Word: hanfstaengls
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Born in Munich, the son of a wealthy art dealer, "Putzy," as he was known, graduated with the Harvard Class of 1909. During his years here, Hanfstaengl held down a seat in the varsity eight boat, led cheers at football games and joined Hasty Pudding...
...Hanfstaengl became famous as Hitler's piano player, the U.S. went to war with Germany, and the offer of a German traveling scholarship to commemorate "Putzy" was never accepted. Indeed, an offer by another by another Harvard grad, Paul Mellon, who was careful to point out that he had not ties to the Nazis and didn't embrace their creed, to replace the scholarship with an exact duplicate funded by him was also rejected by the University...
...Hanfstaengl returned to Cambridge for the 60th reunion of his class in 1969, and again in 1974 for the 65th...
...traveling Harvard man, wandering by a little apartment on Berlin's Thierschastrasse during the early 1930s might have heard a tune to warm his heart. Inside, in the apartment of Adolf Hitler, Ernst Hanfstaengl would sit at the piano and hammer out the melody of "Harvardiana." But the passer-by might wonder at the lyrics; To honor der Fuehrer, Hanfy had changed the words a bit. Instead of the traditional repeating "Harvard" chorus, Hanfstaengl would bellow out "Sieg Heil" again and again...
That's the kind of man Hanfstaengl was, a strange mix of Harvard old boy, genial party host and amateur politico...