Have you ever seen Hitler in color? Probably not. For the first time ever LIFE.com is publishing a color gallery taken by the fuhrer’s personal photographer, Hugo Jaeger. Below are a couple of the photos. Underneath you’ll find the story from LIFE of how Jaeger hid them from American soldiers after the war.
Caption: Hitler Among the Cars
Adolf Hitler tours the 1939 international Auto Exhibition in Berlin. Three years before, at another Berlin auto show, Hitler announced that Porsche would design the “People’s Car,” or Volkswagen, an affordable, practical vehicle for the working Germany family.
Caption: Beer Hall Putsch Commemoration, 1941
Hitler speaks in Munich on the anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, in which Hitler and other Nazi party members attempted to overthrow the German government. Hitler, jailed for a year for his part in the coup attempt, was a master of the art of swaying large crowds. “I was carried on the wave of the enthusiasm which … bore the speaker along from sentence to sentence,” chief Nazi architect, Albert Speer, recalled of one Nazi rally
Caption: Inside Hitler’s First School
Hitler’s first schoolhouse in the village of Fischlham, Austria, was a tiny, one-room affair. “Our teachers were absolute tyrants,” he later wrote, evidently blind to the terrible irony of his words. “They had no sympathy with youth; their one objective was to stuff our brains and turn us into erudite apes like themselves.”
Caption: Hugo Jaeger: Photographer to Hitler
Hugo Jaeger, one of Hitler’s personal photographers, in 1970. Jaeger’s story — and the story of how LIFE came to own his photographs of Hitler — is nothing short of astonishing. In 1945, when the Allies were making their final push toward Munich, Jaeger found himself face to face with six American soldiers in a small town west of the city. During a search of the house where Jaeger was staying, the Americans found a leather suitcase in which Jaeger had hidden thousands of color photo transparencies. He knew he would be arrested (or worse) if the Americans discovered his film and his close connection to Hitler. He could never have imagined what happened next.
Adolf Hitler, Up Close
Between 1936 and 1945, German photographer Hugo Jaeger was granted unprecedented access to Adolf Hitler, traveling and chronicling, in color, the Fuhrer and his confidants at small gatherings, public events, and, quite often, in private moments. Here, and in several other galleries on LIFE, we now present never-before-published photographs from Jaeger’s astonishing — and chilling — collection. (Pictured: Hitler attends the 1939 launching of the battleship Tirpitz.)
Hitler’s Extravagant Birthday Gifts
In the late ’30s, very few photographers were using color. Hugo Jaeger was an early adopter and Hitler liked what he saw. “The future,” Hitler once said to Jaeger, “belongs to color photography.” (Pictured: A hand-worked castle inlaid with precious stones, given to Hitler for his 50th birthday, April 20, 1939.)
Hitler Salutes the Troops, Nuremberg, 1938
Hitler salutes German troops in Adolf Hitler Platz in 1938. “The very first essential for success,” Hitler once said, “is a perpetually constant and regular employment of violence.” See more of Hitler’s ability to sway crowds in the service of violence and hatred in the gallery Among the Crowds.
Commemorating the Beer Hall Putsch, 1938
Hitler speaks in Munich on the 15th anniversary of the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, in which Hitler and other Nazi party members attempted to overthrow the German government. Hitler, jailed for a year for his part in the coup attempt, was a master at swaying large crowds. “The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belong to one category,” he said.
The Story:
Between 1936 and 1943, German photographer Hugo Jaeger was granted unprecedented access to Adolf Hitler, traveling and chronicling, in color, the Fuhrer and his confidants at small gatherings, public events, and, quite often, in private moments. Here, and in several other galleries on LIFE, we present never-before-published photographs from Jaeger’s astonishing — and chilling — collection.
Hugo Jaeger in 1970. Twenty-five years earlier, in 1945, when the Allies were making their final push toward Munich, Jaeger found himself face to face with six American soldiers in a small town west of the city. During a search of the house where Jaeger was staying, the Americans found the leather suitcase in which Jaeger had hidden thousands of his color negatives. He knew he would be arrested (or worse) if the Americans discovered his film and his close connection to Hitler. But what happened next astonished him.
Inside the suitcase that held the Hitler images, Jaeger had also placed a bottle of cognac. Happy with their find, the soldiers proceeded to shared the bottle with Jaeger and the owner of the house. The suitcase was forgotten.
After the Americans left, Jaeger packed the slides into 12 glass jars and buried them on the outskirts of town. In the years following the war, Jaeger occasionally returned to his multiple caches, digging them up, repacking, and reburying them. He finally retrieved the colllection
for good–2,000 transparencies, all of them, amazingly, still in good shape — and in 1965 sold them to LIFE.
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