HITLER'S PIANO PLAYER

Sub-titled 'The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanstaengl Confidant of Hitler, Ally of Roosevelt', Hanstaengl was court jester, pianist and Foreign Press Chief for Hitler. He even claimed to have devised the chant of Sieg Heil. A Munich-born aristocratic eccentric, when he fell out with Hitler he fled to Britain where he was interned and transferred to America. He was the most unlikely CIA secret agent, yet he would play a central role in F.D.R's S-Project, informing on 400 leading Nazis and providing a detailed psychological profile of his once close friend, Hitler. Throughout the 1920s, "Putzi" introduced Hitler to German high society and helped to fund his projects, including the publication of Mein Kampf. In turn he became his Foreign Press Chief, but as Hitler rose to power, Putzi would recede into the background as the Führer's pianist. Eventually a falling out with Goebbels led to his defection to the Allied forces, a spurned attempt to atone for the monster he had created. Through newly declassified documents, interviews with surviving family members and original writing by Putzi himself, Peter Conradi reveals a remarkable life of conflicted loyalties in his exemplary piece of biographical writing is packed with colour and character. 352pp, paperback with fairly small print and archive photos reproduced, the book has all the elements of a gripping thriller.