The journalist, Konrad Heiden, interviewed Hanisch in the 1920s. I myself was to sell the painted cards, we decided to work together and share the money we earned.' Hitler produced little copies of views of Vienna, which Hanisch sold in taverns and fairs. According to Hanisch he replied: 'I suggested to Hitler that it would be better to stay in an honest trade and paint postcards.

Hitler told him he was an artist and said that he could fake some old masters. Hanisch later recalled asking Hitler if he had skills he could use to make money. He offered to carry bags for passengers at the Westbahnhof, but his appearance probably did not win him many customers.' Hanisch took him off to shovel snow, but without an overcoat Hitler was in no condition to stick at it for long. The time was otherwise spent visiting public warming-rooms, or trying to earn a bit of money. Hitler, looking in a sorry state and in depressed mood, went in the mornings along with other destitutes to a nearby convent in Gumpendorfersrrafse where the nuns doled out soup. But during the day the inmates were turned out to fend for themselves. A bath or shower, disinfection of clothes, soup and bread, and a bed in the dormitory were provided. The hostel was a night-shelter offering short-term accommodation only. Ian Kershaw has pointed out in Hitler 1889-1936 (1998): 'He (Hanisch) encountered a miserable-looking Hitler, down at heel in a shabby blue check suit, tired, hungry, and with sore feet, in the hostel dormitory one late autumn night, shared sonic bread with him and told tales of Berlin to the young enthusiast for all things German. His clothes were being cleaned of lice, since for days he had been wandering about without a roof and in a terribly neglected condition.' The two men became friends and that winter spent time at a hostel for men at 27 Meldemannstrasse. 'On the very first day there sat next to the bed that had been allotted to me a man who had nothing on except an old torn pair of trousers - Hitler. He met Adolf Hitler on his first day at the refuge. In December 1909 he found a bed in a doss-house behind Meidling Station. After serving six months in prison he moved to Vienna.

In 1907 he was arrested for theft in Berlin. After leaving school in worked as a casual labourer. Reinhold Hanisch was born in Jablonec nad Nisou, northern Bohemia, on 27th January, 1884.

Konrad heiden