Adolf Hitler paid a spontaneous visit to Finland on 4 June 1942 in order to congratulate Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces, on his 75th birthday. Notice of his last-minute guest had been delivered just the day before, and Mannerheim did not want to meet Hitler in his headquarters in Mikkeli or in Helsinki, as it would appear like an official state visit. The meeting instead took place near Imatra, in south-eastern Finland, and was arranged to be held in secrecy near Immola Airfield. Hitler was greeted at the airport by President Ryti, and driven to the place where Mannerheim was waiting at a nearby railway station. While the official reason for Hitler’s visit was to celebrate Mannerheim’s birthday, Hitler’s actual purpose was to ensure that Finland would remain allied to Nazi Germany by reiterating the dangers of Bolshevism. Eleven minutes of their private conversation was secretly recorded, and is now known as the Hitler and Mannerheim recording, the only known recording of Hitler’s normal conversational speaking voice.

Adolf Hitler’s plane touched down at the Immola Airfield Linkokivenkatu at 11.15 a.m. The approach was only 50 meters above the tree height and very dangerous due to the evasion of several towering smoke stacks at a nearby industrial area. Due to the hard landing, the wheel brakes on the left front tire had caught fire and had to be put out with fire extinguishers. The smell of smoke and burnt rubber lingered on the tarmac as the Führer was greeted by President Ryti.

The photographs and film recordings of this event were mainly taken by Walter Frentz, as by this time Heinrich Hoffmann had largely fallen out of favor with Hitler due to his deepening struggle with alcoholism. The photographs in which Frentz appears, such as the one above, are all taken by an unknown Finnish Armed Forces photographer. These photos are now archived and graciously provided by the Finnish Wartime Photograph Archive (SA-kuva), a site that stores photographs from the World War II-related wars of Finland. 

To honor his host, surprise birthday guest Adolf Hitler brought the Great Cross of the German Order of the Eagle, one of the Third Reich’s most distinguished decorations. Mannerheim called the National Socialists his brothers in arms, hoping the year would “see the end of Bolshevist barbarism.” After this meeting, he held what Berlin referred to as “lengthy conversations” with Hitler and his other unexpected guests including Chief of Staff General Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and newly promoted Colonel General Eduard (“Bull”) Dietl.

The Finnish officers had set up a series of shaky wooden planks in order to connect a steep embankment over to the awaiting train, forcing Hitler to cross them. The photograph below shows Mannerheim giving Hitler a scornful look as Hitler navigates the improvised bridge in his heavy boots. Mannerheim smiles mischievously as Hitler begins to traverse the extremely awkward set-up, most likely constructed to put him under stress as everyone looks on. Much to his chagrin, this obstacle worked in Hitler’s favor, as he loved to pose as a soldier, and this provided him an opportunity to act like one and prove his prowess. Hitler even appears amused as he deftly cruised across all the hurdles.

Scandinavian aristocrat Mannerheim strongly disliked Adolf Hitler and saw him and his henchmen as political upstarts and even referred to them as pirates, having gained their power strictly through force and intimidation. He was probably well aware of the choice of using wooden planks to access his train as alluding to a form of execution used in the 17th century, mainly by pirates, where a victim was forced to walk off the end of a wooden board placed on the edge of the ship’s deck so as to plunge to their death. 

A specially prepared vegetarian meal was served to Hitler when he joined Mannerheim for lunch. There is an unsubstantiated story that during his meeting with Hitler, Mannerheim lit a cigar, knowing the Führer had a strong aversion to smoking. Mannerheim had assumed Hitler would ask Finland for help against the Soviet Union, which Mannerheim was unwilling to give. When Mannerheim lit up, Hitler continued the conversation calmly, with no comment. In this way, Mannerheim could judge if Hitler was speaking from a position of strength or weakness. He was able to refuse Hitler, knowing that Hitler was in a weak position, and could not dictate to him.

When lunch had concluded Adolf Hitler, Marshal Mannerheim and President Ryti retired to Mannerheim’s command car for a private discussion, and it was at this point the meeting became famous. An engineer of the Finnish broadcasting company YLE named Thor Damen, who had been assigned to record the official birthday proceedings, secretly taped part of the private meeting. A microphone was set up in plain view above the table where Hitler and Mannerheim sat. After 11 minutes an SS guard noticed the cable which ran out the rail car’s window and followed it back to Damen. He pointed at it and made a cutting motion with his hand across his neck and Damen immedately stopped the tape. There is little question that the event was not supposed to be taped, and Damen was lucky to escape both without incident and with the tape.

The recording is available on YouTube with English subtitles: “Hitler Speaking Normally”

In his memoirs, Mannerheim wrote that he grew doubtful about Germany’s success towards the end of 1942, citing a number of events in various theaters of war. After Stalingrad in the beginning of February, leading Finns including Mannerheim and then President Ryti & Prime Minister Rangell met and concluded that Finland should get out of the war as soon as possible. A month later Finland made its first secret opening for peace with the Soviet Union.