Hitler Was My Friend

As official ‘court’ photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann played a critical role in the painstaking cultivation of Hitler’s public image and the glorification of the Third Reich. However, his influence stretched far beyond the realm of propaganda. Not only was he present during many of the key moments in the history of the Third Reich – he was also a close, personal friend of the Führer with exclusive and intimate access to Hitler’s inner circle and to the man himself. It was Hoffmann who introduced Hitler to Eva Braun, his studio assistant.

He took over two million photographs of Hitler and published several books including The Hitler Nobody Knows (1933). At the end of the war, Hoffmann was arrested by the US military, who seized his photographic archive, and was sentenced to imprisonment for Nazi profiteering.

His memoirs are a crucial eyewitness source for the historian and general reader alike, offering an illuminating glimpse of the dictator’s personality and a remarkable, behind-the-scenes account of the Nazi regime. This edition includes a new Introduction by Roger Moorhouse.