Home and Garden did a piece on Hitler’s mountain home, the Berghof. In the final paragraph, Hanfstaengl’s role as the piano man is mentioned. “But I have said enough to convey the idea of a sunny sub-alpine home, hundreds of miles from Berlin's uproar, and set amid an unsophisticated peasantry of carvers and hunters. This is the only home in which Hitler can laugh and take his ease -- or even "conduct tours" by means of the tripod telescope which he himself operates on the terrace for his visitors. "This place is mine," he says simply. "I built it with money that I earned." Then he takes you into his library, where you note that quite half the books are on history, painting, architecture, and music. When it is fine enough to dine in the open air, one sees a piano made ready for the after-dinner concert. Local talent will supply violin and cello for pieces by Mozart or Brahms. But at the piano itself it is always that English-speaking giant (he is 6 ft. 4 ins.) -- Dr. Ernst ("Putzi") Hanfstaengl who presides as a composer of all-German renown.”

9. Note that the “builder” pictured in the top photograph with Hitler is Albert Speer.

10. Hitler’s membership card in the DAP (German Workers’ Party He is indicated as member number 555 but was actually member 55. All early member numbers were inflated to give an impression that the party was larger and more popular than it really was.

11. Ernst Röhm Leader of the SA, killed on Hitler’s orders on the “Night of the Long Knives” - 30 June 1934

12. Hitler and Röhm reviewing SA troops in the Hauptmarkt in Nuremberg Theodor Eicke, the man who shot Röhm

13. Rudolf Hess Deputy Führer, participant in the 1923 Putsch and imprisoned with Hitler in Landsberg prison in the wake of the putsch

15. Heinrich Hoffmann Hitler’s photographer in Munich who made a fortune from his photographs of Hitler. Eva Braun was employed by Hoffmann when Hitler met her when she was aged 17. Hoffmann greeting the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler

16. Youth around Hitler One of the many picture books featuring Hitler published by Heinrich Hoffmann

17. Eva Braun After Geli Raubal’s suicide, Hitler began a relationship with Eva Braun who had worked as an office and lab assistant and a part-time model for Heinrich Hoffman.

18. Hermann Göring Lieutenant Göring (above) in a fighter plane during World War One, as an SA leader in the 1920s (left) and in uniform in 1932 (right).

19. The Bürger Bräu Keller This was the site at which Hitler stormed a meeting of conservatives on the night of 8 November 1923. He attempted to force von Kahr, von Lossow and von Seisser to support his attempted putsch. They informed on him and organised opposition to the putsch as soon as they were able to get away. Von Kahr was also to be murdered on the Night of the Long Knives. The meeting photographed above is a Nazi meeting held in the Bürger Bräu Keller in 1923. On the right, Nazis are photographed with the “blood flag” on the 10th anniversary of the putsch as they prepare to retrace the steps of the putschists took on 9 November 1923

20. Von Kahr’s body was found in a wood outside Munich. It seems he had been hacked to death by pickaxe.

21. The end of the putsch The Feldherrnhalle (the Field Marshall’s Hall) is Munich’s war memorial. It was at the side of this memorial that the Nazis confronted the police. Fourteen Nazis were killed (two more were killed elsewhere that morning) and four policemen died. The dead Nazis would be commemorated thereafter as the Blood Martyrs (Blutzeugen) of the Movement. The bloodied flag they carried would become know as the Blood Flag (Blutfahne) The view the putschists would have had on the Residenzstrasse as they approached the police at the Feldherrnhalle. The view the police would have had at the Feldherrnhalle as the Nazi putschists approached. The plaque honouring the police can be seen on the ground next to the Feldherrnhalle.

22. The Feldherrnhalle, viewed from the Odeonsplatz. The battle took place in Residenzstrasse on the left hand side of the war memorial.

23. The site of the battle today and the memorial the Nazis built to honour the dead. Adolf Hitler can be seen below saluting the dead at the side of the Feldherrnhalle in the presence of the Blood Flag.

24. Ludendorff, Hitler, Röhm and others during their trial following the failed Munich putsch

25. Landsberg Prison

26. Landsberg Prison Hitler shortly after his release from Landsberg Prison Landsberg Prison today and Rudolf Hess and his companions at the front of the gaol on the occasion of their release on 30 December 1924

27. Mein Kampf (My Struggle) - the book Hitler commenced while in prison in Landsberg. It has two volumes or parts: First Part: A Reckoning Second Part: The National Socialist Movement

28. Zirkus Krone (Crown Circus) One of the venues at which Hitler spoke in Munich - and it’s still there!

29. Müller’s Cabinet 1928 - the last democratic cabinet Sitting: Erich Koch-Weser Justizminister (Demokrat), Hermann Müller, Reichskanzler (Sozialdemokrat), Wilhelm Groener, Reichswehrminister (parteilos), Wissell, Reichsarbeitsminister (Sozialdemokrat), Standing: Hermann Dietrich (DDP)-Baden, Ernährung (Demokart), Rudolf Hilferding, Finanzen (Sozialdem.), Dr. Julius Curtius, Wirtschaft (Dtsch. Volkspartei), Severing Juneres (Sozialdem.), Theodor von Guérard besetztes Gebiet und Verkehr (Zentr.), Georg Schätzel, Post (bayer. Volkspartei).

30. The President and his Chancellor Heinrich Brüning

31. Rivals for the Chancellorship Franz von Papen Kurt von Schleicher

32. Fritz Gerlich

33. Headline: Hitler the bankrupt Headline: Does Hitler have Mongol blood?

34. 1 February 1933 Just two days after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor the headline in Der Gerade Weg was “Germany’s Path of Suffering” or “Germany’s Way of the Cross”. The religious allusion was appropriate for a Catholic newspaper. “There remains only one thing: Hope”

35. Hitler photographed in the Hotel Kaiserhof in Berlin on 17 January 1932 with copies of Der Gerage Weg on the table.

36. Pope Benedict, Fritz Gerlich and „Der Gerade Weg“ (The Straight Way) - A newspaper against Hitler After Cardinal Ratzinger’s election to the Papacy and in particular during his recent visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp, people wondered how the young Joseph Ratzinger lived through the era of National Socialism. An interview in the London Times helped to shed some light on this question, as the Pope himself gave important insight and references to the Catholic environment that shaped his youth and his perception of National Socialism. He made further references to these formative years in his book “Salz der Erde” (Salt of the Earth). But it was his family’s reading of the anti-Nazi newspaper, “Der Gerade Weg”, which played a central role in these memories. In this newspaper, Fritz Gerlich debates in a critical and polemical way the emerging Third Reich and its protagonists, especially Adolf Hitler. This newspaper, which Gerlich had started with the help of influential friends, developed a large readership and was published with a circulation of 100,000 copies in 1932/33. “Der Gerade Weg“ was not only read by the opponents of National Socialism, but also by those affiliated with the Nazi Party; even Adolf Hitler carefully observed the work of his adversaries in journalism. A photo shows him reading a January 17, 1932 issue at his desk in Berlin’s Kaiserhof Hotel. Fritz Gerlich was born in Stettin, northern Germany, in 1883. After his schooldays in Stettin he moved to Munich in 1901 to study history at the local university. He finished his studies with a Ph.D. in 1907 and started working as a civil servant in the Bavarian state archives. Gerlich became politically active in the leftist- and national-liberal spectrums both before and during the first World War. These affiliations helped gain him a position on the list of the German Democratic Party (DDP) for the elections to the first parliament of Weimar, and also brought him into contact with the leading personalities of Bavarian politics and business. In 1920, he became Editor-in-Chief of the “Münchner Neueste Nachrichten”, the newspaper with the largest distribution in the south of Germany and precursor to the present “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. In this position, he not only became one of the most influential journalists in Southern Germany, but he also bore witness to the early history of Adolf Hitler and the rise of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party). In 1923 Gerlich met Hitler three times privately. He would later be summoned as a witness in the high treason case before the Munich court that tried the so-called “Hitlerputsch”, the failed coup d’état by Hitler in 1923. In 1927, Gerlich left the “Münchner Neueste Nachrichten”, converted to Catholicism and in 1930, founded the weekly newspaper ‘Der Gerade Weg” with the support of influential friends.From this time forward, he wrote (supported by his friend the Capuchin Friar P.Ingbert Naab) in a sharp manner against the great “isms” of his time, namely National Socialism, Communism and Antisemitism “Der Gerade Weg” (which was called “Illustrated Sunday” until 1932) was at first printed in a publishing house in the Schellingstraße in Munich. The editor’s office of the “Völkischer Beobachter” (the Nazi periodical of Hitler) also resided in this building and it was due to the proximity of these two offices that Hitler and Gerlich were mutually informed about the editorial plans of the “other side”. When the National Socialists seized power in Bavaria on March 9, 1933, the SA (battle troop) assaulted the editor’s office of “Der Gerade Weg” in Munich, mistreated Gerlich and arrested him. On June 30, 1934 – on the occasion of the so called “Röhm-Putsch” – Dr. Fritz Gerlich was killed in the Dachau concentration camp.

37. Fritz Gerlich’s workplace, now the offices of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Plaques honouring Gerlich and Der Gerade Weg are placed on the wall on the building. Dr Fritz Gerlich 1883-1934 Editor of Münchner Neuesten Nachrichter (Munich’s Latest News) 1920-1928 He wrote in 1932: National Socialism means lies, hatred, fratricide and no restraint . After arrest and torture in the night on 1 July 1934 he was murdered

38. On 9 and 13 March 1933 were Der Gerade Weg Münchener Post Münchener Neueste Nachrichten Destroyed, disempowered, expropriated But freedom of speech survived: South German Times “By no censorship bound, By no moral constraint gagged” From 1 to 6 October 1945 For freedom, truth and right

39. Hitler appointed Chancellor 30 January 1933 Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen (second from right) was under the illusion that he could tame and control Hitler (seventh from left). Papen believed that a cabinet consisting chiefly of national-conservative politicians would be able to restrict Hitler's room for maneuver. Aside from Hitler, only two National Socialists belonged to the new government: Wilhelm Frick (seventh from right, wearing a swastika) as Reich Minister of the Interior, and Hermann Gˆring (eighth from left) as minister without portfolio and as acting Prussian Minister of the Interior. The photo also shows Joseph Goebbels (fifth from left), whom Hitler would name Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda on March 13, 1933. Papen was so confident about the political dominance of the cabinetís conservative majority that he was heard saying, "Within two months we'll have pushed Hitler so far into the corner that he'll squeak." Photo by Heinrich Hoffmann.

40. The Reichstag, now located near streets named after pro-republican politicians of the Weimar Republic. Marinus van der Lubbe with his head bowed, on trial for setting fire to the Reichstag.

41. The Reichstag Fire Decree - Decree of the Reichspresident for the Protection of the People and the State Enacted under Article 48 of the constitution

42. Elections - 5 March 1933 Hitler, in coalition with Hugenberg’s Battle Front Black White Red finally win a majority in the Reichstag

43. The day after the elections Communists being rounded up and arrested by members of the SA on 6 March 1933 - the day after the election

44. The Enabling Act On March 7, 1933, Hitler presented his cabinet with a plan for the definitive dissolution of the Reichstag. He intended to transfer legislative powers to his administration, which would then be “enabled” to make laws independent of the Reichstag and the president. Such a fundamental alteration to the Weimar Constitution required a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag. But even after the illegal exclusion of the Communist Party (KPD) deputies, the NSDAP/DNVP coalition still lacked 31 votes. Hitler therefore opened negotiations with representatives of the German Centre Party, and they ultimately accepted his proposed measure. In return, the Centre Party was promised that the integrity of the Catholic Church would be respected in Germany. The official Reichstag vote occurred on March 23, 1933; only the Social Democrats offered resolute opposition to the “Law to Remove the Distress of the People and the State” (also known as “The Enabling Act”), which henceforth formed the pseudo-legal basis of the Nazi dictatorship. Newspaper of 24 March 1933 reporting the passing of the Enabling Act

45. The Night of the Long Knives - Operation Hummingbird The Hotel Hanslbauer at Bad Weissee where Hitler personally arrested Ernst Röhm and other SA leaders on the night of 30 June 1934 as part of Operation Hummingbird, carried out by the SS.

46. The Nazi Newspaper Volkischer Beobachter (People’s Observer) on 1 July 1934 with news of the Röhm purge

47. Even before "Operation Hummingbird," Hitler saw to it that rumours were spread about a possible coup d'état being planned by the SA. The day after the purge, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels declared that Ernst Röhm and Kurt von Schleicher had been plotting a "second revolution," which the Nazis had managed to thwart, thus saving the country from chaos. The National Socialist press also stressed the homosexuality and alleged perversion of Röhm and his followers, who, as the party emphasized, no longer presented any moral danger to the German people. On July 3, 1934, the regime decreed the "Law on State Self-Defense Measures" [Gesetz über Maßnahmen der Staatsnotwehr, or Staatsnotwehrgesetz], which retroactively legalized the political murders committed on what became known as "the Night of the Long Knives." The main headline of the July 3, 1934, edition of the Völkischer Beobachter reads: "The 'Second Revolution': Pledges of Loyalty to the Führer from throughout the Reich. – The Impression the 'Cleansing-Action' Made Abroad – Reich Minister Dr. Frick to Civil Servants." Other headlines read: "A Strong Fist and an Iron Will Rule in Germany," "The Reich President to the Führer: The German People Saved from Serious Danger," and "The People Greet the Führer."

48. Our last hope: Hitler