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A day at the opera with Hitler: the secret agent who captured rare moments for MI5
Son releases unique record of Nazis at leisure on the eve of the second world war
They shared a love of Richard Wagner and were regulars at the annual Bayreuth festival held to celebrate the German composer's works. But although Adolf Hitler took Charles Turner for just another camera-toting opera lover, he was in fact a British secret agent.
Yesterday, the photographs that Turner took of the Führer on a summer's day in 1939 were made public for the first time. Dressed in a cream overcoat and a fedora and carrying white gloves, Hitler is pictured leaving a performance. In another image, he is wearing a white tie and carries a ticket while flanked by his SS bodyguard. A third black-and-white snap shows him
being presented with a bouquet by two girls.
A few weeks later, Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland, prompting war to be declared on September 3 1939. It is believed that Mr Turner was one of the last Britons to speak face to face with the Nazi dictator before the outbreak of the conflict. The record of what words passed between the two men is locked away in the vaults of MI5, deemed too sensitive to be declassified. The Home Office has said the document may never be made public.
The German-speaking Turner, from Nottinghamshire, had been granted unprecedented access to the Führer and his entourage, which included Joseph Goebbels and Rudolf Hess. The photographer was hosted by the chairman of the Bayreuth chamber of commerce, who was a member of Hitler's inner circle - as was British-born Winifred Wagner, the composer's widow.
This week, Turner's son David, 64, made the photographs available to his local newspaper, the Nottingham Evening Post. In an interview he explained: "I have never
seen that report [on the meeting] and father never spoke about it. He was very leftwing, but he was as obedient to the Official Secrets Act as any rightwing patriot. He held vehement anti-Nazi views."
He went on: "The miraculous happened. My father was invited to join Hitler's entourage for the day, Wednesday July 26. He was given carte blanche permission to photograph the Führer."
Mr Turner said he decided to release the photos as he embarked on a project to retrace his family's roots. "They have been special in a sentimental way in the way many people have memorabilia which are priceless to them.
"They are very, very important to me and my family and for all this period of time - my father died in 1977 - I have regarded the possession of these photos as an intimate family matter," he said.
"My father never spoke to me about it ... That's not to say I didn't know what happened but as a child your perception and awareness of things are very different. The photos were not avai
lable to me until after my father's death. I think they are remarkable, given that he was using a Kodak Eastman folding autographic camera."
Charles Turner's life changed when his father died and the Duke of Newcastle became his guardian, giving the boy a public school education. He studied at Cambridge and earned a reputation as a composer. In 1934 he made the first of a series of annual visits to the Wagner festival in Bayreuth.
Hitler was there on each occasion. In 1938, convinced war was imminent, Alan Angles, a friend of Turner, was asked by a member of the intelligence services to set up a unit to examine the German threat. Turner was employed and his 1939 festival trip allowed him to furnish MI5 with a record of the Führer at leisure.
Turner's son says his father spent a lot of time working in Moscow after the war. He told the Nottingham Evening Post: "One day in the 1960s he put me in a taxi and we spent the whole day going round a Moscow housing estate searching for Kim Philb
y. I have to assume my father was still involved in the intelligence service."
The influence of Wagner on Hitler has remained a topic for scholarly debate. Records recall the Führer talking enthusiastically about the composer's music but rarely about his political ideas. Wagner wrote an anti-semitic polemic called Judaism in Music in which he said: "The Jew, who is innately incapable of enouncing himself to us artistically through either his outward appearance or his speech, and least of all through his singing, has nevertheless been able in the widest-spread of modern art-varieties, to wit in Music, to reach the rulership of public taste."
Son releases unique record of Nazis at leisure on the eve of the second world war
They shared a love of Richard Wagner and were regulars at the annual Bayreuth festival held to celebrate the German composer's works. But although Adolf Hitler took Charles Turner for just another camera-toting opera lover, he was in fact a British secret agent.
Yesterday, the photographs that Turner took of the Führer on a summer's day in 1939 were made public for the first time. Dressed in a cream overcoat and a fedora and carrying white gloves, Hitler is pictured leaving a performance. In another image, he is wearing a white tie and carries a ticket while flanked by his SS bodyguard. A third black-and-white snap shows him
being presented with a bouquet by two girls.
A few weeks later, Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland, prompting war to be declared on September 3 1939. It is believed that Mr Turner was one of the last Britons to speak face to face with the Nazi dictator before the outbreak of the conflict. The record of what words passed between the two men is locked away in the vaults of MI5, deemed too sensitive to be declassified. The Home Office has said the document may never be made public.
The German-speaking Turner, from Nottinghamshire, had been granted unprecedented access to the Führer and his entourage, which included Joseph Goebbels and Rudolf Hess. The photographer was hosted by the chairman of the Bayreuth chamber of commerce, who was a member of Hitler's inner circle - as was British-born Winifred Wagner, the composer's widow.
This week, Turner's son David, 64, made the photographs available to his local newspaper, the Nottingham Evening Post. In an interview he explained: "I have never
seen that report [on the meeting] and father never spoke about it. He was very leftwing, but he was as obedient to the Official Secrets Act as any rightwing patriot. He held vehement anti-Nazi views."
He went on: "The miraculous happened. My father was invited to join Hitler's entourage for the day, Wednesday July 26. He was given carte blanche permission to photograph the Führer."
Mr Turner said he decided to release the photos as he embarked on a project to retrace his family's roots. "They have been special in a sentimental way in the way many people have memorabilia which are priceless to them.
"They are very, very important to me and my family and for all this period of time - my father died in 1977 - I have regarded the possession of these photos as an intimate family matter," he said.
"My father never spoke to me about it ... That's not to say I didn't know what happened but as a child your perception and awareness of things are very different. The photos were not avai
lable to me until after my father's death. I think they are remarkable, given that he was using a Kodak Eastman folding autographic camera."
Charles Turner's life changed when his father died and the Duke of Newcastle became his guardian, giving the boy a public school education. He studied at Cambridge and earned a reputation as a composer. In 1934 he made the first of a series of annual visits to the Wagner festival in Bayreuth.
Hitler was there on each occasion. In 1938, convinced war was imminent, Alan Angles, a friend of Turner, was asked by a member of the intelligence services to set up a unit to examine the German threat. Turner was employed and his 1939 festival trip allowed him to furnish MI5 with a record of the Führer at leisure.
Turner's son says his father spent a lot of time working in Moscow after the war. He told the Nottingham Evening Post: "One day in the 1960s he put me in a taxi and we spent the whole day going round a Moscow housing estate searching for Kim Philb
y. I have to assume my father was still involved in the intelligence service."
The influence of Wagner on Hitler has remained a topic for scholarly debate. Records recall the Führer talking enthusiastically about the composer's music but rarely about his political ideas. Wagner wrote an anti-semitic polemic called Judaism in Music in which he said: "The Jew, who is innately incapable of enouncing himself to us artistically through either his outward appearance or his speech, and least of all through his singing, has nevertheless been able in the widest-spread of modern art-varieties, to wit in Music, to reach the rulership of public taste."
