Putzi Hanfstaengl to Attend 50th Reunion With Rejected $1000 Gift

When Ernst Franz Sedgwick Hanfstaengl '09 returns to Cambridge for his class' 50th reunion this June he will offer the University the $1000 it refused to accept in 1934. At that time Hanfstaengl was Adolph Hitler's foreign press agent.

Putzi, as the piano-playing Hanfstaengl was called, had been a supporter of Hitler from before the 1923 putsch and became the Fuehrer's "court jester" until he fled Germany in 1937.

The Corporation refused to accept a $1000 check he offered upon his 25th reunion in 1934 to establish a scholarship for a student to study in Germany.

Honorary Degree Suggested

Hanfstaengl's visit to the University at that time was charged with controversy following a CRIMSON editorial entitled "Render Unto Caesar," suggesting that, since "he has risen to distinguished station," it would be appropriate to award him an honorary degree.

Readers' comments on both sides were vitriolic. "You should not have tried to bribe her as you did, Master Fascist," two students proclaimed, while another began, "In spite of the sinister machinations of a number of self-styled groups which continue to slander Ernst Hanfstaengl...."

"But this time it will be different," Hanfstaengl declares. "I expect to have a swell time, and get a warm welcome. Why not? I'm as anti-Nazi now as they come."