The Nazi Magician Who Deceived the Whole World

[Music] he was one of Germany's leading and most dazzling entertainers on stage he made not only cast dis appear but also his entire past and the genial kalinag and glamorous Gloria preside over a show that is big entertainment new a master of deception as Helm he made a career for himself in the darkest chapter of German history and after 1945 he earned an international reputation as kalenak Helmut shba and kalinak two names one [Music] story right now from Europe we we have the world's greatest Illusionist t a figure from a Time long past when waitresses in Germany were still addressed as frine when no one had any idea what the word cholesterol meant and when very few homes had a TV set in those days music halls and theaters attracted thousands every evening and kalenak was their [Music] magnet he created a fantastic review which was perfectly in tune with the taste of the times sexy dancing girls music and magic tricks all presented breathtaking speed after 5 minutes you were already dizzy it was overwhelming in fact he himself said he first wanted to overwhelm his audience and make them [Music] [Applause] defenseless there was this fascination with speed kalag would stand there stop watching hand saying it's got to be faster even [Music] faster even today kalenak is seen as one of the greatest of his fraternity he's mentioned in the same breath as Harry H and David Copperfield kog didn't perform alone he always had an assistant or rather his wife Gloria defos to give her her full stage [Music] name he always reminds me a bit of hin aart the economic and the pow War period in a historical sense that moves [Music] me if at that time Germany had a sty with an international reputation then it was kalinak the Press sometimes wondered how of all places such an expensive show could come from Germany a country which not so long ago lay in Ruins there were rumors that kalinak was actually film producer Helmut shba who had been a big name during the Nazi regime and questions were asked as to where the money for the costy review was coming from kalak is kalak tor the world with a huge troop of up to 80 performers aircraft were chartered to transport the tons of baggage and props which even included live cheaters KAG didn't SC he spent throughout his life and this was probably his greatest trick he managed to conceal his past even from those closest to him when was ell when I saw that picture with Gloria on the one side kalinag on the other and Adolf Hitler in the middle my whole world fell apart it was something I'd never have [Music] expected we all know the turning points 1933 then the big Exodus when the intellectuals left along with the Jews and those seen as politically undesir we all know about the concentration camps and things like that as a rule we see all that from some distance but here we have a figure who experienced it all a unique source quite honestly he was an absolutely brilliant Seducer a magician a conjurer and an Entertainer there'll never be anyone like him if there is one thing kalenak cannot be accused of it's of not pursu uing his passion pictures of 13-year-old Helmut shriber his first appearances as a magician came during the first world war when he entertained soldiers who had been disabled in the early 1920s his father sent him from stutgart his hometown to study in Munich the capital of Bavaria a dazzling City and a cultural center for artists and intellectuals and shba was distracted after only three terms he broke took off his studies and instead appeared in cabaret shows where he had himself announced as Dr [Music] shriber in my presence he never introduced himself as Dr shriber but if someone addressed him as Dr shriber he never contradicted them but even with the title doctor in front of it shriber is still an everyday name not one to make people sit up and take notice so kalenak was born I think the name kalinag definitely suited him because kalag is a character in The Jungle Book and he wanted to embody a certain [Music] exoticism in 1921 Helmut shba founded the Munich local Association of the magic circle besides magic shria was also interested in the emerging medium of film he was drawn to the studios of emela the Munich Motion Picture company which was the predecessor of Bavaria he didn't start off in a position of any importance at first he just called himself a tripod carrier and made sure people got their [Music] coffee but gradually he proved his value he stood out he was also direct and had ideas at first he just appeared as an extra in films which although they were still silent already appealed to a large audience step by step he worked his way up and became a unit manager a position where all the threats of a production come together these early film photographs are a Priceless source and I too noticed that helmet shriber always gave the impression that it was all about him I'm fairly certain that had something to do with his craving for recognition he knew how to appear in front of an audience where he had to position himself to be noticed and where it wasn't a good idea to stand if I remember he often wore clothes that that stood out from what other people were wearing as a rule he chose light colored clothes he rarely wore anything dark these photographs by the way are also wonderful evidence of what Film Production teams looked like back then and that a large number of Jewish employees were involved he was a natural part of this branch of industry and an ongoing German Film Production scene which no one knows about today in Munich he had made the acquaintance of a film architect called Max H Broner the two were at least very close friends in other words it was perhaps evident that the two were also linked on a more private [Music] basis they moved to Berlin and continued to work together in the end they even set up their own production company but it never really made a name for itself then in 1933 the Nazis came to power and H Brer left the country in a [Music] hurry shba was delighted when the Nazis ceased power in the spring of 1933 helmet shriber traveled to Central and South America where he tried to make documentary films he flew there on board an Airship at the time of course this was an exclusive pleasure far beyond the pocket of the man in the [Music] street [Music] unlike his friend Max H Broner shriber could only observe political situation in Germany from a distance hbr being a Jew had to flee they were close friends but after hbr's flight they drifted apart because he accused shriber of having cheated him he alleged that shriber had claimed not only their Furniture but also their joint film company for himself when kalenak returned to Berlin in the summer of 1933 he found a very different Germany but he soon adapted Kalan was a man without conviction helmet shriber was a man without [Music] [Music] conviction best he had always had the best motorcycles and even competed in races in [Music] Germany he was a bon River and he lived life to the full he never missed out on anything he was addicted to life so somehow he had to make sure things stayed that [Music] way [Music] he played roles that were useful to him that were expected of him and helped him on his way up and he could be [Music] unscrupulous one thing was more important to him than anything the Nazis were enthralled he had this incredible Charisma not only on the stage but also and even more so on an ordinary level [Music] he was a member of the Nazi party and tried to build up his relations with its leading figures as head of production at the tobis film company shri's most senior Superior was minister of propaganda and president of the newly formed chamber of culture Joseph GBL in 1935 shriber performed his magic for GBL he'd never forgotten to beat the drum for the magic circle as an organization because ultimately it was his organization one which he had also used as a vehicle to advance his [Music] career in the new National Socialist Germany shria adopted a two-prong strategy as a magician and as a film producer in 1936 he became president of the magic circle which from then on was the only approved Association for magicians adopting the fura principle on a small scale he had himself addressed as my president back then the magic circle was also brought into line Jews were excluded and music written by Jewish composers was banned he sold out the organization to the Nazis in order to be at the top ahead of the its membership plummeted from 1,373 to 400 another of shri's aims was to clean up magic sexual inuendos were now taboo he wanted prude entertainment artists with names that sounded foreign were also unacceptable even if that was to his own detriment at all events during those years nothing was heard of kalenak but Helmut shriber the magician was ever present he even managed to get the nazist to see his magic as culture and give it their approval that was a sensation of course but it was something he had achieved if he hadn't they would have banned magic because it was something they couldn't really control the art of magic with the stress on Art shriber performed several times at the Nazis great German art exhibitions in Munich even in the presence of Adolf Hitler shriber had long since become an important figure under the Nazi regime and in his main profession [Music] too tobis was an out andout sound film company which had only been founded with the emergence of talking pictures for a while it was the second biggest in Germany after EA as executive producer for many years shriber board joint responsibility for several films apparently he sometimes used his position to intervene and ensure that these films had the desired effect on [Music] audiences Roberton Bertram is a vly anti-semitic comedy garnished with all kinds of visual and textual stereotypes I would categorize this film as dangerous it must be seen as an attempt by the Tois company to get people in the right mood for anti-semitic pogs um [Music] anti there was another film The ruler with Emil jannings which fight Haren it must be said directed in a fairly sophisticated way that is still remarkable even today the film is full of Nazi ideology the common good before self-interest and so on it is patently obvious that shriber also had a major hand in its [Music] production 1939 saw the outbreak of the second World [Music] War [Music] in the meantime shba had returned to Munich to embark on a meteoric career with the Bavaria film company from 1942 he was head of production at Bavaria above him were only the right director of film and Minister Gobles who was ultimately responsible for film so he could hardly have got any higher in my opinion at some point Gobles realized that it was best if the company produced what we might describe today as low threshold entertainment modeled on the EA production the running Mountain the Bavaria company now produced many films with a Bavarian [Music] backdrop his was always the voice calling for even more simplification even more banality and even more show effects these were distraction product the war was getting steadily worse for the German people and more dramatic this made it all the more important to avoid showing heavy political material in cinemas so instead what I would honestly describe as the most stupid films imaginable were screened art as a weapon magic was also placed in the service of the [Music] war [Music] [Laughter] as president of the magic circle shria sent a whole host of magicians to entertain the troops in December 1943 together with arman's Minister Albert Shier he traveled personally to the front in Norway and Finland it was his contribution to bearing up with best wishes for [Music] 1944 kak sees the moments he was at the Zenith of his career in the early 40s through the direct involvement of Hitler's private secretary Martin Borman shriber had moved into the exclusive munic suburb of haking he took up residence in a villa which quote unquote was in keeping with his status in the cellar shriber created a shrine to Magic it gives us a deep insight into into the magician mindset when guests came he showed it to them there was this famous picture with Adolf Hitler it pandered to his vanity because shriber was anything but modest shriber was a frequent guest on the obal in June 1944 he attended the wedding of EA Brown's sister Margarita and Harmon feline shba belonged to the Nazi Elites innermost Circle the nup chills at the backhoff lasted 3 days while German cities were being devastated in bombing raids and the Allies were about to land in Normandy less than a year later in May 1945 the war was [Music] over while the US Army was still searching the ruins of the backhoff shriber was staying in Munich in a radio program he was described as a top Nazi and the guring of magicians thus shriber came to the attention of The Americans within the framework of their denazification program they were looking for high ranking supporters of the Nazi regime shba was summoned for questioning what Nazi organizations did you join M hair what's been your source of income M fra did you fight the Nazis if so how the job was tough and the Germans cynical they had uh in the dentification interviews it seems shriber lied through his teeth and he disposed of evidence even those pages in his diary describing his last stay on the obaz albar are missing He Slipped smoothly from one Persona into another he even told someone he'd been in the resistance reason shba presented himself as an opponent of the regime and Justified his behavior under national socialism in the opinion of the Allies the Nazi regime was a terrorist system whose biggest opponents were repeatedly forced to disguise themselves but the Americans who had occupied Bavaria weren't deceived shba was blacklisted and banned from working in the US [Music] zone so he High tailed it to Hamburg where the British were the occupying power and where he hoped to be assessed a little more benevolently in Hamburg shriber offered to entertain British troops he succeeded in wrapping them around his little finger he was able to get established and create a review practically out of nothing so where did the money to finance it come from Good Question other magicians at the time had to work with any props they could Salvage but he was soon putting on a show the first performances took place in the municipal Playhouse which the British had renamed the Garrison [Music] theater what would the former president of the magic circle have said about this poster but shriber didn't yet want to risk coming out from undercover neither his name nor his face appears on the poster he gave perform is not only for British troops but also for German audiences after several weeks though the name kalinak suddenly appeared kalinak the master of magic and [Music] mystery z z Zim it's me again a transformation a comeback Zim was also the motto for zero hour he had this Keen Instinct the postwar generation needed a new figure they thought was great and he found the right paternal [Music] touch [Music] Gloria was really beautiful I could see that even as an 8-year-old she was friendly with my [Music] mother Gloria appeared on the stage in 1947 she had reinvented herself just as kalinak had done the two had got married in 1941 Adolf Hitler sent a personal note of congratulations in effect he had shaped her appearance and how she performed on stage but she was of course also a willing [Music] pupil she was a brunette but at some point she became a blonde shriber also showed his imagination in giving her a stage name Anala F became Gloria [Music] def on stage they addressed each other formally this actually underlined her major role in the show because for him too she was almost like some star from outside and that elevated her position even a bit [Music] more she appeared first on stage wearing a Dior dress even in those days it seems it was highly important to be the height of fashion and look almost [Music] celestial she was more than just his assistant she was an artist in her own right at the time this was not something to be taken for granted much of the review's success was due to GL kak and Gloria their names really had to be said in the same breath the review also played with contrasts on the one hand the beautiful Gloria and on the other kalinag the mature [Music] man these those exotic worlds after the war Germany lay in Ruins so people needed fantasies to help them through the grimness of daily life and kalag knew exactly how to do [Music] that [Applause] he had picked up a lot in America of course he had seen how they stag reviews he stored this knowledge and brought it back to prud Germany he skillfully wo in what he had learned to make his review more exciting I remember seeing the program it was full of adverts it was the time of the economic Miracle with many new products for men and women that needed [Music] marketing consumption was the new king and kenak was a master of [Music] marketing yeah you're too right here is [Music] AO V absolute kalag gave everyone a name whatever occurred to him usually a make of a car like [Music] Renault KAG rarely turned anything down he advertised razors cigarettes cars and stockings worldwide he was the magician while in Germany the remaining rubble from the war was being cleared kalenak was already traveling the world from Brazil to South Africa with a troop of 80 [Music] performers there is no way the entrance money and the income from advertising would ever have been enough to transport his troop around the world to transp I have no idea if he had gold bars stashed away or if he was as poor as a church [Music] mouse but I do know that when he started with his show it cost a small fortune after all there was nothing readily available no props no costumes absolutely nothing so I have no idea where the money came from there was a rumor that he could only afford it because in some way or other he had managed to get a share of the Nazi gold in a secret operation in Spring 1945 the r National Bank had moved some of its foreign currency and go reserves from Berlin to Bavaria at the end of the war some high-ranking SS officers who had been involved used used shriber as an intermediary with the US Army they demanded free passage in exchange for gold and that can be proved he really did help to hand several sacks full of foreign currency over to the Americans the big question is did he pocket anything for [Music] himself there was this one leak situation where the account I had access to was totally empty so he got in touch with someone and all of a sudden our finances were in order again I have no idea where the money came from just ha come kind in [Music] a kalag never talked about the past he was very secretive although he was normally quite communicative he never mentioned this particular time he was a very mistrustful person I can't say whether this was because he had experienced so much disappointment in his life or because he knew how to create disappointment since he had done that himself I have no idea but I can say that at the time it was of absolutely no interest to me it is only many years later as an old woman that you Ponder on things which happened way back in the past what says a lot more about him is the way he behaved to towards those closest to him like his two daughters both of whom were called brigita they were born 20 years apart the first out of wedlock in the early 1920s the other in his marriage to Gloria there was no real warmth there more like cold professionalism and I feel that says a lot more about him just like the fact that both daughters were called brigita at the end of the day that is a very strange trick it's as if by naming his second daughter brig he could make the first illegitimate daughter [Music] disappear also when occasionally if he felt it was better or more diplomatic to express something in a different way he would change what he had in mind and he would do that again when he repeated by the third time he said it it had become so much a part of him that he had absolutely no idea that what he was saying no longer corresponded to the [Music] fact when someone has carefully kept so many photographs even those from the 1920s it's clear how much they must have [Music] meant I think he tried to control the image the public had of him a historian confronted with this archive would certainly be able to tell a different story from the one helmet shriber told in his autobiography he always came out of things looking good and was off the hook or he was the king no one is ever going to invent something about himself which shows him in a very poor light for he stood for something he stood for this new wealth thisa and also a certain self-confidence [Music] in his Villa in Hamburg kalenak had Leed windows installed in Neo Gothic style with autobiographical [Music] elements my mother took me along to the villa and I sat in the garden the garden was lovely so was the villa Gloria had this big cat I think it was a cheater anyway it was a spotted big cat she used in her performances in the garden it ran around in circles the animal was somehow unbalanced Gloria and kenak were a glamour couple of the 1950s masters of self-presentation while simbo the cheatah gave the press a lot to write about the cheetah was already impressive on the stage but it was even more impressive when she entered a Munich restaurant with it as head of the review troop shba ran a tight ship with a fixed [Music] hierarchy there was a special kalag pin that was awarded for particular loyalty and Merit and we of course were presented with one it was so beautiful and we really felt honored to receive it from him if someone made a really big G they could well be torn apart on stage humiliated and perhaps even told to give back the pin on the other hand he could also be kind and affectionate one member of The Troop told me what an impact he made on her it was she said as if he had grabbed her soul he understood her right from the [Music] start he had lots of Affairs and his wife Gloria knew about [Music] them he was a patriarch of dubious conduct much to Glorious disappointment the review was full of attractive dancing girls which didn't exactly please her of course at some point perhaps she simply became too [Music] good Gloria became more and more emancipated she earned money through advertising and wrote the lyrics of will'll Never part a pop song for Heidi [Music] Bru after their divorce it was important to him to get hold of all the props used in their tricks he was worried that she might perform them herself which was the last thing in the world he wanted [Music] then he started to reorientate himself on a private level he brought in a new assistant she was called Anita Schmid it was an ordinary name so he gave her the stage name Angela Ferrari of course she was a lot younger she was attract active but I don't think she could have brought to the job what Gloria [Music] had television was becoming more and more of a competitor for the big reviews and magic shows television was the new medium it simply appealed to people more than live shows they were becoming less popular I think that really got to him the review got smaller and smaller it no longer included ballet and there were no more dance routines the huge opal capit used to be on stage gave way to a little veser and what did kalinak do instead of accepting defeat he tried to conquer the new medium and soon an opportunity arose Conrad Adena wasn't really happy with the existing German TV channel aired by the Ard the association of public broadcasting corporations because he felt it was too critical he wanted to set up a second conservative State Control television channel the free television company was then formed as private television which would also include [Music] commercials that takes some swallowing adena's government at the time actually had Nazis in all kinds of position and he wanted to make shriber head of entertainment programming on Germany's first privately financed TV channel was back cak was taking a breather he produced several serious and then implemented his concept of [Applause] entertainment it was a brief foray into television he simply rehashed too many old K performances lucky [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] day oh [Music] not exactly breathtaking but there was one interesting program the boundaries of knowledge focused on paranormal phenomena water divers and such like appeared on the show and were then assessed by a panel of experts Dr the par Dr theist but adona television as it was known never went on air the project actually failed because it was unconstitutional it was blocked by the federal constitutional Court it was in 1961 if I remember a year later Germany's Channel 2 was established after the Flop with television shba basically retired together with a few remaining dancers and colleagues he settled in FB in southern Germany in the region where he had grown up major appearances were now a thing of the past but he still practiced magic in the cafe run by his cousin margarita zidel it was simply hard to get bookings we did a few minor appearances and also lived in [Music] hotel in the end at some point his soul had lost its Radiance I personally thought it was a horrible little place there was nothing there with no prospects in sight even the last stalwarts left him including Angela Ferrari what was there to do apart from tidy the [Music] [Music] garage [Music] on Christmas Day the phone rang we were still living with our mother it was Marita her voice was as cold as ice I just wanted to tell you she said that KAG has died and his death is all your fault that was terrible news terrible for all of us even today I still can't my blood runs cold when I think of those words we never attended his funeral she hadn't informed [Music] us Helmut shriber died of a heart attack in September 1963 he was 60 years old a few months later thousands of kilometers away on the west coast of America his former friend and companion Hal brona also passed away after fleeing Germany he had never again secured a professional foothold and spent the last years of his life as a warehouse clerk from the Vima Republic to national socialism and the Arawa era hm shba Alias kalenak had survived many salian phases of 20th century German history and in doing so he had changed his identity time under again he was a gifted Quick Change artist a master of deception but at what [Music] price did helmet shriber really have any morals is that an area of human sensibility I might ask almost heretically to which he had any access I certainly have my doubts kalag was someone who tried as far as possible to worm his way through his [Music] career but if you do that throughout your life privately some things of course are bound to go wrong he was simply corrupt a corrupt Rogue who had all the answers yeah it was to be skap no kalag was someone who showed that Zero Hour was actually the biggest illusion of German 20th century history there never was a zero hour people were still the same ultimately the idea of everything being reset to zero of people being able to start AR fresh is a huge magic [Music] trick [Music] oh

Channel: DW History and Culture

Views: 184,233

Keywords: DW, Deutsche Welle, nazi germany, adolf hitler, history documentary, full documentary history, history channel documentary full episodes, world war ii stories, deutsche welle english

Id: ym4hGoxww_M

Length: 52min 9sec (3129 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 26 2023