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Erik Jan Hanussen
Summary
Erik Jan Hanussen, born Hermann Steinschneider (2 June 1889 – 25 March 1933), was an Austrian Jewish publicist, charlatan 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.
Although Hanussen claimed to be a Danish aristocrat, he was in fact a Moravian Jew, born as Hermann (Herschel Chaim) Steinschneider. Hanussen's father, Siegfried Steinschneider (1858–1910), was an actor and caretaker of a synagogue who married Antonie Julie Kohn, a singer, in Vienna, Austria.
Hanussen's parents traveled constantly through Austria and Italy with acting and musical troupes, taking Hanussen with them.
At the age of 21, Hanussen became a chief reporter for the newspaper Der Blitz He was later drafted into the army during World War I. During this time, he used mentalism to entertain the other troops. In 1917, he adopted the name Erik Jan Hanussen (also written as Erik van Hanussen) and joined a circus. He soon wrote two booklets dealing with subjects including telepathy, clairvoyance, and mind-reading, which he labelled as fraudulent practices. However, he later treated these practices as genuine and claimed to have supernatural abilities.
Hanussen performed a mind reading and hypnosis act at La Scala in Berlin 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 ("Brownshirts"). It is claimed he was a supporter of the Nazis despite his Jewish ancestry, which was an open secret. Hanussen converted from Judaism to Protestantism in order to join the Nazi Party. He also published anti-Semitic propaganda.
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.
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