0:00:03 > 0:00:08In 1927, a young Munich photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann,
0:00:08 > 0:00:12was preparing his studio for a particularly difficult shoot.
0:00:12 > 0:00:19His subject, a nervous local politician, was notoriously camera-shy.
0:00:19 > 0:00:24But when Hoffmann began to play a recording of an impassioned
0:00:24 > 0:00:29political speech, the man in front of the camera was transformed.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41The photographs Hoffmann took that day would capture the awakening
0:00:41 > 0:00:47of one of the most brutal dictators the world has ever seen.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Adolf Hitler.
0:01:24 > 0:01:31The face of Adolf Hitler has become synonymous with fascism, terror and genocide.
0:01:34 > 0:01:41But in the 1930s, photographs of Hitler helped to hypnotise and inflame a nation.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48Hitler had an extraordinary awareness of the visual significance of power.
0:01:48 > 0:01:53The notion of imagery was very important to Hitler.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02Hitler was the first state leader to have an almost totally
0:02:02 > 0:02:04manufactured image.
0:02:06 > 0:02:12Photographs of Hitler were at the heart of the Nazi campaign for power.
0:02:12 > 0:02:17But the politician who would soon become the most photographed man in the world
0:02:17 > 0:02:20started out with a completely different strategy.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25At first, Adolf Hitler refused to be photographed at all.
0:02:32 > 0:02:38In 1921, Adolf Hitler was elected party chairman of a small extremist faction
0:02:38 > 0:02:45called the National Socialist German Workers' Party, otherwise known as the Nazis.
0:02:45 > 0:02:52As the leader of a subversive organisation, Hitler didn't want to be recognised by the opposition.
0:02:52 > 0:02:58He began to use the pseudonym Wolf and vetoed the taking of any photographs.
0:02:58 > 0:03:05Hitler didn't initially appreciate how important photography was going to be,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07so in the early phase it was extremely difficult,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10in fact impossible, to get a picture of Hitler.
0:03:10 > 0:03:16But this only increased people's curiosity, and not just in Germany.
0:03:16 > 0:03:22In 1923, the American Associated Press offered 100 to anyone
0:03:22 > 0:03:26who managed to photograph the right-wing rabble-rouser known as the Wolf.
0:03:29 > 0:03:36When a press photographer succeeded, later that year, Hitler was furious.
0:03:36 > 0:03:42Now that his image had been made public, he decided to take control by posing for an official portrait.
0:03:44 > 0:03:49He turned to Heinrich Hoffmann, a founding member of the Nazi Party
0:03:49 > 0:03:52who was also an established portrait photographer.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57This was the beginning of a powerful alliance between the photographer
0:03:57 > 0:04:01and the politician that would change the course of history.
0:04:01 > 0:04:08At the beginning, this relationship between Hoffmann and Hitler was characterised by a large insecurity.
0:04:08 > 0:04:16Hitler was posing in a...severe, er...rigid
0:04:16 > 0:04:23and almost aggressive pose. Hitler was not really sure about his image.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30Hitler was still uneasy in front of the camera,
0:04:30 > 0:04:34but Hoffmann was already starting to convince him of the importance
0:04:34 > 0:04:37of photography in the creation of his image as a leader.
0:04:37 > 0:04:45With mass unemployment and hyper-inflation, Germany in the 1920s was in turmoil.
0:04:45 > 0:04:52The Nazis wanted to exploit the chaos and establish a right-wing nationalistic government in Bavaria.
0:04:52 > 0:04:58In November 1923, Hitler attempted to seize power in Munich.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01The coup was a disaster.
0:05:01 > 0:05:06The Nazi Party was banned, and Hitler was arrested and imprisoned.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12Heinrich Hoffmann saw an opportunity to mythologise Hitler as a heroic
0:05:12 > 0:05:18rebel leader and came to photograph him in his cell.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23Hitler spent his eight months in prison writing his personal manifesto, Mein Kampf.
0:05:23 > 0:05:29He now set his sights on becoming the next political leader of Germany.
0:05:31 > 0:05:35Within a year of his release, the ban on the Nazi Party was lifted.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38They quickly began to organise and regroup.
0:05:38 > 0:05:44They had no obvious headquarters, so the initial headquarters was actually located
0:05:44 > 0:05:49in Heinrich Hoffmann's studios in his house in Schelling Strasse in Munich.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04One day, Hitler chanced upon a photograph in Hoffmann's studio.
0:06:04 > 0:06:09It had been taken in 1914 and showed a patriotic crowd
0:06:09 > 0:06:13celebrating Germany's declaration of war on Russia.
0:06:13 > 0:06:20Hitler told Hoffmann that he too had taken to the streets of Munich that day in support of the war.
0:06:22 > 0:06:24Hoffmann was curious.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29He set about making a series of enlargements of faces in the crowd.
0:06:30 > 0:06:36To his amazement, he managed to find the face of the young Adolf Hitler.
0:06:39 > 0:06:45Hoffman encircled and enlarged the portrait of Hitler
0:06:45 > 0:06:50just to show that there was a kind of invisible secret relationship
0:06:50 > 0:06:56between Hoffman and Hitler already in 1914.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00The friendship between the photographer and the politician was sealed.
0:07:00 > 0:07:05They would now set out to strengthen Hitler's image as a powerful leader.
0:07:05 > 0:07:10Hitler does become, as time goes on, obsessed with the creation of his own image
0:07:10 > 0:07:16and plays a great role in the shaping of that image himself.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19He was well aware of the role of photography,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23the part played by photographs of Hoffman in particular,
0:07:23 > 0:07:29in helping to shape this heroic image, which was crucial also to the popularity of Hitler
0:07:29 > 0:07:32and to the stability of the regime itself.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39Hitler and Hoffmann were now ready to produce the set of photographs
0:07:39 > 0:07:43that would help to intensify the Nazi campaign of mass-manipulation.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55HITLER SPEAKS IN GERMAN
0:07:57 > 0:08:02Hitler would use these dramatic images to study his own body language,
0:08:02 > 0:08:07to see which gestures would be most effective in his speeches and party rallies.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25Hoffmann's photographs of Hitler were mass-produced
0:08:25 > 0:08:29as propaganda postcards and sold in shops all over Germany.
0:08:31 > 0:08:38As the party expanded, and as Hitler's popularity grew, this turned into a fantastic trade for Hoffman,
0:08:38 > 0:08:45who later on, through all his photography, became a multimillionaire many times over.
0:08:46 > 0:08:51The Nazi Party was now becoming a significant political force.
0:08:51 > 0:09:00In May 1928, they won a foothold in the Reichstag with 12 seats out of 491 in the national elections.
0:09:05 > 0:09:08At this time, Hoffmann had a 17-year-old photographic assistant.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Her name was Eva Braun.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22Working late one evening, she saw Hoffmann talking to Hitler.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27When she approached, Hoffmann introduced her as "our good little Fraulein."
0:09:33 > 0:09:36She was fascinated by Hitler.
0:09:36 > 0:09:42When he next visited the studio, she slipped a love letter into his coat pocket.
0:09:51 > 0:09:59In September 1930, the Nazis became the second largest party in the national government with 107 seats.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03Joseph Goebbels became the head of Nazi propaganda.
0:10:03 > 0:10:10He and Heinrich Hoffmann now embarked on a ground-breaking propaganda strategy.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17Instead of simply taking formal political photographs,
0:10:17 > 0:10:23Hoffmann began to take a series of more relaxed, personal photographs in Hitler's mountain home,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26the Berghof in Southern Germany.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32These carefully constructed glimpses of Hitler's private life
0:10:32 > 0:10:38were published in 1932 in a book called The Hitler Nobody Knows.
0:10:38 > 0:10:46It was the most successful book Hoffman ever did, with more than 420,000 copies until 1941.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53It was so successful because it showed Hitler
0:10:53 > 0:10:57in his privacy, something absolutely new in politics.
0:10:58 > 0:11:06These books were created not just to spread Hitler's popularity, which was by this time in any case immense,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09but to create particularly a different image of Hitler.
0:11:09 > 0:11:16Not just the Hitler who was the martial leader of his troops, but now the human Hitler.
0:11:18 > 0:11:22But Hitler was determined to keep the real story of his private life from the public.
0:11:22 > 0:11:31He insisted that his affair with Eva Braun should remain a secret and refused to marry her.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36You know, Hitler wanted to be married with Germany.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39There was no place for a wife.
0:11:39 > 0:11:44He needed all these women crying to him, "Heil, heil, heil!"
0:11:44 > 0:11:50and he couldn't have a wife, then maybe they wouldn't love him any more.
0:11:51 > 0:12:01The image that he had created for himself was that of the great leader who stood above society - and outside
0:12:01 > 0:12:09it in a way - and to have now, erm...a mistress alongside him would really have dented that image.
0:12:10 > 0:12:16Hitler placed a total ban on any official photographs with Eva Braun at his side.
0:12:19 > 0:12:27In the national elections in July 1932, the Nazi Party won 230 seats.
0:12:27 > 0:12:33Six months later, Hitler was appointed chancellor by the ageing German president, Hindenburg.
0:12:35 > 0:12:41Most of the people who voted for him - there were 13.5 million of these in 1932 - hadn't actually seen Hitler in
0:12:41 > 0:12:49person, so they were dependent upon the manufactured image which they saw, for the most part, in magazines.
0:12:56 > 0:13:05When Hindenburg died on 2nd August 1934, Hitler assumed absolute power over Germany.
0:13:05 > 0:13:11He called on Heinrich Hoffman to become the Nazi regime's official photographer.
0:13:11 > 0:13:17He now wanted every public appearance to be photographed.
0:13:20 > 0:13:26There are pictures of Hitler opening the new autobahn system,
0:13:26 > 0:13:30visiting the Volkswagen factory,
0:13:30 > 0:13:33and addressing members of the Hitler Youth.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39And ten years after his release from prison,
0:13:39 > 0:13:46Hoffmann and Hitler even went back to his cell in Munich to commemorate the time when he wrote Mein Kampf.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50So these photographs were part of the cult of the Hitler image and his
0:13:50 > 0:13:56representation as a charismatic figure in the German state.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03At the Nuremberg Rally that year, Hitler would orchestrate the most
0:14:03 > 0:14:07dramatic display of Nazi power ever seen.
0:14:09 > 0:14:18His image as the great leader had to be constructed as one where he would stand supreme over all parties, over
0:14:18 > 0:14:24all society, over every aspect of German life, and would dominate it.
0:14:24 > 0:14:29Over the next ten years, Hoffman and his growing team of official photographers
0:14:29 > 0:14:37would take two and a half million pictures of Adolf Hitler, an average rate of 5,000 every week.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41The politician who had once refused to be photographed at all
0:14:41 > 0:14:47was now the most photographed man in the world.
0:14:47 > 0:14:55But there was still one conspicuous omission from the frenzied recording of Hitler's public and private life.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59His relationship with Eva Braun was still a closely guarded secret,
0:14:59 > 0:15:05and she was becoming increasingly distraught about their clandestine affair.
0:15:05 > 0:15:12She tried to commit suicide in '32 and...'35, I think,
0:15:12 > 0:15:14because Hitler had no time for her.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17She didn't find the attention and the love
0:15:17 > 0:15:23she wanted, not from Hitler, I think this man was not able to love.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28After her second suicide attempt, she was moved to the Berghof
0:15:28 > 0:15:32to be watched over by Hitler's staff and guards.
0:15:35 > 0:15:41By 1938, Hitler was preparing Germany for total war.
0:15:43 > 0:15:50But the world continued to be manipulated into a false sense of security by Nazi propaganda.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56The British magazine Homes & Gardens even offered their readers
0:15:56 > 0:16:03a privileged view of Hitler's country home, with numerous photos by Heinrich Hoffmann.
0:16:04 > 0:16:10The article gave a glowing account of Hitler's life at his idyllic mountain retreat.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15"The colour scheme throughout is a light jade green."
0:16:15 > 0:16:19"Here Hitler will read the home and foreign papers
0:16:19 > 0:16:24which his own air-pilot brings him every day from Berlin before lunch."
0:16:28 > 0:16:35This edition of Homes & Gardens was published in the same month that the Nazis sanctioned Kristallnacht,
0:16:35 > 0:16:44a co-ordinated assault unleashed on Germany's Jewish population on November 9th 1938.
0:16:44 > 0:16:49In the course of two nights 8,000 Jewish properties were destroyed
0:16:49 > 0:16:54and 30,000 Jews were subsequently sent to concentration camps.
0:16:54 > 0:16:59Less than a year later, Europe was at war.
0:17:03 > 0:17:08Hitler was now at the height of his powers, and his desire to document
0:17:08 > 0:17:12the Nazis' progress was becoming an obsession.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16Heinrich Hoffman continued his work through the propaganda ministry,
0:17:16 > 0:17:21but Hitler had now also appointed a young film cameraman called
0:17:21 > 0:17:26Walter Frentz to record his personal daily routine.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Frentz would be granted uniquely intimate access to the Fuhrer.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34Hitler liked the way he filmed him.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41Hitler trusted him, so he had often the chance to do
0:17:41 > 0:17:46rare shots which no-one else would have had the chance to do.
0:17:46 > 0:17:52On June 22nd 1940, Frentz was standing next to Hitler
0:17:52 > 0:17:57when he heard the news that France had surrendered to Germany.
0:17:57 > 0:18:05My father picked up his camera and he just filmed Hitler, who was totally overwhelmed by this new message.
0:18:07 > 0:18:11Frentz was also an accomplished stills photographer.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16He took these photos of Hitler basking in the glow of his victory.
0:18:16 > 0:18:23He would soon establish himself as one of Hitler's favourite photographers.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28My father was able to approach Hitler in quite private situations,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33so the biggest difference between Hoffmann and my father
0:18:33 > 0:18:39was that Hoffmann made official photos and he made the unofficial photos.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44Frentz was also brought to the Berghof to show Hitler and Eva Braun
0:18:44 > 0:18:49his coverage of the war in evening film and slide shows.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Frentz and Braun became friends.
0:19:00 > 0:19:06As Hitler's trusted photographer, she even invited him to take photographs of her with Hitler
0:19:06 > 0:19:10and some children who were visiting them at the time.
0:19:10 > 0:19:18She asked him to just shoot this so-called family pictures, because this was what she wished
0:19:18 > 0:19:23to have, just a man and a family with children.
0:19:26 > 0:19:31She was always showing,"Oh, I am happy, I am happy."
0:19:31 > 0:19:37But inside she wasn't happy, she couldn't be happy in the situation she was.
0:19:37 > 0:19:44As Heinrich Hoffmann's assistant, Eva Braun had always been interested in film and photography.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47During her years of seclusion at the Berghof, she became
0:19:47 > 0:19:53a keen photographer herself and collected hundreds of pictures in a series of albums.
0:19:53 > 0:19:55What should she do?
0:19:55 > 0:19:57She likes to take photos.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59That was her business.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04She was not allowed to work, Hitler stopped her,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07and...so she needed something for herself.
0:20:07 > 0:20:12And I think this was for herself, this taking photos.
0:20:15 > 0:20:22Braun discreetly took photographs from the window of her room, sometimes capturing events outside
0:20:22 > 0:20:25that she herself was forbidden to attend.
0:20:32 > 0:20:37In one of her albums she placed a photo by an official photographer.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41It shows an Italian general looking up at an open window.
0:20:44 > 0:20:51Underneath the photo, Eva wrote "There is something upstairs they're forbidden to see,
0:20:51 > 0:20:53"me."
0:21:01 > 0:21:05By 1942, Hitler's fortunes were turning.
0:21:05 > 0:21:11The Americans had entered the war, and the Nazis were facing a powerful alliance of enemies on two fronts.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18In February 1943, the Germans suffered
0:21:18 > 0:21:25a crushing defeat at Stalingrad and their Russian campaign collapsed.
0:21:25 > 0:21:32Walter Frentz captured a shot of the troubled Nazi leader gazing down over Germany from his private plane.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36Here we have a very unheroic picture of Hitler,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40unaware apparently that the camera is shooting him
0:21:40 > 0:21:42and just gazing out of the window.
0:21:44 > 0:21:51In his own inner mind he must, even then, have seen that now it was going to be impossible to attain total
0:21:51 > 0:21:57victory, and for everyone else now it was obvious that Germany was facing defeat.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09Hitler's image, which was at one time one of such strength and such
0:22:09 > 0:22:13success, now becomes associated with defeat, looming catastrophe
0:22:13 > 0:22:20and with disaster, and so Hitler's own popularity, naturally, slumps massively in those later years.
0:22:22 > 0:22:29In July 1944, a group of disaffected German officers set out to assassinate Hitler.
0:22:31 > 0:22:35Looking for someone with unique access to him to plant a bomb,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37they turned to his most trusted photographer,
0:22:39 > 0:22:40Walter Frentz.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46Frentz hesitated.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51In one way, my father knew that this assassination
0:22:51 > 0:22:58would maybe end the war, but he was not able to do this job himself.
0:22:59 > 0:23:09For my father at that time, Hitler was still quite an authority, and so later on he told me
0:23:09 > 0:23:15that, "It was not my job that I felt I should kill the king."
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Frentz refused to take part in the plot,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23but he did nothing to expose it.
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Hitler escaped unharmed.
0:23:30 > 0:23:33The assassins were rounded up and executed.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43Hitler had survived, but the Third Reich was collapsing.
0:23:43 > 0:23:51In March 1945, as the Western Allies advanced towards Berlin, Hitler was photographed inspecting
0:23:51 > 0:23:56an architect's model for the postwar redevelopment of Linz, his childhood home.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01A last bit of futile PR by this stage.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06How many people saw those pictures at the time we can't tell, but not many.
0:24:08 > 0:24:14By that time the Hitler myth had all but totally evaporated.
0:24:17 > 0:24:26On 20th March, Heinrich Hoffmann and Walter Frentz recorded Hitler's final public appearance.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30Hitler was ill but unwilling to concede defeat.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34He walked along a line of Hitler Youth, awarding medals for bravery.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41They were about to return to face the Russians, who were advancing on the city.
0:24:43 > 0:24:48This would be Heinrich Hoffmann's last photograph of Adolf Hitler.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52Soon after this final photo call, he fled Berlin.
0:24:55 > 0:25:01On April 22nd, as the Red Army advanced on the centre of Berlin,
0:25:01 > 0:25:06Hitler and his inner circle retreated to the leader's bunker.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09Walter Frentz was with them.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13All people down there at the bunker felt that they never would be
0:25:13 > 0:25:19able to leave the city and that they most probably would die or...
0:25:19 > 0:25:23or would be caught by the Russians.
0:25:23 > 0:25:27And, er...my father was also very pessimistic.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34Two days later, Walter Frentz was one of the last people to leave the bunker.
0:25:34 > 0:25:41He left Berlin in the plane that had been reserved for Hitler's escape from the city.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02On 28th April, Hitler was informed that the Italian fascist
0:26:02 > 0:26:09leader, Benito Mussolini, and his mistress had been captured and shot.
0:26:09 > 0:26:16A series of photographs had been taken showing their bodies hanging on display in Milan.
0:26:16 > 0:26:23Hitler would never have wanted to have pictures of humiliation or pictures where he was in captivity.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27He would never have contemplated allowing himself to be shown in such a way.
0:26:29 > 0:26:33The next day, with the Red Army engaged in street-to-street
0:26:33 > 0:26:39fighting in the city above, Hitler and Eva Braun were finally married.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44There were no photographers left to record the occasion.
0:26:46 > 0:26:53At 3.30pm, on 30th April, Hitler and Braun went into a small room in the bunker
0:26:53 > 0:26:54and closed the door.
0:27:24 > 0:27:28Hitler and Braun had committed suicide.
0:27:30 > 0:27:35The German public still had no idea of Eva Braun's existence.
0:27:58 > 0:28:04Two days later, on 2nd May 1945, the Red Army captured Berlin.
0:28:08 > 0:28:14Soon after they broke into the bunker, the Russians released photographs of Hitler's body
0:28:14 > 0:28:20to prove that the world's most brutal dictator was dead.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24The photographs were published all over the world
0:28:24 > 0:28:28but were immediately exposed as fakes.
0:28:28 > 0:28:36Even in death, Hitler's image was still being manipulated for political ends.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54Subtitles by BBC Broadcast - 2005
0:28:54 > 0:28:57E-mail us at subtitling@bbc.co.uk