(Der Grosse Liebhaber Adolf Hitler, by Herman Esser for Revue Magazine No. 31, 11 September 1949)​

Esser’s piece, The Great Lover, Adolf Hitler appeared in Revue magazine between September 27–November 6, 1949. It caused a sensation and most copies were seized because West Germany authorities deemed it “sympathetic to Hitler’s image.” Esser was even arrested because he had “stirred up more Nazi trouble.”

Image: Esser in his jail cell in 1949, holding a newspaper which contained his exposé on Hitler’s “lurid sex life:”

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Here is Esser’s original article from 1949, appearing for the first time in English (translation by adolfhitler33.wordpress.com):​

Four years after the conclusion of the war, I still have people asking me if Hitler enjoyed the company of women. The question astounds me, since anybody who knew him as a young man would have the same opinion as I have: he was a ladies man through and through before he came to power. Hitler’s appreciation of women was conspicuous, and he always preferred their company to men. He was the Austrian charmer, who always offered hand kisses, flowers and car rides.

I will now share with you my personal experiences with the young Hitler. How we met, how we chased girls together, the names and personalities of some of his countless conquests, his love for his niece and for the woman he married in his Berlin bunker, Eva Braun.

I knew Adolf Hitler as well or better than anyone. I was one of the few party comrades who addressed him by his first name and with whom he used the intimate Du (the German informal form of you). He called me Hermann or sometimes Hermchen, when he was in a benign mood. I was at his beck and call throughout the decade of the 1920’s.

I saw him in private and in the company of girls nearly every day throughout the period of struggle. We had arguments, some of them heated, and we had break ups in our friendship throughout the years. Yet in 1939 on the day of my wedding, Hitler still took my hand and told me, “the happiest days of my life were the early ones spent with you in Munich.”

Image: Hitler with Esser in 1933

Other friends of Hitler often said that he kept me around in the 1930’s solely because I knew too much about his private life. Ulrich Graf, an early fighter for the Nazi cause, said to me once, “if you couldn’t name every girl the Boss bedded, you would have been a distant memory.” This was after he had become Chancellor. I sometimes had the impression this remark was true based on Hitler’a attitude towards me, but I still saw him constantly until 1942 and was a constant guest at his home, the Berghof.

Image: Hitler and Esser at the Berghof in 1941 (likely from a film by Eva Braun)

Part I: How I Met Adolf Hitler

I met the future Fuehrer in January, 1920 at the regional army headquarters in Munich. I was 19 years old and Hitler was then 30. He made an immediate impression on me, as he did with everyone who met him. I had heard about this fellow from some army comrades and I was impressed that a common soldier wore the Iron Cross first class. This was something usually only awarded to officers. Hitler’s spell bounding presence struck me profoundly. He had something about him which was quite incredible. He had it even then as an unknown soldier. He was unbelievably persuasive.

Image: Hitler in Traunstein 1919 wearing his Iron Cross

Hitler at that time was very thin, pale and usually in an excited frame of mind. His eyes, as everyone knows, were a luminous, deep blue. He had boundless energy, a frenetic mind and an aura about him that was unmistakable. I think I liked him immediately and was drawn to him in a way I never felt before. I felt he was the coming savior of our nation. His dress and shoes were shabby, he ate little but radishes or bread and his apartment was rather downtrodden. His life then was very simple.

Image: Heinrich Hoffmann’s first-ever studio portrait of Hitler in 1921. He went on to take over 1 million photographs of him. Hoffmann estimated in American captivity in 1948 that it was closer to 1.4 million photos.

A few days later Hitler came to a gathering of our small (Nazi) Party and he heard me speak for the first time. I was gaining a reputation as a forceful and lively public speaker, and Hitler always praised my talents as a talker. Hitler himself did not speak that night and he took me aside to ask me if we could meet for lunch the next day. Happily I agreed. We met at the Sterneckerbräu and had beers and schnitzel, since Hitler was not yet a vegetarian. I recall I paid for this meal and Hitler was effusive in thanking me. He always had excellent manners. It sounds odd to say it, but it’s true. Hitler always had impeccable manners with everyone, unless he was angry.

Image: The Sterneckerbräu

It wasn’t long before I realized Hitler’s tremendous impact on the female sex. Bear in mind no one in the general public knew who he was in the year 1920. His fame was not yet in existence. But I noticed not only the waitress, but several other young ladies there were making conspicuous eyes at him. This unsettled me because I was very young and always was interested in ladies myself. I already had much experience with girls, despite being only 19 years old.

I admit to feeling pangs of jealousy, especially since Hitler seemed oblivious to the attention of the girls there. I asked him if he had a girlfriend and he laughed, saying he had “no time” for such things. Very quickly, however, I was to realize he was not being candid with me.

From the very earliest days, Hitler always had girls hovering around him, and these were not platonic relationships. Like most soldiers at the front, Hitler was anxious to make up for lost time and avidly sought female companionship at this time. This is very little known about him today. But Hitler avidly pursued different women for the first 12 years of our association. And they pursued him.

Image: a chad

Munich then was a city filled with men who had been ravaged in the Great War (WWI) and women who were lonely, widowed or victims of the inflation of those years. The cataclysmic events of the time created an atmosphere of free love and diminished morals. Casual relationships between men and women were accepted, as long as the girls did not get in trouble (i.e. get pregnant). People commonly speak of “free love” now, but Munich in the 1920’s always seemed to me even more liberal than Berlin, which was a Babylon.

Soon I was to become Hitler’s shadow and our tastes in young ladies were similar. We both liked young, pliable, naive girls. “Nice, sweet, cuddly things” as Hitler put it to me one day.

While my tastes evolved, Hitler’s never did. When he was 40, he still liked teenage girls. When he was 50 he already had Eva Braun, but had she not been in his life, I have no doubt he still would have preferred a young girl who never got older than 20. Incidentally, Hitler himself never made any excuses about this. To him, a hero such as himself “deserved” the most beautiful and the most willing women. It was his mindset.

Within a few months, Hitler and I became Du friends and we addressed each other by our first names. This continued until Hitler became Chancellor in 1933. Then he told me that his position demanded that I no longer be so familiar with him. I had to change my form of address to “Herr Hitler,” and even that was frowned upon, but I refused to call him “mein Fuhrer” unless we were around other people. When we were alone, I always called him Herr Hitler. On rare occasions he would still call me Hermann and clap me on the back of the neck in a fond way.

In these early years, Hitler’s entire focus was on giving political speeches and gaining members for our political movement. We were not travelling much away from Munich in 1920-1923, but when we did, I was at Hitler’s side.

Image: Esser stands behind Hitler in 1932 in a newsreel by British Pathé

As the months passed, Hitler’s tremendous skills as an orator became apparent. He was mesmerizing on stage and women, especially, were drawn to him. Women were simply hysterical to get close to him or become his favored one. I used to tell him I wish I had what he had, but I had my hands full myself with an active life with women. Hitler used to say to me, “your habit is women. This will get you into trouble, my young friend.” He turned out to be a prophet in this regard.

One of Hitler’s strongest traits was that he was secretive. He often said, “I never tell anyone anything about me that is of a personal nature. They don’t need to know.” Many people in Hitler’s circle of associates had no clue about his private life. He was so successful with his secrecy that he hid much of what he was doing.

It was several months into our friendship before Hitler began to allow me a glimpse into his heavily guarded private life. He invited me to his apartment on the Thierschstasse, where he lived very modestly. In these two rooms, he had a hot plate, many books, a single bed and a dingy carpet. His drawings and architectural sketches were always lying all over the floor. The sink, bath and toilet were adjacent. Hitler was then very unaffected and would receive me in a white shirt with no collar, wearing his black pants with suspenders. It took about a year before one of his wealthy female benefactors purchased for him some new shirts, shoes, suspenders and socks.

Image: Hitler in 1925, cropped from https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Early_Stabswache.jpg

On one visit to Hitler’s apartment, I noticed a card with some cherubs laying on his table, with feminine writing on it. Hitler hastily took the card and then said sheepishly, “this is just something personal of mine.” I soon discovered it was an affectionate greeting from his girlfriend of that period, a lovely girl named Suzi Liptauer. He introduced me to her shortly thereafter.

Suzi Liptauer​

Hitler’s love affair with this Viennese beauty had begun about six months after I first met him. Suzi appeared in the summer and she was stunning. I myself was highly attracted to her, but kept my distance with difficulty, since she was “Hitler’s girl.”

At that time, Suzi was about my age, 19, with dark blonde hair, blue eyes and a cupid’s bow mouth. She had the delightful Viennese charm to her, which spellbound men. Hitler, as he told me, rarely took her to his apartment for their trysts, but used another apartment which belonged to a party comrade who was a jeweler. Because Hitler’s nights were consumed with party matters and speeches, he had little time for seductions by night. He and Suzi met intimately in the afternoons.

Hitler made it a habit of taking “interludes” with Suzi several times a week. Party leaders grumbled about Hitler’s activities, whether through envy or genuine concern for the future of the National Socialist party, I can’t say.

I saw them together often throughout these early days. Suzi had every reason to be jealous of other women, since Hitler’s affections were not exclusive. In those days, it was difficult for him to remain faithful. He would generally have in his life one fairly steady companion, but he would still have adventures with other beautiful girls whom he met.

Interestingly, it didn’t matter to him if the woman was married. I saw him with a number of married women in the period 1920-1923. I noticed oftentimes Hitler was not the instigator in these love affairs, but was rather the hunted. Women sought him out increasingly, sometimes arriving at the door to his apartment. Many times I was with Hitler when a girl would timidly knock on his door, hoping for an invitation inside.

I admit I was enjoying my proximity to Hitler, because even though I was considered handsome and very eager, Hitler’s effect on women was unparalleled. In all my life I never saw anything like it. He didn’t have to try and gather women to him, they came in droves on their own. His charm, his riveting blue eyes and his seeming diffidence attracted women to him quite effortlessly. More and more women began attending our rallies and they would often be in the first row during his fiery speeches.

Suzi and Hitler did things as any other couple would do: they attended theater performances, took drives, had picnics and ate meals together. I saw her sometimes at Hitler’s apartment, but never at night.

Even in these early days, Hitler was very secretive about his relationships with women, He was a bachelor and some assumed he had no outlets for his abundant nervous energy. Some to this day persist in this nonsense. Many party comrades legitimately believed he lived only for the party and was married to Germany. He was so clever in hiding his women that even today there are old fighters alive in Munich still who think Hitler was abstinent of women. I know better based on long years of personal experience with him. He was actually a notorious womanizer (Frauenheld) up until the time he became Chancellor in 1933.

Suzi sensed that Hitler was not faithful to her, and began to suffer from Hitler’s resistance to marrying her. She saw and heard many little things from gossipers in Munich, so Hitler eventually confessed that he could never marry her as his life belonged to Germany. She also had seen him in Munich in the company of two other girls, the musical twins [the daughters of General von Epp] he was crazy about for years.

Suzi’s bouts of jealousy were so acute that she threatened Hitler with suicide if he didn’t keep her. Hitler never spoke to me about this matter, but others in the party did so. I heard a great deal from Hitler’s limping adjutant, Julius Schaub, who was the man who kept Hitler’s “little black book” with the names of his various lady friends.

Finally the relationship between Hitler and Suzi ended. It was quite a mess at the time. Hitler had begun a relationship with another girl named Emmi. Some old gossip (Klatschbase) at the Viktualienmarkt in Munich told Suzi that her Adolf had lost his heart to another girl. Suzi promptly checked herself into a hotel in Munich and made a half-hearted suicide attempt by tying a sash from a robe around her neck. Some hotel chambermaids found her unconscious a short while later. Thankfully, there was no scandal and hardly anyone in the party even knew about it.

Hitler resumed his affair with Suzi after she recovered, out of a sense of guilt, I presume. Their afternoon lovemaking sessions continued on the Cornelisustrasse for awhile, but then they finally broke things off. Suzi later married an Austrian man and Hitler kept in contact with her for many years.

He usually remained on good terms with his former lovers, and he supported her financially at times, as Brückner (Hitler’s chief adjutant) told me. He always remembered her birthday and would instruct one of his adjutants to send her flowers, a card which he would sign, and a box of chocolates. Sometimes he gave them cash as well. He sent the same packages to many of his old flames. I know because several times I was personally the errand boy he selected for this delicate duty.

Emmi Marre​

After Suzi’s exit from Hitler’s life, Emmi Marre entered his world. She was also well built, blonde and blue eyed. A real Bavarian. She was a lively girl, full of fun and deeply attached to Hitler. Her greatest passion, as she told me, was to darn his socks, brew him tea and “tend to him.”

She was 18 years old, but still liked to mother Hitler. She would scold him about his clothing and was constantly petting his hair, something which embarrassed him no end. In fact he put an end to that habit of hers fairly soon after their dalliance began.

I saw them often together in his various hangouts (Stammlokale). Hitler was always distant in public to his lovers. He firmly instructed them that there would be “no displays of love” in front of his comrades. Such a thing would have horrified him. He always followed this rule, but some of the women would press the point, and then soon be dropped from his presence. Hitler could sometimes be affectionate with his girlfriends, but they were not allowed to be so towards him. This never changed, incidentally, even with Eva Braun.

However, like many of his mistresses, Emmi was not discrete, and when Hitler was told that she was spreading details of their intimate life, he was ruthless. He said to me once, “Emmi can’t keep her mouth clamped shut. I am ending it tomorrow.”

Hitler was true to his word and we saw no more of Emmi. She wandered about, lost and lonely, bitterly crying that no other man would be like her Wölfchen (little wolf). I saw Emmi again with Hitler in 1929 but they were no longer lovers, merely friends. I was surprised they had remained in contact after all that time.

When someone or other would ask Hitler, “what ever became of Fraulein so and so?” Hitler would never answer. One of his adjutants might then say, “Oh, she hasn’t been seen lately.” This would generally halt the discussion and they would know Hitler and his latest treasure has broken up.

Image: Hitler with Bavarian party members at a remembrance ceremony for former military forces in Nuremberg, 2 September 1923

Jenny Haug​

But our young Führer was not lonely for long. In late 1922, he began to openly court the lithe and lovely Jenny Haug (Eugenie Haug, b. 14 May, 1891, in Pressburg; d. 2 October, 1944, in Munich). Jenny was the most serious and passionate relationship of Hitler’s early years. He had been in the habit of having “no strings attached” love relationships, but he fell quite hard for Jenny and no one would doubt the reason: she was an authentic beauty with a fabulous body. She lit a fire in him unlike no other woman had up to then.

Hitler first introduced me to Jenny at the Café Neumayr in Munich in the autumn of 1922. I had seen her before, working in a toy shop on Kaufingerstraße. Her brother, Ernst (Ernst Johann Haug, b. 19 April, 1898, in Pressburg; d. unknown), was one of Hitler’s first drivers, and I knew him well. Jenny was then 18 years old and was unlike Hitler’s usual type. Though she was beautiful, she also had “spunk” and was the independent type.

She had a hearty laugh and said what was on her mind. This trait sometimes annoyed Hitler. They had some tiffs about this and I once personally witnessed him take a vase from the mantel of his photographer (Heinrich Hoffmann) and hurl it across the room. Why, you ask? Because Jenny had been interrupting him during lunch and not allowing him to talk.

Hitler did reimburse Hoffmann for the vase, and Hoffmann told this particular story for years afterwards, much to Hitler’s chagrin.

Jenny really was deeply in love with Hitler, and he was so bold as to even take her on some trips, where he would discretely house her in an adjacent hotel room. To anyone who asked about her, she was passed off as a “married secretary,” and I myself provided a fake wedding band for her hand, which I bought from an old Army comrade who wanted to hock it.

Hitler and Jenny spent their afternoons often in the “rendezvous room,” which was an apartment at his disposal above the party HQ on Corneliusstraße in Munich. Only the closest party members knew about this room, where Hitler entertained many a Munich beauty in these early years.

Image: Jenny and Hitler’s trysting place in Munich

I must mention something in this context. It happened on at least two occasions that a former lover of Hitler approached him in Munich years after their “friendship” had ended. I know this because I was present both times. Hitler remembered each girl’s name, bowed and kissed their hands, then instructed Schaub to give them some money and make sure they got home safely in the service car.

He also had Schaub get their addresses, so they could be sent copies of Mein Kampf and birthday greetings when those days came along. Later Hitler told me he was always nervous when his old flames approached, anticipating a “scene.” However both times the ladies merely wanted to see him again and express their pleasure at his political success.

Jenny was almost as tall as Hitler, had a pair of blazing blue eyes and light brown hair which fell to her shoulders. When she once cut her hair, into a bob, Hitler was disconsolate and complained to me about it. But he also admitted to me that he “loved her” and she was “essential to his well being.”

When he was expecting a visit from Jenny, he would pace about frantically, striking his thighs with his whip and in an obviously excited frame of mind. When she would arrive, Hitler’s eyes shown like saucers. He was really attracted to her. They made a genuinely solid couple. They looked well together and Hitler was happier than usual when she was nearby.

I myself was also attracted to Jenny, as I was to many of Hitler’s girlfriends. But I never crossed the line into approaching them. I knew better. Hitler and I had become inseparable companions, and chasing girls was a passion we shared, as well as spending every hour in promoting the Party. Had he ever suspected I had made a play for one of his girls, there would have been a huge row. He might even have sacked me from my Party duties. This was a risk I refused to take.

I saw Jenny and Hitler for the next year together, more or less regularly. She adored him and they had many pet nicknames for each other, as lovers often do. She called him mein Kuscheltiger (my “cuddle tiger”) and he fondly called her meine Süße or mein Schnuckelchen (my sweety).

Hitler was less secretive about Jenny than his prior girlfriends, whom he jealousy hid from the other members of the party. With Jenny, they were openly seen at all of Hitler’s usual Munich haunts. He would hold her hand, but only under the table. In front of strangers, he instantly put on his “Führer mask” and pretended she was just a friend.

Jenny’s love for Hitler became ever greater, but so did her frustration. She wanted a normal life, with husband and children. She also wanted more of Hitler’s time, which he was unwilling to give her. His life was devoted to one thing: the pursuit of power and acquiring it.

But he still had girls available to him all over Munich, which was a temptation to him and remained so. Jenny sensed he was not faithful. Her attention never wandered from him and she took to carrying a small revolver in her purse in order to protect her Führer.

Finally, this idyll ended, a few weeks before the Putsch (November 9, 1923, when Hitler unsuccessfully attempted to seize control of the government). We were all in Nuremberg for a Party event and Hitler refused to allow Jenny to accompany him. I saw her leaving his Thierschstrasse apartment completely dejected and crying. I walked her to the tram in a pouring rain and neither of us had an umbrella. She said, “I love him more than I can bear, but he says we cannot be together anymore.” She was truly in a state.

When I told Hitler about her emotions later that evening, he waved off my concerns.

“You know how I feel about my Jenny, but I cannot marry her or anyone else. She can’t accept that, so I have no other alternative but to give her up.”

Hitler still spoke to me fondly of Jenny for many years afterwards. In fact he mentioned her to me as late as 1939, instructing my second wife to hand deliver a letter to Jenny from him. What the letter contained I never found out.

It was during this time, that the Munich newspapers referred to Hitler as “The King of Munich,” which was his nickname through the many years of political struggle.

The opposition press began to write countless articles about Hitler’s women. As was written in the Tageblatt, “Hitler is the King of Munich. When asked what he lives upon and what his former occupation was, he flies into a rage. His conscience cannot be clean, especially because of his relations with women which as all Munich knows, is excessive. And all of these women cost him a great deal of money, where does it come from?”

During this time I had gotten a girl in trouble (i.e. –Esser had gotten her pregnant), and I did not wish to marry her. Hitler found out about it and forced me to marry Therese and “do the right thing.” We were married on July 5, 1923, with Hitler as my best man. He congratulated us most heartily and used party funds to send us on a wonderful honeymoon to the Dolomites in Italy. I remember him even kissing Therese on both cheeks and saying happily, “I hope you can tame your wild Hermann.”

To be continued in Part 2…​

Image: some mentions of the Esser article

Adolf Hitler the Great Lover Part II by Hermann Esser​

(This is part two of Esser’s memories of Hitler’s love life. His narrative picks up in 1925, after Hitler was released from prison in Landsberg.)

It was in the springtime of 1925 that I noticed Hitler courting a girl that was unlike any other female I had ever seen him with. This was Liselotte “Lotte” Bechstein (b. 25 November, 1916, Munich; d. 5 February, 1978; married name Liselotte Bolduan), the wealthy daughter of Frau Helene Bechstein, a woman who had financed Hitler and our movement at a lavish rate.

The Bechstein’s were one of the wealthiest families in Munich and everyone in town knew it. She had bought the Boss (der Chef,Hitler) a Mercedes and also paid most of his hotel bills. Frau Bechstein herself was crazy about Hitler and many assumed they had been lovers. I cannot attest to this and I can’t imagine Hitler with such an older woman (note: she was actually 11 years older than Hitler).

Image: Adolf Hitler in 1925 with Helene and Edwin Bechstein. This photo was taken by their daughter, Lotte, who was Hitler’s lover at the time.

He wouldn’t discuss the matter with me. They did meet often and alone, though I assumed they discussed funds for the Party or she was handing him large sums of money. Hitler has never expressed any interest in older women and nearly all his girlfriends had been younger than 20. Twenty five years after these incidents, I have a frame of reference. I did not believe then nor now that Hitler was intimately involved with Frau Bechstein.

Lotte Bechstein​

Her daughter Lotte, however, is another matter. Lotte was Hitler’s girlfriend in the first part of 1925 and he had known her as far back as 1923. She was the least attractive of any woman I had ever seen in his company, though her figure was delightful and she was full of fun. Her youth was also appealing since when she was dating Hitler she was no more than 17.

Hitler and Lotte lived openly together on the Obersalzberg in the summer of 1925 and her mother encouraged their affair. She definitely wanted Lotte to become “Frau Hitler.” But I could see Hitler’s attentions were elsewhere and whenever he was in Berlin, he cheated on Lotte. I know this because he, Maurice (Hitler’s chauffeur) and I used to rent rooms in the student lodging of the University to entertain girls there. Hitler generally paid them 20 marks each for trolley fare to and from the hotel. We had very good times then!

Three photos of Hitler taken by Lotte Bechstein in 1925/26

Whenever we would go to Berlin, this pattern would usually be repeated. Sometimes Hitler was so busy making financial contacts in the city that he abstained from our outings. The only people who ever knew about these escapades were myself, Hitler and Emil Maurice. None of these girls ever became attached to Hitler since he was soon back in Munich. I don’t think many even knew who he was, since Hitler was really not that famous or notorious outside of Bavaria.

If Lotte was away from Munich, Hitler continued his errant ways. Curiously, he also never mentioned Lotte to me. In the past, he often effusively raved about his current girl, but not in this case. I saw him several times at the Café Heck with a beautiful blonde girl from Traunstein. Her name was Irene but she was a brief fling around this time. Hitler called her “Ina” and she was conspicuously beautiful.

Maurice told me he allowed Hitler to use his apartment to be alone with her. This affair ended when the girl demanded Hitler marry her or she would tell everyone about their relationship. She even threatened to tell the press, something which horrified Hitler. Party treasurer Schwarz was instructed to handle this girl with the big mouth.

This matter was also hushed up by me, with a bribe of a substantial amount of money. This saucy brunette was not seen again at Hitler’s side. But Lotte Bechstein heard of the existence of another girl, and that ended her romance with the budding Führer. Hitler and Lotte remained friends, however, until she started speaking spitefully of Hitler to some wealthy donors to the Party.

Image: Studio portrait of Hitler in 1924 by Heinrich Hoffman, printed on photographic card stock

Ada Klein​

In the summer of 1925 came a girl that Hitler cared about deeply, though he never loved her as much as he had loved Jenny Haug. This next conquest was named Adahelde Klein (Adelheid Klein, b. 12 August, 1902, Weingarten; later wife of Dr Walter Schultze), though she was always called “Ada” in our circle.

At first, she was my secretary and I hired her because I fancied her. In fact, Ada and I dated for several weeks before she met Hitler, but it was not a serious romance for either of us. When Ada discovered I was married, she instantly distanced herself from me, for reasons I fully understood. She forgave me that I was a rascal and we remained friendly. I became something of a confidante to her when she wanted to pour out her feelings for Hitler.

Ada liked to drink Glüwein (a German type of wine) and could become very chatty when tipsy. Ada first met the Fuehrer when he was coming in the door of the Eher publishing house in Munich. She was very tall and very noticeable.

He was, as he told me later, “completely smitten with her at first sight.” Ada, I knew, felt similarly. We were no longer dating, but she still confided in me and soon she and Hitler were a couple. Hitler demanded to know, however, whether my relationship with Ada had been an intimate one. I told him truthfully that it had never come to that. That was his green light to proceed with her.

I was much amused when he said, “Ada is far too young and innocent to be around a man like you!” Then he proceeded to seduce and corrupt her himself, which was typical of the Führer. What was good for him was apparently verboten to me. Hitler often had a double standard when he was personally involved.

From then on, Ada and Hitler were together much of the time. She called him Dolferl or Wolf and he called her mein Goldstück or mein Schätzchen (my golden treasure).

Since Hitler had gotten out of prison, he had consciously made it a habit of not bringing girls to his apartment. The danger was too high. Ada was only 18 and still living with her parents. She looked far younger than her years, however.

So Hitler devised a plan so they could share private moments together. His chauffeur, Emil Maurice, would loan Hitler his apartment, which had an additional two bedrooms. Maurice provided this service to many in the party, but Hitler never knew that. He thought he was the only man permitted to enjoy Maurice’s spare bedroom. Had he only known!

The relationship with Ada Klein is the only instance I know of where the woman did not fall passionately and mightily in love with Hitler. Ada, no doubt, adored him, but it seemed a normal love, not possession or jealous, which women always exhibited around him.

I think Ada knew that when Hitler was in Berlin, he had other women. I myself might have even told her. When he was gone, she was not hysterical, but calmly waiting. She did not push him for marriage either. All oddities.

Ada Klein was quite tall with black silky hair and almost violet colored eyes. She was also a passionate National Socialist Her room was full of NSDAP banners and swastikas. Ada seemed content with the afternoons she spent with her lover in Emil Maurice’s apartment. They met twice a week there, as the gossipy Julius Schaub later told me.

Image: Ada Schultze (nee Klein) in 1935. You just know…

Hitler talked about her with great enthusiasm and tenderness. Prison had changed him where women were concerned. He had become even more private and even more circumspect. Much of his earlier womanizing was now curtailed because he feared public exposure or scandal. He told me bitterly of how many opportunities he had to skip because of his “position.” In our intimate circle, it was often said that “prison had tamed Hitler.”

From the time of his release from Landsberg prison, if he was conducting an amorous affair, he was hysterically secretive about it. And this grew into an utter obsession with him by the time Eva Braun came into his life in the early 30’s.

I was one of the few men privy to the real details of his love life. The only others who knew the full story were Schaub, Brueckner (his adjutants), Emil Maurice, Schreck (chauffeurs) and Sepp Dietrich. His photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, probably knew as much as anyone, but was such a liar and so untrustworthy that I wouldn’t credit anything he said. He was was drowned in liquor much of the time, I doubt his memory could have served him too well. We never got along.

Hitler and Ada lasted together about one year and it seemed a placid interlude.