Walter C. Langer

Walter Charles Langer (February 5 1899 – July 4 1981) was a Cambridge, Massachusetts psychoanalyst best known for his role in preparing a psychological analysis of Adolf Hitler that predicted his suicide.

Born in South Boston, Walter Langer was the son of recent immigrants from Germany. His older brother William became the history department chair at Harvard University who took a leave of absence during World War II to serve as head of the Research and Analysis section of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Commissioned by OSS boss, William "Wild Bill" Donovan, in 1943 Walter Langer helped complete the Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler, in collaboration with Professor Henry A. Murray, Director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic, Dr. Ernst Kris, New School for Social Research, and Dr. Bertram D. Lawin, New York Psychoanalytic Institute.

The report used many sources to profile Hitler including a number of informants such as Ernst Hanfstaengl, Hermann Rauschning, Princess Stephanie von Hohenlohe, Gregor Strasser, Friedlinde Wagner, and Kurt Ludecke. The groundbreaking study was the pioneer of Offender profiling and political psychology, today commonly used by many countries as part of assessing international relations.

In addition to predicting that if defeat for Germany was near, Hitler would choose suicide, Dr. Langer's collaborative report and his book stated that Hitler was impotent as far as heterosexual relations were concerned and that there was a possibility that Hitler had participated in a homosexual relationship. The 1943 report stated that: "The belief that Hitler is homosexual has probably developed (a) from the fact that he does show so many feminine characteristics, and (b) from the fact that there were so many homosexuals in the Party during the early days and many continue to occupy important positions. It is probably true that Hitler calls Foerster "Bubi", which is a common nickname employed by homosexuals in addressing their partners."

Based on that study, in 1972, Basic Books of New York City published The Mind of Adolf Hitler ( the secret wartime report) by Walter Langer with the Foreword by William L. Langer and an Afterword by Robert G. L. Waite. According to that book not only was Adolf Hitler supported by the Rothschilds, he was a Rothschild. On pages 111-113 Langer writes: "Adolf's father, Alois Hitler, was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. It is generally supposed that the father of Alois Hitler was a Johann Georg Hiedler, a miller's assistant. Alois, however, was not legitimized, and he bore his mother's name until he was forty years of age when he changed it to Hitler. // There are some people who seriously doubt that Johann Georg Hiedler was the father of Alois. Thyssen and Koehler, for example, claim that Chancellor Dollfuss had ordered the Austrian police to conduct a thorough investigation into the Hitler family. As a result of this investigation a secret document was prepared that proved that Maria Anna Schicklgruber was living in Vienna at the time she conceived. At that time she was employed as a servant in the home of Baron Rothschild. As soon as the family discovered her pregnancy she was sent back to her home in Spital where Alois was born. If it is true that one of the Rothschilds is the real father of Alois Hitler, it would make Adolf a quarter Jew. According to these sources, Adolf Hitler knew of the existence of this document and the incriminating evidence it contained. In order to obtain it he precipitated events in Austria and initiated the assassination of Dollfuss. According to this story, he failed to obtain the document at that time since Dollfuss had secreted it and had told Schuschnigg of its whereabouts so that in the event of his death the independence of Austria would remain assured.” Langer's information came from the high level Gestapo officer, Hansjurgen Koehler. In 1940, Koehler published a book under the title "Inside the Gestapo. Hitler's Shadows over the World.” (Pallas Publ. Co., Ltd. London, 1940). He writes about the investigations into Hitler's background carried out by the Austrian Chancellor, Dolfuss, in the family files of Hitler. Koehler actually viewed a copy of the Dolfuss documents which were given to him by Heydrich, the overlord of the Nazi Secret Service. The file, he wrote, "caused such havoc as no file in the world ever caused before" (Inside the Gestapo, p 143).

Retired to Florida, Walter Langer died in Sarasota in 1981, aged 82.

Books by Walter C. Langer

 * The Mind of Adolf Hitler (1972) ISBN 0-465-04620-7
 * Psychology & Human Living (1945) ISBN 0-89197-517-9