Heinrich Hoffmann

Born 12 September 1885, Hoffmann rose as a photographer and publisher in Munich, eventually positioning himself at the center of Nazi power. He documented Hitler obsessively, choreographing the images that sold the party as a mass movement and Hitler as a messianic figure. The Reich paid royalties on every reproduction, and by the war's end he was a millionaire. He was also an art dealer and collector who looted extensively from Jewish families. In 1945 the Allies classified him a major offender in art plunder, tried him for war profiteering, and sentenced him to ten years. Released in 1950 after his sentence was cut to four, Hoffmann lived quietly until his death on 16 December 1957. A year before, Bavaria had returned the confiscated art to him.