Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)
Heinrich Hoffmann (12 September 1885 in Fürth – 16 December 1957) was Adolf Hitler's official photographer, and a Nazi politician and publisher, who was a member of Hitler's intimate circle.
Hoffmann's photographs were a significant part of Hitler's propaganda campaign to present himself and the Nazi Party as a significant mass phenomenon. He received royalties from all uses of Hitler's image, which made him a millionaire over the course of Hitler's rule. After the Second World War he was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison for war profiteering.
He was classified by the Allies' Art Looting Investigators to be a "major offender" in Nazi art plundering of Jews, as both art dealer and collector and his art collection, which contained many artworks looted from Jews, was ordered confiscated by the Allies. Hoffmann's sentence was reduced to 4 years on appeal. In 1956, the Bavarian State ordered all art under its control and formerly possessed by Hoffmann to be returned to him.
Hoffmann was arrested by the United States Army on 10 May 1945. He was tried by a denazification court for war profiteering. Hoffmann was classified as a "major offender" in January 1947 by the Munich Spruchkammer, sentenced to 10 years in prison, and had his entire fortune confiscated.
Werner Friedman called him one of the "greediest parasites of the Hitler plague." On appeal, Hoffmann's sentence was reduced to four years, because of his lack of official position within the Third Reich.
Hoffmann figures prominently in the OSS Art Looting Investigation Unit's Reports 1945–46, Detailed Intelligence Report DIR N°1 carries his name.
Hoffmann was released from prison on 31 May 1950, and some of his assets were returned to him. He settled in the small village of Epfach in southern Bavaria. In 1954 a ten-part autobiographical series, "Hoffmann's Tales", was published in the "Münchner Illustrierte", the result of interviews by journalist Joe Heydecker [de], later collected as a book in 2008. Hoffmann published his memoirs in London in 1955 under the title Hitler Was My Friend.
In 1956, the Bavarian State ordered all art under its control and formerly possessed by Hoffmann to be returned to him. Hoffmann's widow, Erna, continued to live there together with the former silent-movie star Wera Engels
He died in 1957 at the age of 72.



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