Erik Jan Hanussen

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Erik Jan Hanussen
Born
Hermann Steinschneider

(1889-06-02)2 June 1889
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died25 March 1933(1933-03-25) (aged 43)
Berlin, Germany
NationalityAustrian
Occupation(s)publicist, charlatan, clairvoyant performer, hypnotist, mentalist, occultist, and astrologer

Erik Jan Hanussen, born Hermann Steinschneider (2 June 1889 – 25 March 1933), was an

astrologer, Hanussen was active in Weimar Republic Germany and also at the beginning of Nazi Germany. He is said to have instructed Adolf Hitler in performance and the achievement of dramatic effect.[1]

Early years

Although Hanussen claimed to be a Danish aristocrat, he was in fact a Moravian Jew, born as Hermann (Herschel Chaim) Steinschneider.[2] Hanussen's father, Siegfried Steinschneider (1858–1910), was an actor and caretaker of a synagogue who married Antonie Julie Kohn, a singer, in Vienna, Austria.[citation needed]

Hanussen's parents traveled constantly through Austria and Italy with acting and musical troupes, taking Hanussen with them.[3]

Career

At the age of 21, Hanussen became a chief reporter for the newspaper Der Blitz[4]: 207  He was later drafted into the army during World War I.[4]: 207  During this time, he used mentalism to entertain the other troops. In 1917, he adopted the name Erik Jan Hanussen, or sometimes Erik van Hanussen, and joined a circus.[4]: 208  He soon wrote two booklets dealing with subjects including telepathy, clairvoyance, and mind-reading, which he labelled as fraudulent practices.[4]: 208  However, he later treated these practices as genuine and claimed to have supernatural abilities.[4]: 208 

Hanussen performed a mind reading and hypnosis act at La Scala in Berlin that catapulted him to stardom.

Nazis despite his Jewish ancestry, which was an open secret. Hanussen converted from Judaism to Protestantism in order to join the Nazi Party.[5] He also published anti-Semitic propaganda.[5]

Stories abound of meetings between Hanussen and Hitler, including an encounter shortly before the election of November 1932, during which Hanussen taught Hitler his crowd control techniques of using gestures and dramatic pauses.[6] Hanussen was also quite close to other important Nazi officials, to whom he had often lent money, including Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff, Karl Ernst and Friedrich Wilhelm Ohst.

Dr. Walter C. Langer, a psychoanalyst, prepared a psychological profile of Hitler for the United States' Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1943. The profile included a reference to Hanussen: "...during the early 1920s Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from a man named [Hanussen][7] who was also a practicing astrologer and fortune-teller. He was an extremely clever individual who taught Hitler a great deal concerning the importance of staging meetings to obtain the greatest dramatic effect."[1]

In 1931 Hanussen purchased a

fortune telling games. Guests would sit around a large circular table and place their palms on glass with symbols lit from beneath; the room lights would be lowered in a séance
-like fashion; and various gimmicks would highlight Hanussen's dramatic verbal presentation of prophecies to the guests. He predicted events in the lives of the individuals present, but controversy arose when he predicted the future of Germany. He became successful, was always in demand in various venues, and had a full-time valet.

German Automobile Club
to persuade Prince Lobkowicz not to take part in the race, but Club officials had taken no action.

Reichstag fire and assassination

Predicting the

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]

Hanussen was assassinated on 25 March 1933,[11] probably by a group of SA men,[12] and was hastily buried in a field on the outskirts of Berlin, near Stahnsdorf.[13] He was potential competition to Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels for the attention of their Führer, which may also have led to his murder. Hanussen's body was discovered over a month later. There are unsubstantiated claims that he may have been involved in the Reichstag fire, hypnotizing and directing Marinus van der Lubbe, the convicted arsonist, to commit the act.[14]

Erik Jan Hanussen is buried in the Südwestkirchhof, Stahnsdorf, near Berlin.[15]

Personal life

Hanussen's daughter, Erika Fuchs Steinschneider, was born to his first wife Theresia Luksch in 1920.[16] After their separation, Theresia resettled with her young daughter in Merano, Italy where Theresia eventually met, married, and later divorced Mr. Fuchs, heir to a brewing company.[citation needed]

Hanussen was possibly survived by a son born in 1922 to a mistress. The son, Gerhard Belgardt, was placed in an orphanage and survived the war. He later gained some fame by performing as a clairvoyant, calling himself Hanussen II.[citation needed]

In fiction

Films

  • Hypnose (1919), starring Erik Jan Hanussen [17]
  • Der rätselhafte Tod (1921), starring Erik Jan Hanussen [18]
  • Hanussen (1955), played by O. W. Fischer
  • Istvan Szabo
  • Invincible (2001), played by Tim Roth, director Werner Herzog
  • The Illusionist (2006), the protagonist Eisenheim, played by Edward Norton, is based loosely on Hanussen. He has a similar Jewish background and comes to prominence for a magic show that incorporates elements of spiritualism and the occult, a fictionalized version of Hanussen's act.
  • The King's Man (2021) includes Hanussen as a character played by Daniel Brühl.[19][20]

Theatre

Novel

  • El mentalista de Hitler (2016), a "historical noir" novel written in Spanish by the Uruguayan author Gervasio Posadas, closely based on Erik Jan Hanussen's true biography.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b A Psychological Profile of Adolph Hitler Archived 2010-08-29 at the Wayback Machine; see also Walter C. Langer, The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report, p. 40, New American Library (1972).
  2. ISBN 0922915687
  3. ^ Magida, p. 18.
  4. ^
    OCLC 26162991
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-312-15119-5
    .
  6. John Toland
    , Adolf Hitler, p. 218, Anchor Books edition (1992), originally published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. (1976).
  7. ^ The name in the quote is "Hamissen." This is apparently a typographical error, since in the same sentence the name is subsequently spelled correctly two times as Hanussen. In the 1972 reprint of the document by New American Library, the name "Hanussen" is spelled correctly. See Walter C. Langer, The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report, p. 40, New American Library (1972).
  8. ^ Gordon, Mel: "Hitler's Jewish Psychic". "Guilt & Pleasure" (3). Roger Bennett, Summer 2006
  9. ^ Kurlander, Eric (2017). Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. Yale University Press. pp. 92–3.
  10. ^ Kurlander, p. 105.
  11. ISBN 0922915687
    .
  12. ^ Kurlander, p. 101.
  13. John Toland
    , Adolf Hitler, p. 962, Anchor Books edition (1992), originally published by Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. (1976).
  14. ^ Gordon, Mel: "Hanussen: Hitler's Jewish Clairvoyant". Feral House, 2001, p. 242
  15. ^ Magida, pp. 215-217.
  16. ^ Steinschneider, Phil: Steinschneider Genealogy. Accessed 2008-02-13
  17. ^ Hypnose, IMDB
  18. ^ Der ratselhafte Tod, IMDB
  19. USA TODAY
    . Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  20. ^ Cremona, Patrick (4 January 2022). "The King's Man end credits scene explained". Radio Times. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
  21. ^ Official website: Palace of the Occult (interactive play)
  22. ISBN 978-8483658734
    .

Sources

External links
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