Heinrich Hoffmann (1885 – 1957) served as Adolf Hitler’s official photographer from when Hitler took control of the Nazi party in 1921 until his death in 1945. Hoffmann estimates he took over half a million photographs of Hitler over the course of his career. His portraits were the most significant source of Nazi propaganda materials published over the course of close to 25 years, everything from postcards, posters, magazines, postage stamps and picture books. Click on eachtheme below to see a complete photo albumdevoted to that particular event or topic.
Adolf Hitler was the first modern politician to use airplanes for his travel and campaigning. Starting with his election campaigns in the late 1920s, he set a standard by using planes in an era when air travel was still a novelty. During the 1932 presidential campaign the Nazi party organized mass rallies throughout every corner of Germany. Using the rented ten-passenger, three-engine Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland Niederwald D-1720, Hitler was able to speak at as many as five rallies a day, rapidly reaching tens of thousands of people with his speeches. His rally in Berlin alone had over 200,000 in attendance. Heinrich Hoffmann published a political propaganda pamphlet celebrating Hitler’s “Flights Over Germany” shortly after the intensive April campaign tour.
Heinrich Hoffmann and Josef Berchtold published 500,000 copies of the booklet Hitler über Deutschland in 1932. The Nazis adopted a populist approach to politics, which no one had witnessed before in Germany, called a Deutschlandflug. Hitler took to the skies, flying from city to city, creating an image of an all-powerful man who appeared to be at all places at all times.
Adolf Hitler in the Rohrbach Roland aircraft ‘Niederwald’ during his April 1932 political campaign in the presidential election.Adolf Hitler looks out the window of his personal airplane at the airport in Bremen, Germany, on 21 July 1932.Adolf Hitler dons his leather aviator helmet and reviews his travel route with three other German officers, including his pilot Hans Baur (right).Adolf Hitler and Ernst Hanfstaengl out on a campaign flight in 1930. Hanfstaengl participated in the Beer Hall Putsch and after the failed coup he hid Hitler in his villa in the Bavarian Alps. He often visited Hitler during his prison term at Landsberg and helped him to reestablish his political career after his release. The two men remained close and Hanfstaengel became a close member of Hitler’s inner circle.Adolf Hitler flying out of Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Germany on 9 November 1933. Hitler is talking with a group of his co-workers including his Vice-Chancellor Von Papen (left), while the party was traveling on a campaign tour of Germany in the interests of the current plebiscite for equality with other nations. The campaign plane was piloted by Dr. Hermann Goering, Hitler’s chief lieutenant.Adolf Hitler takes a flight to Frankfurt am Main-Bockenheim after the memorial service held at the Battle of Tannenberg monument at Hohenstein (now Olsztynek, Poland) to a Saar rally being held at the Niederwald monument near Rüdesheim; left (from the front) Reichswehr Minister Werner von Blomberg and Vice Chancellor Franz von Papen on 27 August 1933.Adolf Hitler in an airplane In 1937 looking down at the Zeppelinfeld, the site of the annual Nuremberg Party conventions.Picture postcard “Der Führer im Flugzeug” published by Heinrich Hoffmann in 1938.Adolf Hitler on an airplane reading a book, shortly after the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934, just before Hitler was able to absorb the posts of president and chancellor into one new office and becoming ‘Führer’ of Germany.Adolf Hitler on an airplane flight from Munich to Berlin in April of 1940.Adolf Hitler takes a flight in an aircraft on his 43rd birthday, 20 April 1932. He gave a campaign speech in Marburg on this day at the Marburger Bürgerwiese in front of 40,000 people. The SA had erected a giant tent on the Bürgerwiese, a large park that was on the east side of the Weidenhäuser Brücke, due to the town’s ban on hosting outdoor rallies. Adolf Hitler on his Junkers Ju 52 airplane in 1932. The Junkers Ju 52/3m is a transport aircraft that was designed and manufactured by German aviation company Junkers. Development of the Ju 52 commenced during 1930, headed by German aeronautical engineer Ernst Zindel.Photo from a visit Adolf Hitler made to an aviation school in 1932, the year he was nominated by the NSDAP to run for the office of Reich President. He would carry out aerial canvassing for his election campaign using aircraft developed by Austrian aviation pioneer Josef Sablatnig.Adolf Hitler standing next to the aircraft belonging to his private secretary Rudolf Hess. Hess had obtained his private pilot’s license on 4 April 1929 after receiving training with World War I flying ace Theodor Croneiss. In 1930 Hess became the owner of a BFW M.23b monoplane (the M standing for its designer Willy Messerschmitt) sponsored by the party newspaper, the “Völkischer Beobachter”. He acquired two more Messerschmitt aircraft in the early 1930s, logging many flying hours and becoming proficient in the operation of light single-engine aircraft.Adolf Hitler leaves his Junkers JU 52 D-2600 aircraft in Munich’s airfield (Oberwiesenfeld).Adolf Hitler traveling to the Berghof, his home on the Obersalzberg in the Bavarian Alps, in 1943. He would travel with two Junkers Ju 52 planes. Hitler would board the first plane with his close entourage while the second was reserved for all of his bodyguards, known as the SS-Begleitkommando and the members of the RSD, or the Reichssicherheitsdienst, which was an SS security force of Nazi Germany.Adolf Hitler arrives by plane in Nuremberg for the annual NSDAP Parteitag on 4 September 1934.Adolf Hitler arrives in his Junkers JU 52 D-2600 airplane at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin.Adolf Hitler talking to German Luftwaffe officers beside a Junkers Ju 52 transport carrier, circa 1935.Early 1930’s picture shows German Nazi Chancellor Adolf Hitler in a plane looking at a map with his lawyer and the future Governor-general of Nazi-occupied Poland, Hans Frank.Adolf Hitler traveling in a plane with Nazi lawyer and future Governor-general of Nazi-occupied Poland, Hans Frank.This photograph also appears to be Adolf Hitler traveling on an airplane, it’s an incredible photo – so I’m just going to post it here for now until I can find out more information about it.Adolf Hitler on a campaign flight in 1932 – his personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann is sitting directly behind him, so it’s a mystery who took this photograph! It looks like somebody’s getting quite a bit of a lecture here…Adolf Hitler in Munich’s airport (Oberwiesenfeld) during the electoral campaign in October 1932.Adolf Hitler stands with his entourage after a flight during the Reichstag election campaign on 2 September 1932. Lieutenant General Hans Baur is in the centre in his flight suit. Baur was Hitler’s pilot for more than a decade and remained in his bunker until the final days of World War II in April 1945.
German Luftwaffe pilot and private pilot to Adolf Hitler, Hans Baur, with Ernst Hanfstaengl, Heinrich Hoffmann, Julius Schaub and Wilhelm Brückner standing beside a Lufthansa airplane in 1932.Adolf Hitler and his pilot Hans Baur exchange warm greetings as they prepare to fly together. Despite his key role in the Führer’s inner circle, Baur claimed he was not involved in the politics of the Third Reich, stating at the Nuremberg trials that he was ‘a pilot, not a politician’.Cigarette card from “Germany Awakes” – Sammelbild Deutschland erwacht Nr. 140, Adolf Hitler steigt aus einem Flugzeug aus (Collection picture Germany awakes No. 140, Adolf Hitler gets out of a plane).Adolf Hitler travels with Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia (center left talking to “Putzi” Hanfstaengl) and his associates in a JU 52 plane flying from Koenigsberg to Berlin in April 1932. To the great unease of his family and against his father’s will, August Wilhelm joined the NSDAP on 1 April 1930. He was appointed an election speaker alongside Hitler, and accompanied him on flights across Germany during the 1932 election campaign. He specifically addressed himself to the people that were lukewarm towards National Socialism and convinced them “that Hitler was not a threat, but a benefactor of the German people and the German Empire”.Adolf Hitler reading a newspaper in his Junkers JU 52 D-2600 airplane, the “Immelmann II” in April 1935.Eva Braun took this stunning photo of Adolf Hitler’s hand while on an airplane flight from Munich to Berlin in the summer of 1940.Finnish Marshall Mannerheim welcoming Adolf Hitler in Finland on 4 June 1942. Hitler visited Finland under extreme secrecy in order to congratulate Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim on his 75th birthday. Mannerheim did not wish to greet Hitler at his headquarters, as it would have appeared like an official state visit. Therefore, the meeting occurred at Imatra in southern Finland.
Adolf Hitler’s personal pilot Hans Baur began flying with Hitler during his presidential election campaign in 1932, a year before he became Chancellor of Germany. Baur was quite close to the Führer, and had spent March and April 1945 in the Reich Chancellery. He was one of the last people to see Hitler alive on April 30th. To honor his loyalty, Hitler wanted to gift Baur his favorite painting by Rembrandt, a portrait of King Frederick the Great.
Adolf Hitler with his personal pilot, SS Gruppenführer Hans Baur, in 1937.
Bonus Photos:
I’ve struggled to track these 4 particular photographs down in good resolution quality, but they are all wonderful pictures, and well worth sharing despite the poor quality.
I love history and have always been infatuated with the design and style of the 1920’s. Unfortunately I can’t time travel back to this era, so I live vicariously through books, movies and photos.
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Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Gallery 