HAMBURG: Adolf Hitler amassed a secret personal fortune which made him one of the wealthiest men in the 20th Century, according to newly unearthed documents and interviews with eyewitnesses.

He sweet-talked and strong-armed his way into people’s wills, coerced “donations” of real estate, jewellery and other valuables and helped himself to tax revenues while despotically waiving obligations to report his income to anybody, says the producer of the documentary.

The revelations contained in the documentary “Hitler’s Money”, to be aired on August 28 on Germany’s ARD public broadcasting network, are not entirely new. But producer Ingo Helm says the information has been compiled and brought together for the first time to show how Hitler’s greed for personal riches was as great as his yearning for unlimited power.

That quest for wealth started early, long before Hitler came to power in 1933. But, while Hitler never made any secret of his intention to rule Germany — he called it “providence” — he took pains to cover up the road that led him to riches, Helm says.

After the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler left prison in 1924 as a martyr to the Nazi cause, claiming he was a broken and financially broke man.

While cultivating his public image as a totalling vegetarian who dressed simply and shunned extravagance, Hitler was in fact fascinated by showy displays of wealth and surrounded himself with expensive things.

“He funnelled one billion reichsmarks into the renovation of his Berghof mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps, putting up a couple of million reichsmarks out of his own pocket,” Helm says.

“He spent a good 100 million reichsmarks on his art collection alone,” says Helm.

He was particularly fond of real estate, amassing property from sycophantic hangers-on as well as buying it — or simply seizing it.

In many cases, he was named the beneficiary of people’s fortunes.—dpa