AJ

It required showmanship.

Erik Jan Hannesen was a con man.

He reinvented himself as a Danish nobleman with psychic powers.

But Hannesen understood something most magicians didn't.

Power isn't about predicting the future.

It's about making people believe that you can.

Hanneson stood in front of a mirror with Hitler, correcting his posture.

He taught the future dictator how to turn a trembling hand into a fist, how to turn a whisper into a roar.

Hitler was a mediocre speaker.

Hanneson turned him into a force of nature.

But Hanneson's greatest gift was prophecy itself.

In February 1933, Hanneson hosted an exclusive event at his Palace of the Occult.

He entered a trance and spoke a prophecy.

Five days later, the Reichstag building burned and Hitler seized power.

But Hannesen knew too much.

Three weeks later, his body was found in a field, three bullets in the back of the head.

With Hannesen gone, Josef Goebbels stepped in.

As minister of propaganda, Goebbels continued the Hitler prophecy.

On January 30th, 1939, Hitler addressed the Reichstag.

Goebbels wrote the speech.