Erik Jan Hanussen

Erik Jan Hanussen (born Hermann Steinschneider; 2 June 1889 – 25 March 1933), was an Austrian publicist and clairvoyant performer. Acclaimed in his lifetime as a hypnotist, mentalist, occultist and astrologer, Hanussen was active in Weimar Republic Germany and also at the beginning of Nazi Germany. He is said to have instructed Adolf Hitler in performance and the achievement of dramatic effect, Hanussen's Jewish background was either concealed or a nominally-tolerated open secret when he began to associate himself with the Nazi movement.

Steinschneider was born to Siegfried Steinschneider and Juli Kohn in the Ottakring district of Vienna in 1889. Hanussen's parents travelled constantly through Austria and Italy with acting and musical troupes, taking Hanussen with them.

His mother died when he was ten years old, and his father remarried to a widow named Berta Pick, with whom he had two children. Three years later, Hanussen dropped out of school and ran away from home.

Career

Erik Jan Hanussen (middle) conducting an illuminated séance. At the age of 20, Hanussen became a chief reporter for the newspaper Der Blitz He was later drafted into the army during World War I.

Stories abound of meetings between Hanussen and Hitler, including an encounter shortly before the election of November 1932, during which Hanussen taught Hitler his crowd control techniques of using gestures and dramatic pauses. Hanussen was also quite close to other important Nazi officials, to whom he had often lent money, including Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff, Karl Ernst, and Friedrich Wilhelm Ohst.

Dr. Walter C. Langer, a psychoanalyst, prepared a psychological profile of Hitler for the United States' Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1943. The profile included a reference to Hanussen: "...during the early 1920s Hitler took regular lessons in speaking and in mass psychology from a man named [Hanussen] who was also a practising astrologer and fortune-teller. He was an extremely clever individual who taught Hitler a great deal concerning the importance of staging meetings to obtain the greatest dramatic effect."

In 1931 Hanussen purchased a Breslau printing firm and began publishing an occult journal, Hanussen Magazin and Bunte Wochenschau, a popular bi-weekly Berlin tabloid which included astrological columns. He used the proceeds from his publishing ventures and stage shows to purchase a mansion which became known as "The Palace of the Occult", which he renovated and turned into a luxurious interactive theatre for fortune telling games. Guests would sit around a large circular table and place their palms on glass with symbols lit from beneath; the room lights would be lowered in a séance-like fashion; and various gimmicks would highlight Hanussen's dramatic verbal presentation of prophecies to the guests. He predicted events in the lives of the individuals present, but controversy arose when he predicted the future of Germany. He became successful, was always in demand in various venues, and had a full-time valet.

Alfred Neubauer, a famous motor racing team manager, refers to Hanussen in his autobiography, Speed Was My Life (first published in English in 1960). In the chapter 'A Prophecy Comes True', he describes a prediction made by Hanussen before the race at AVUS in Germany in May 1932. While at the Roxy Bar with other drivers, Neubauer challenged Hanussen to predict the winner of the following day's race. After some 'leg pulling', Hanussen wrote two names on a piece of paper, which he folded, and put in an envelope. This was placed in the custody of the barman. He had strict instructions that it be left unopened until after the race. Hanussen announced, 'One of us at this table will win tomorrow, another will die. The two names are in this envelope.' During the race, driver Georg Christian of Lobkowicz was killed, and Manfred von Brauchitsch won. After the race, Neubauer states he opened the envelope and found those names inside. Several days later, a Berlin newspaper reported that Hanussen had urged the German Automobile Club to persuade Prince Lobkowicz not to take part in the race, but Club officials had taken no action.

Reichstag fire and assassination Predicting the Reichstag fire, a decisive event that allowed recently appointed Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler to seize absolute power in 1933, was Hanussen's most famous feat of clairvoyance. It also was possibly a miscalculated use of inside information that led to his death shortly thereafter.

Hanussen was assassinated on 25 March 1933, probably by a group of SA men, and was hastily buried in a field on the outskirts of Berlin, near Stahnsdorf. He was potential competition to Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels for the attention of their Führer, which may also have led to his murder. Other theories have implicated Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff as ordering Hanussen's death, suggesting that Helldorff believed Jewish background a liability, or owed him money; or SA leader Karl Ernst. Hanussen's body was discovered over a month later.

There are unsubstantiated claims that he may have been involved in the Reichstag fire, hypnotizing and directing Marinus van der Lubbe, the convicted arsonist, to commit the act.

Erik Jan Hanussen is buried in the Südwestkirchhof, Stahnsdorf, near Berlin.

Personal life

Hanussen's daughter, Erika Fuchs Steinschneider, was born to his first wife Theresia Luksch in 1920.

In fiction

Films Hypnose (1919), starring Erik Jan Hanussen Der rätselhafte Tod (1921), starring Erik Jan Hanussen Hanussen (1955), played by O. W. Fischer Hanussen (1988), played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, director Istvan Szabo. The film fictionalizes many aspects of Hanussen's life, including his name ('Klaus Schneider' in the film) and various details of his early life. Invincible (2001), played by Tim Roth, director Werner Herzog. The film depicts a largely-fictional professional relationship between Hanussen and Jewish strongman Zishe Breitbart. The Illusionist (2006), the protagonist Eisenheim, played by Edward Norton, is based loosely on Hanussen. He has a similar Jewish background and comes to prominence for a magic show that incorporates elements of spiritualism and the occult, a fictionalized version of Hanussen's act. The King's Man (2021) includes Hanussen as a character played by Daniel Brühl.

Theatre Palace of the Occult (2015), written and performed by Neil Tobin

Novel El mentalista de Hitler (2016), a "historical noir" novel written in Spanish by the Uruguayan author Gervasio Posadas, closely based on Erik Jan Hanussen's true biography.

Other mentions in popular media In the Japanese television drama Laughing Matryoshka (2024), a politician is heavily influenced by a former classmate, now his secretary. A reporter who is investigating him finds a connection between the secretary and Hanussen.