The Only Secret Recording of Hitler's Normal Voice | The Hitler-Mannerheim Recording

during his lifetime but also in studies afterwards hitler has been revered for his ability to enchant crowds with his voice the dictator realized more than anyone at the time the power over well-staged speech both to excite and to intimidate because over 500 speeches of which audio and video footage has been preserved we really only know the way of speaking of hitler in its most dramatic form it may come as a surprise but it's not something you generally think about when thinking of the rise of hitler or the second world war in general but we only have recordings of hitler giving speeches to massive crowds and sure he managed to captivate and enchant those crowds with his signature raspy voice and dramatic way of speaking i mean he basically perfected demagoguery and from photographs and documentation we know he prepared his speeches into their minute detail he didn't just rehearse the content of his speeches but actually practiced and prepared the intonation of every word he uttered photographs were commissioned in fact to examine certain poses in body language and to see if they were imposing enough to present to crowds he even took acting lessons everything to perfect his charisma and rhetoric hitler himself was aware of his rhetorical skill stating that he was conscious that he had no equal in the art of swaying the masses and hitler's rise to power was made possible in part by an unprecedented propaganda campaign although admittedly there has been some academic debate that disputes the effects of hitler's speeches on the electoral successes of the nazi party at any rate the speeches made by hitler were a sight to behold and engrained in the minds of anyone that witnessed them even today but what's so odd is that not one recording of hitler's natural voice has been preserved we don't know what hitler sounded like when speaking with another person with his fellow party members with his generals or even with eva brown this secrecy isn't too odd though if you imagine his desire to control everything and fear for having candid statements leaked hitler never allowed to be photographed if it wasn't in an official setting let alone be recorded off guard and as such no official recording of hitler's private voice exists and we will never know what he sounded like well we wouldn't know if it wasn't for the 75th birthday of finnish commander-in-chief called gustav emil monerheim and a somewhat nosy snooping finnish sound engineer because in june 1942 hitler visited monarheim a surprise visit for his birthday in order to prevent hitler's visit from seeming like an official state visit the meeting was held in a train at imaltra in southern finland during hitler's visit tor dahman a radio engineer of the finnish eli israelia or wyali the national broadcast station of finland was supposed to record the official proceedings of the birthday speeches by hitler and monarhan's response in the train wagon but after the official speeches were over hitler monarchy and their entourage went to the adjacent wagon to have lunch unbeknownst to everyone present diamond kept the recording running it led to a unique historical record according to the head of the allies radio archives los of iron diamond placed the microphone on the head wreck the chords dwindled from the window and the recorder was in the other wagon this so-called mannerheim recording contains five minutes of the official speech followed by 11 minutes of more or less monologue by hitler in a private candid unguarded conversation with monahan the conversation was mainly about the axis war effort is uh for several minutes hitler spoke of the enormous amount of tanks and military planes of the soviet union that germany desperately tried to destroy after all the tide of operation barbarossa was by this point slowly turning against germany hitler tried to persuade the finns to launch more military offensives against the soviet union he explained that the german panzers and wehrmacht weren't prepared to fight during the harsh russian winters president get is is other topics included the defeat axis ally italy suffered in africa yugoslavia and albania but people that studied the tape have also noted that hitler uses for lack of a better word working class language revealing his lack of academic or formal background [Music] um according to legend lit a cigar during the conversation to test the waters now i want to give a disclaimer with this claim because virtually every prominent statesman supposedly has done the same when testing the waters another famous anecdote for example is about bismarck lighting a cigar near the austrian ambassador so this may not be true hitler was known to hate smoking and didn't allow anyone to do so in his presence but the story goes that when monahan lit the cigar he didn't say anything so this supposedly confirmed to monarchy the germans were in a terrible place military-wise they weren't too wrong though just half a year after this conversation general paulus surrendered at stalingrad an incredible loss for the germans hitler's voice is low-pitched a little bit hoarse but if i'd have to judge the tape completely unbiased i'd say it's actually pretty easy to listen to hitler's voices in an odd way pretty calming and deep it is certainly quite the contrast to his dramatic intense public speeches where both hitler and his public seem to fall into a trance it wasn't until 11 minutes of private conversation that ss bodyguards realized he was being recorded they signaled damon to end the recording which explains the abrupt ending in the middle of a sentence where hitler describes why it's so difficult for germany to help finland with her front against the soviet union foreign the ss guards ordered the wyali to destroy the tape which they promised they would do apparently diamond was threatened to be killed by the guards because many sources state that the guards made a cut for gesture when they realized he was recording but that's probably the most internationally recognized gesture to get someone to quit so i personally feel this is a bit out of context it's highly unlikely ssguards would instantly threaten someone's life anyway yly promised to destroy the rule yet in 1957 a real resurfaced the head of finland censor's office kushtav ilkuna owned it according to vihonun he returned the reel to yle which subsequently released it to the public unbeknownst to many a second copy existed in the possession of diamond it wasn't found until 1992 by his son henrik in his father's garage one tape currently resides in the allies radio archive and the other in the radio and tv museum in lottie somewhere i'd absolutely love to visit it is an extraordinary tape and although the contents of what are said are interesting it is interesting as well because it is the only known recording of adolf hitler speaking without raising his voice in a private conversation it's a very candid moment as for the visit itself in total hitler's visit to finland lasted no more than six hours after his rediscovery the tape caught the interest of not just historians actors use the tape to rehearse for their roles tobias moretti an austrian actor used it to portray hitler in a film about his friendship with albert speer and nearly everyone knows of bruno gunz's performance in their underground it is a legendary performance and guns mentioned he used the tape to mimic hitler's speaking and diction in a completely relaxed manner the entire recording is available online and i'll link it in the description if you want to listen to the whole thing thank you for watching this video if there's a topic or event you'd like to know more about let me know your thoughts in a comment i would also really like to thank all my patrons for their generous support if you enjoy a house of history and want to support my work consider checking me out on patreon for just one dollar a month you already gain access to the 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Channel: House of History

Views: 11,722,249

Keywords: House of History, history documentary, history, documentary, adolf hitler, hitler's normal voice, hitler's everyday voice, world war 2, winston churchill, carl gustaf emil mannerheim, waffen-ss, wehrmacht, secret audio tape, secret ww2 audio, secret ww2 footage, secret hitler recording, hitler-mannerheim recording

Id: WE6mnPmztoQ

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 29 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/TikiTemple]

As a German, i have heard this recording a few times. It is extremly eerie to hear him talk like a normal person. Like a neighbour. His Austrian accent is almost unnoticeable, his speech could easily pass as High German for someone not paying attention. Also, his choice of words, his pronunciation is almost modern. Not "old fashioned" as you would expect someone to talk in the 1930s or -40s. And to think that this is HIM. Having a random conversation. An i am sitting here, in Germany, listening to it on an American Website decades later... it is insane how history works.

[u/al_spaggiari]

“Revered” is an odd word choice.

[u/zhivago6]

I heard this years ago and it is incredible. The casual nature of the conversation really caught me off guard. I didn't image random people in the room would just jump in with comments during a conversation with Hitler. It also shows you the mindset of why the Germans, or at least the leadership, believed they could defeat Russia.

[u/Mojoe51]

If the SS guards caught the reporter recording then why didn't they seize the tape?

[u/alex6219]

Voice recording starts here

[u/poktanju]

Hitler, Gilbert Gottfried, and Stephanie Beatriz: three people who I've almost never heard speak in their "normal" voices.

[u/Persreik]

Mannerheim! Torille!