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 af…