Erik Jan Hanussen
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Hanussen, also known as Erik Jan Hanussen (2 June, 1889, Vienna - after 25 March, 1933, Berlin), was a mentalist, occultist, and astrologer, active in Weimar Republic Germany and also at the beginning of Nazi Germany.
Hanussen claimed to be a Danish aristocrat but was in fact a Czech Jew, born under the name Hermann Steinschneider. He was born to Siegfried Steinschneider (1858 - 1910) and his wife Antonie Julie Kohn. His father was caretaker of a synagogue.
He performed a mind reading and hypnosis act that catapulted him to stardom. At his height he enjoyed the company of Germany's military and business elite, also becoming close with members of the SA (Sturmabteilung). He was apparently a supporter of Nazi ideology, in spite of his Jewish ancestry, which was never a very well kept secret.
Legends abound about meetings between Hanussen and Adolf Hitler. Supposedly there was at least one secret meeting between the two just before the German election, November 1932, during which Hanussen taught Hitler secret crowd control tecniques with the utilization of gesture.
His most famous feat of precognition was predicting the Reichstag fire, the decisive event that led to recently appointed Chancellor of Germany Hitler seizing absolute power in Germany in 1933. He was assassinated shortly after that (most likely by the Nazis) and hastily buried in a field in the outskirts of Berlin, presumably because he knew too much. His body was discovered in late April of the same year. There are rumours about his involvement in the Reichstag fire.
Movies
- Hanussen (1955), played by O. W. Fischer
- Hanussen (1988), played by Klaus Maria Brandauer, director Istvan Szabo
- Invincible (2001), Hanussen is played by Tim Roth, director Werner Herzog
See also
External links
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