Listen To The Only Known Recording Of Hitler’s Normal Speaking Voice

In more than 5,000 of his speeches, Adolf Hitler dazzled audiences with his famously powerful and hysterical speaking style. The Führer’s voice and presence is universally described by his biographers as spellbinding, mesmerizing, and charismatic.

Above all, the Nazi leader’s booming voice is associated with his famous oratory. But Hitler’s normal speaking voice remained largely unknown outside of his innermost circle.

In 1942, a Finnish sound engineer recorded 11 minutes of an informal conversation between Adolf Hitler and Gustaf Mannerheim, commander-in-chief of the Finnish Defence Forces. To this day, it remains the only known recording of Hitler’s normal speaking voice.

Hitler visited Finland on June 4, 1942, to congratulate Mannerheim on his 75th birthday. Thor Damen, a sound engineer at the Finnish broadcasting company YLE, managed to record the first 11 minutes of Hitler and Mannerheim’s private conversation. Because Hitler never allowed his informal persona to be recorded, this had to be done in secret. The microphones in the railway cars had been added by Damen to record the speeches for Mannerheim’s birthday, but Mannerheim and Hitler chose a car without one. By acting quickly, Damen managed to push a microphone through one of the car’s windows near where Hitler and Mannerheim were sitting, and began the forbidden recording.

Only known recording (?) of #Hitler speaking conversationally '42. #WWII https://t.co/srUa8CddDf Via Daily Mail pic.twitter.com/bBXafYvpGO

— JF Ptak ???? (@ptak) January 3, 2016

Chillingly, the Schutzstaffel (SS) caught on to Damen when they saw the microphone’s cords coming through the window, and the recording was nearly lost, as War History Online notes.

“The SS realized that Damen was recording the conversation, and they immediately demanded to have it stopped. The SS were furious, but Yle was allowed to keep the tape hidden away, never to be opened. The tape was given to head of the state censors’ office, Kustaa Vilkuna, returned to Yle in 1957, and made publicly available a few years later.”

The audio of the recording reveals what Hitler sounded like speaking informally, in private, without raising his voice. The “normal” voice of the fascist politician is best described as deep and soft, instead of loud and brash as one would expect upon hearing his public speeches.

In the recording, the candid conversation between Hitler and Mannerheim covers a variety of topics, including the failure of Operation Barbarossa, Soviet tank production and armaments, the invasion of France, Italian defeats in North Africa and the Balkans (including Yugoslavia, Greece, and Albania), and the strategic value of Romanian petroleum wells. He also speaks of German war strategy during the war and leading up to the war, and of his meetings with Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov.

The only known recording of Hitler's normal speaking voice https://t.co/3KlwQnEY7Z pic.twitter.com/5lcen8K2VP

— eSmartMe (@esmartme) December 13, 2015

Hitler expresses shock that the Soviet Union managed to produce 35,000 tanks in the first year of the war. He expresses his disillusionment with the failure of the attack on Moscow, saying they had no idea how heavily armed the USSR was before attacking. Though, Hitler is quick to add that he would have made the decision to invade anyway, because “there was no other possibility.”

Business Insider quotes a report by American psychologist Henry Murray entitled “The Personality of Adolf Hitler” in describing his appearance and mannerisms.

“According to Murray’s report, Hitler received frequent compliments on his grayish-blue eyes, even though they were described as ‘dead, impersonal, and unseeing.’ Der Führer was slightly below average in height and had a receding hairline, thin lips, and well-shaped hands. Murray notes that the merciless Nazi leader was known to offer a weak handshake with ‘moist and clammy’ palms, and was awkward at making small talk.”

Murray’s report was commissioned in 1943 by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA.

When the Hitler-Mannerheim tape was initially released, many people reportedly thought it was fake because they couldn’t believe Hitler’s voice would be so soft.

[Photo by Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images]