Hanfstaengl, Ernst “Putzi” — Hitler: The Missing Years — First UK Edition, 1957

Author: Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl
Title: Hitler: The Missing Years
Publisher: Eyre & Spottiswoode, London
Date: 1957
Edition: First UK Edition, First Impression
Size: Octavo
Pagination: 299 pp.
Stock Code: 004182
Location: Bookroom

First UK edition, first impression, of Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl’s important memoir of Adolf Hitler and the formative years of the Nazi movement, published by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1957. Hanfstaengl (1887–1975), a German-American businessman, Harvard graduate and talented pianist, became closely associated with Hitler during the 1920s and early 1930s and was for a period one of the most socially connected figures in his circle. He later served as the Nazi Party’s foreign press chief before falling from favour and leaving Germany in 1937. His memoir is therefore valuable as a first-hand account by a participant who had unusually intimate access to Hitler before and during the consolidation of Nazi power. The book is particularly strong on Hitler’s personality, private habits, political methods and relationships within the early Nazi leadership, and remains one of the better-known memoirs by an insider from this formative period. The contemporary dustwrapper prominently reproduces a commendation from historian Alan Bullock, who praised Hanfstaengl’s ability to give a credible portrait of Hitler as a man. The volume includes a frontispiece portrait of the author and an introduction by Brian Connell; Google Books confirms the 1957 Eyre & Spottiswoode edition at 299 pages.

Hanfstaengl’s significance lies in the unusual trajectory of his political life. He knew Hitler before the Nazi movement became a national force and retained access to the inner circle through much of the regime’s rise. His later break with the leadership gave him a perspective combining personal familiarity with retrospective criticism. The memoir is not an objective account in the modern scholarly sense and, like all participant memoirs, must be read critically, but its evidential value lies precisely in the detail it preserves about Hitler’s behaviour, social milieu and the culture of the early Nazi Party. The work has continued to attract serious historical interest, and later booksellers and cataloguers consistently identify it as a notable insider account of Hitler and the Nazi leadership.

Condition: The binding is nice and tight, with the publisher’s cloth bright and clean. Neat pencil name (of Major Harrison) to the front free endpaper. The pages are generally nice and clean. The original pictorial dustwrapper is very good, showing slight nicking, chipping and rubbing at the extremities and some general age-related wear, but remaining substantially complete, bright and visually strong. The black, red, cream and yellow design is especially effective and retains the prominent Alan Bullock endorsement to the front panel.

Near fine in a very good original dustwrapper.

A desirable first edition of one of the more important personal memoirs of Hitler’s early political circle, retaining its original dustwrapper in very good condition. It is now housed in an easily removeable acetate sleeve.

Stock code: 004182. Location: Bookroom.

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