According, that is, to an anonymous French spy, who in 1924 wrote a confidential dossier about the man in question. Said file, reports Le Monde, has recently come to light in the bowels of the French National Archives. Stored away for decades in an iron safe, the now yellowing secret documents, handwritten and including a photo, outline the future Führer’s political agenda.
Described as a “German Mussolini” who’s “not an idiot . . .but a very cunning demagogue,” his occupation is listed as “journalist,” owing to his involvement with the party newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter. Both the place and date of his birth are incorrectly detailed as is his name, with a vanity-scaring nine years added onto his age and his identity given as “Adolphe Jacob” – this, it has been suggested, may be down to rumours claiming he had Jewish ancestry . . . .
