It was as if Dr Gruber had put him in a state of hypnosis, because against his better judgement, Steiner found himself opening up to the psychiatrist. He told him how he’d always suffered from anxiety – depression, indeed – and at times felt overwhelmed by it. He’d never experienced the manic episodes Dr Gruber had described, and he felt his moods were just something he had to live with. Early on in his life he’d found that if he kept busy, then he could cope. He’d studied hard as a student and made a successful career as a lawyer. He decided not to mention his political activities.

‘Are you and Friedrich very close?’

‘We are, yes. We only have each other.’

‘It seems to me, Herr Steiner – and this is hardly even a hypothesis yet – that your combined behaviour is a good example of manic depression: you suffer from the depressive side of that behaviour, while your son suffers from the manic side. I may be completely wrong about this – it’s just a thought – but I would be interested to have more sessions with both of you; together you present as fascinating subjects.’

Steiner replied that he really wasn’t sure about this; he was more interested in what could be done to help his son – to control his behaviour. He most certainly didn’t want to be analysed himself.

Dr Gruber replied that he needed to realise that his son suffered from a potentially serious psychiatric condition, one that could certainly not be cured by medication. He needed more sessions of analysis and then a course of therapy; perhaps a period in a residential clinic he often used in the Vienna Woods, one where discretion and privacy could be assured.

Wolfgang Steiner became quite angry at this point, bitterly regretting having revealed matters about himself to the psychiatrist. He told him his son was not that ill and he certainly didn’t need to be locked up. It wasn’t as if he was mad.

He ended the consultation and went to the secretary’s office to pay. As he prepared to leave, Dr Gruber came of out his room. ‘I apologise if I upset you in any way,’ he said. ‘It is often the case that patients, and their families in particular, find what psychiatrists have to say very difficult, sometimes too difficult.’

Steiner nodded. He continued to put on his gloves, anxious to leave.

‘However, Herr Steiner, as unpleasant as it is for you to hear this, I would be negligent if I didn’t tell you that I consider your son to be quite unwell. Unless he is treated, I think his tendency towards psychotic behaviour could escalate and have very serious consequences.’

After an uncertain start, Wolfgang Steiner ended up having a good if unspectacular war. Apart from a few favourable mentions in the Nazi Party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, he kept a low profile, which he had determined best served his own interests.

He was on the fringes of the influential Österreichisches Clique, whose members occupied so many important positions in Berlin and throughout the regime: fellow Austrians like Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Odilo Globocnik, Adolf Eichmann and of course Adolf Hitler himself.