In 1937, Ernst Hanfstaengl received orders to parachute into an area held by the nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War, to assist in negotiations. While on board the plane he feared a plot on his life and learned more details from the pilot about the mission, who eventually admitted he had been ordered to drop Hanfstaengl over republican-held territory, which would have meant almost certain death. The pilot eventually landed on a small airfield after claiming an engine malfunction following a brief talk with Hanfstaengl, which allowed him to escape.

This version of the story was related by Albert Speer in his memoirs, who stated that the “mission” to Spain was an elaborate practical joke, concocted by Hitler and Goebbels, designed to punish Hanfstaengl after he’d displeased the Führer by making “adverse comments about the fighting spirit of the German soldiers in combat” in the Spanish Civil War.

No harm was intended. However, Hanfstaengl was frightened enough to decide to defect & later worked for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.



(Fact Source) Follow Ultrafacts for more facts

