HITLER AND I

taken into the confidence of one of them, and it was
edifying.

The first was the wife of the Berlin piano-maker, the
famous Bechstein. Frau Bechstein was twenty years
older than Adolf, and lavished on him an ecstatic and
faintly maternal devotion. When he went to Berlin he
generally stayed with her, and it was at her house that
he met the politicians whose acquaintance he desired
to make.

When they were alone, or occasionally in front of
friends, he would sit at his hostess's feet, lay his head
on her opulent bosom and close his eyes, while her
beautiful white hand caressed her big baby's hair,
disturbing the historic forelock on the future dictator's
brow. 'Wolfchen* she murmured tenderly, 'mein
Wolfchm.^

This purely platonic affair eventually ceased to
satisfy Adolf Hitler, who made the acquaintance of a
younger and unquestionably more attractive female.
This was the daughter of Hofmann, the photographer,
an exceedingly attractive young blonde, with frank
and boyish ways.

Adolescent girls are rarely discreet. Fraulein Hof-
mann chattered so freely and to such effect that one
day her father went to demand an explanation from
the seducer of Munich.

Hitler was not yet Chancellor of the Reich, but his
fame was growing, and Europe was beginning to talk
about him. The matter was soon settled. Hofmann

1 eMy little wolf, my little wolf.'
82