Erik Jan Hanussen
Encyclopedia
Erik Jan Hanussen, born Hermann Steinschneider (2 June 1889, Vienna
- after 25 March 1933, Berlin
), was an Austrian
Jewish publicist and clairvoyant performer who lied about his origins. Acclaimed in his lifetime as a hypnotist, mentalist, occultist, and astrologer
, Hanussen was active in Weimar Republic
Germany
and also at the beginning of Nazi Germany
. He is known to have instructed Hitler in performance and the achievement of dramatic effect.
aristocrat
he was in fact a Czech
Jew, born as Hermann Steinschneider. Hanussen's father Siegfried Steinschneider (1858, Prostějov
- 1910) was an actor and caretaker of a synagogue
who married Antonie Julie Kohn in Vienna, Austria.
, muscle reading
, and hypnosis
act at La Scala in Berlin that catapulted him to stardom. At his height he enjoyed the company of Germany
's military and business elite, also becoming close with members of and lending large sums of money to the SA (Sturmabteilung)
. It is claimed he was a supporter of Nazis in spite of his Jewish ancestry, which was an open secret.
Legends abound about meetings between Hanussen and Adolf Hitler
, including a meeting between the two just before the German election, November 1932
, during which Hanussen taught Hitler crowd control techniques, using gestures and dramatic pauses.
The US government's wartime Intelligence corps, the Office of Strategic Services
, prepared a psychological profile of Hitler in 1943, which included this item: . . during the early 1920s Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from a man named Hamissen 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.
In 1931 Hanussen purchased a Breslau printing firm and began publishing an occult journal, Hanussen Magazin and Bunte Wochenschau, a popular biweekly Berlin tabloid which included astrological columns. He used the proceeds from his publishing ventures and stage shows to purchase a mansion which became known as "The Palace of the Occult", which he renovated and turned into a luxurious interactive theatre for 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.
Alfred Neubauer
, the famous motor racing team manager, refers to Hanussen in his autobiography,'Speed Was My Life,' first published in English in 1960. In the chapter,'A Prophecy Comes True', he describes a prediction made by Hanussen before the race at AVUS
in Germany in May 1932. While at the Roxy Bar with other drivers, Neubauer challenged Hanussen to predict the winner of the following day's race. After some 'leg pulling', Hanussen wrote two names on a piece of paper, which he folded, and put in an envelope. This was placed in the custody of the barman. He had strict instructions that it be left unopened until after the race. Hanussen announced that, 'one of us at this table will win tomorrow, another will die. The two names are in this envelope.' During the race, Prince Lobkowicz was killed, and Brauchitsch won. After the race, Neubauer states that he opened the envelope, and found the two names inside. A day or two later a Berlin newspaper carried a report that Hanussen had urged the German Automobile Club
to dissuade Prince Lobkowicz from taking part in the race, but Club officials had not taken any action.
, a decisive event that allowed the recently-appointed Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler
to seize absolute power
in 1933, was debatably Hanussen's most famous feat of clairvoyance
. It was also allegedly a miscalculated use of inside information that likely led to his demise shortly thereafter.
Hanussen was assassinated on March 25, 1933 (probably by a group of SA) and hastily buried in a field on the outskirts of Berlin
. He was also potential competition to Hermann Göring
and Joseph Goebbels
for the attention of their Führer
. His body was discovered in late April of the same year. There are unsubstantiated rumors that he may have been involved in the Reichstag fire by hypnotizing and directing Marinus van der Lubbe
, the convicted perpetrator of the crime, to commit the act.
Hanussen was possibly survived by a son born to a mistress. This son was put in an orphanage and survived the war. Hanussen II became somewhat famous performing as a clairvoyant.
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
- after 25 March 1933, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
), was an Austrian
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
Jewish publicist and clairvoyant performer who lied about his origins. Acclaimed in his lifetime as a hypnotist, mentalist, occultist, and astrologer
Astrologer
An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
, Hanussen was active in Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and also at the beginning of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. He is known to have instructed Hitler in performance and the achievement of dramatic effect.
Early years
Although Hanussen claimed to be a DanishDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
he was in fact a Czech
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
Jew, born as Hermann Steinschneider. Hanussen's father Siegfried Steinschneider (1858, Prostějov
Prostejov
Prostějov is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. Today the city is known for its fashion industry and special military forces based there....
- 1910) was an actor and caretaker of a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
who married Antonie Julie Kohn in Vienna, Austria.
Background
Hanussen performed a mind readingTelepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
, muscle reading
Muscle reading
Muscle reading, also known as "Hellstromism", "Cumberlandism" or "contact mind reading", is a technique used by mentalists to determine the thoughts or knowledge of a subject, the effect of which tends to be perceived as a form of mind reading...
, and hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
act at La Scala in Berlin that catapulted him to stardom. At his height he enjoyed the company of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
's military and business elite, also becoming close with members of and lending large sums of money to the SA (Sturmabteilung)
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
. It is claimed he was a supporter of Nazis in spite of his Jewish ancestry, which was an open secret.
Legends abound about meetings between Hanussen and Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
, including a meeting between the two just before the German election, November 1932
German election, November 1932
The German parliamentary election of 6 November 1932 saw a significant drop for the Nazi Party and increases for the Communists and the national conservative DNVP...
, during which Hanussen taught Hitler crowd control techniques, using gestures and dramatic pauses.
The US government's wartime Intelligence corps, the Office of Strategic Services
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, prepared a psychological profile of Hitler in 1943, which included this item: . . during the early 1920s Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from a man named Hamissen 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.
In 1931 Hanussen purchased a Breslau printing firm and began publishing an occult journal, Hanussen Magazin and Bunte Wochenschau, a popular biweekly Berlin tabloid which included astrological columns. He used the proceeds from his publishing ventures and stage shows to purchase a mansion which became known as "The Palace of the Occult", which he renovated and turned into a luxurious interactive theatre for 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
Séance
A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma"...
-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.
Alfred Neubauer
Alfred Neubauer
Alfred Neubauer was the racing manager of the Mercedes Grand Prix team from 1926 to 1955.-Biography:...
, the famous motor racing team manager, refers to Hanussen in his autobiography,'Speed Was My Life,' first published in English in 1960. In the chapter,'A Prophecy Comes True', he describes a prediction made by Hanussen before the race at AVUS
AVUS
The Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungs-Straße, better known as AVUS, is a public road that was also used as a motor racing circuit. It is located in the south-western districts of Berlin, Germany, between Charlottenburg and Nikolassee, and is nowadays an important part of the public highway system, as...
in Germany in May 1932. While at the Roxy Bar with other drivers, Neubauer challenged Hanussen to predict the winner of the following day's race. After some 'leg pulling', Hanussen wrote two names on a piece of paper, which he folded, and put in an envelope. This was placed in the custody of the barman. He had strict instructions that it be left unopened until after the race. Hanussen announced that, 'one of us at this table will win tomorrow, another will die. The two names are in this envelope.' During the race, Prince Lobkowicz was killed, and Brauchitsch won. After the race, Neubauer states that he opened the envelope, and found the two names inside. A day or two later a Berlin newspaper carried a report that Hanussen had urged the German Automobile Club
Automobilclub von Deutschland
Automobilclub von Deutschland is Germany's oldest automobile club, founded in 1899.The AvD organizes the German Grand Prix and is a member of FIA....
to dissuade Prince Lobkowicz from taking part in the race, but Club officials had not taken any action.
Controversy and assassination
Predicting the Reichstag fireReichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
, a decisive event that allowed the recently-appointed Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
to seize absolute power
Autocracy
An autocracy is a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state. It is derived from the Greek : and , and may be translated as "one who rules by himself". It is distinct from oligarchy and democracy...
in 1933, was debatably Hanussen's most famous feat of clairvoyance
Clairvoyance
The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...
. It was also allegedly a miscalculated use of inside information that likely led to his demise shortly thereafter.
Hanussen was assassinated on March 25, 1933 (probably by a group of SA) and hastily buried in a field on the outskirts of Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. He was also potential competition to Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
and Joseph Goebbels
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...
for the attention of their Führer
Führer
Führer , alternatively spelled Fuehrer in both English and German when the umlaut is not available, is a German title meaning leader or guide now most associated with Adolf Hitler, who modelled it on Benito Mussolini's title il Duce, as well as with Georg von Schönerer, whose followers also...
. His body was discovered in late April of the same year. There are unsubstantiated rumors that he may have been involved in the Reichstag fire by hypnotizing and directing Marinus van der Lubbe
Marinus van der Lubbe
Marinus van der Lubbe was a Dutch council communist convicted of, and controversially executed for, setting fire to the German Reichstag building on February 27, 1933, an event known as the Reichstag fire. ....
, the convicted perpetrator of the crime, to commit the act.
Personal life
Hanussen's daughter, Erika Fuchs Steinschneider, was born to his first wife Theresia Luksch in 1920. After their separation, Theresia resettled with her young daughter to Meran, Italy where Theresia eventually met, married, and later divorced a Mr. Fuchs, heir to a brewing company.Hanussen was possibly survived by a son born to a mistress. This son was put in an orphanage and survived the war. Hanussen II became somewhat famous performing as a clairvoyant.
Movies
- HanussenHanussen (1955 film)Hanussen is a 1955 German war film directed by and starring O. W. Fischer.-Cast:* O. W. Fischer - Eric Jan Hanussen* Liselotte Pulver - Hilde Graf* Theodor Danegger* Maria Dominique - Grace Coligny* Werner Finck - Der Sachverständige...
(1955), played by O. W. FischerO. W. FischerOtto Wilhelm Fischer was an Austrian actor. A leading man of German cinema, he began his career with Max Reinhardt's stage company.... - Hanussen (1988), played by Klaus Maria BrandauerKlaus Maria BrandauerKlaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...
, director Istvan SzaboIstván SzabóIstván Szabó is a Hungarian film director, screenwriter, and opera director.Szabó is the most internationally famous Hungarian filmmaker since the late 1960s. Working in the tradition of European, auteurist art cinema, he has made films that represent many of the psychological and political... - InvincibleInvincible (2001 film)Invincible is a 2001 drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog. The film stars Tim Roth, Jouko Ahola, Anna Gourari, and Max Raabe. The film tells the story of a Jewish strongman in Germany...
(2001), Hanussen is played by Tim RothTim RothSimon Timothy "Tim" Roth is an English film actor and director best known for his roles in the American films,Legend of 1900, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Skellig, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Rob Roy, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for...
, director Werner HerzogWerner HerzogWerner Herzog Stipetić , known as Werner Herzog, is a German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and opera director.He is often considered as one of the greatest figures of the New German Cinema, along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Margarethe von Trotta, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner... - Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of ShamballaFullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballais a 2005 Japanese animated film directed by Seiji Mizushima and written by Sho Aikawa, and acts as a continuation of the first Fullmetal Alchemist television series...
(2005), played by Toshio FurukawaToshio Furukawais a Japanese voice actor affiliated with Aoni Production and is married to fellow voice actress Shino Kakinuma. His height is 164cm. Hobbies are Fishing, diorama, reading and movies.In July 2011, Furukawa appeared at Anime Expo as a guest.-Career/Personal:...
and Troy BakerTroy BakerTroy Baker is an American actor and voice actor who works with anime films, television series, as well as video games....