Hanfstaengl '09 Asks $16,150 Reparations

Describing himself as the victim of Nazi political persecution, Ernst (Putzi) Hanfstaengl '09, who once served as Hitler's foreign press agent, filed claims for compensation amounting to $16,150 in Munich yesterday.

Hanfstaengl said he was basing his claims on the debts he incurred while living in England and Switzerland during the war. He said that he had been forced to flee Germany when, following his discharge as foreign propagandist, the Nazis marked him for murder.

Now about 50 years old and living in Upper Bavaria, Hanfstaengl said he had "collaborated" with American diplomatic officials during the war and had been personally invited by the late President Roosevelt to help reconstruct the German press after the war.