Hanussen, Erik Jan, born Hermann Steinschneider, 02-06-1889, in Vienna, 
Austria-Hungary, known as the “Magician of Berlin”. His father, Siegfried Steinschneider, had been an itinerant performer who travelled with his family until Hanussen’s mother’s early death. (Interestingly, Hanussen is related to Moritz Steinschneider, 
one of the important figures of the Wissenschaft des Judentums movement.) Hanussen’s father eventually settled in Ottakring, Vienna’s “criminal quarter.” In his teenage years, Hanussen began working in traveling circuses and variety shows and Vienna’s cabarets and theaters. He also wrote for newspapers, developing skills he would later use as a publisher. As a showman, Hanussen played many characters until finally adopting the identity of an aristocratic Scandinavian clairvoyant Erik Jan Hanussen.
Hanussen, growing up in a poor Viennese neighborhood and spending his teenage years with travelling shows and circuses, was exposed to the language and culture of “Jenischmänner” (“Yenish men”) part of a subculture of itinerant people who were often associated with dishonorable or criminal professions.
Hanussen rose to fame after World War I as he traveled through Central Europe and America performing as a clairvoyant. 
His fame peaked in the 1930s when he settled in Berlin. He headlined at numerous variety palaces and had a number of side ventures, like a sanitarium offering occult cures and a libido-enhancing hormonal cream. He offered private consultations for exorbitant fees. Although he had been born poor and had at times been homeless and penniless, he was now a wealthy man with luxury cars, multiple apartments, and even a yacht on which he would throw lavish, drug-fueled parties. He became connected with many wealthy and prominent people like Alfred Döblin, 
Peter Lorre, 
Thomas Mann, 
and Georg Kaiser. 
Through his connections and performances, he befriended a number of Nazi officials, many of whom attended parties on his yacht. In particular, he became close with the Nazi official, a German police official and politician, and resistanceman July 20. Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff.
Hanussen began publishing the BW, Wochenschau, 
in 1932. Its first run was only 8,000 copies, but it was so popular it increased to 38,000 and then 140,000 copies within a short period. At first, Hanussen’s weekly was a mix of occult news, entertainment listings, and some erotic headlines and graphics. Politics was dealt with only lightly and humorously. Through Hanussen’s connection with the Helldorff, he met Adolf Hitler for the first time in late June or early July of 1932. Shortly thereafter, the typeface of Hanussen’s weekly was changed to Fraktur, which was considered a more “Germanic” typeface and was preferred by the National Socialists 
at the time. The content also changed to more astrology and political analysis, including positive astrological analysis of Hitler.
In May 1932, when the National Socialist movement faced enormous financial difficulties, Hanussen was an important supporter. He helped pay off Helldorff’s gambling debts. He also helped pay off the debts of Wilhelm von Ohst, Clever Hans 
who had embezzled from the National Socialist lottery fund. Nazi officials like Hermann Göring 
and Ernst Julius Röhm 
turned to Hanussen for financial assistance. Hanussen even bought 400 military-style boots for the SA. 
Nazi officials attended his lavish parties on his yacht. It is rumored that Hanussen offered private consultations for some officials, including Hitler, and that he may have given Hitler oration lessons. By the end of 1932, the period when Hanussen was said to have made his connection with Hitler, the Nazi party had gained momentum.
During this time, Hanussen’s Jewish heritage had been an open secret. That, coupled with the numerous debts Nazi officials owed him, made him a growing liability to the party. Reports of his Jewish heritage were published by both left-wing and right-wing newspapers. (Incidentally, Helldorff had previously questioned Hanussen about why most of the BW staff was Jewish and why many of the performers and attendees at his parties were Jewish.) Hanussen’s most famous prediction came on 26-02-1933, when he held a séance in his Palace of the Occult 
and foresaw the Reichstag fire, 
The Reichstag Fire was a fire that occurred on 27-02-1933, in which the German Reichstag building in Berlin was largely destroyed. The Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe “Dempsey”
was arrested, prosecuted, and executed as the perpetrator, but historians still debate whether he actually started the fire and, if so, whether he acted alone or had help the event that would help Hilter and the Nazi party to take absolute control over Germany. A month later and less than a year after his first meeting with Hitler.
Death and burial ground of Hanussen, Erik Jan, born Hermann Steinschneider.
Hanussen was arrested and assassinated by the SA, on 25-03-1933 (age 43) in Berlin, Germany. He was assassinated with twelve shots, likely by members of the Sturmabteilung in an internal power struggle. Hanussen had perhaps become a victim of his own success. Erik Jan Hanussen is buried at the Südwestkirchhof Stahnsdorf, Stahnsdorf, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Brandenburg, Germany, Bahnhofstraße 2, 14532 Stahnsdorf, Germany. Section: Block Charlottenburg. Gartenblock III, Gartenstelle 50.
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