must have related this to Hitler because the next day, around noon, he came to the hotel to tell him that Hitler would not be coming to see him after all. In addition Hitler may not have wanted to meet with Churchill, who was then out of power and thought to be of no importance. Churchill declined to meet with Hitler on several subsequent occasions. During the Reichstag fire, Hanfstaengl, staying at the official residence of Göring, noticed the fire and alerted members of the Nazi Party. Fall from power As the NSDAP consolidated its power, several disputes arose between Hanfstaengl and Germany's Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels. Hanfstaengl was removed from Hitler's staff in 1933. He and Helene divorced in 1936. Hanfstaengl fell completely out of Hitler's favour after he was denounced by Unity Mitford, a close friend of both the Hanfstaengls and Hitler. In 1937, Hanfstaengl received orders to parachute into an area held by the nationalist side of the Spanish Civil War, to assist in negotiations. While on board the plane he feared a plot on his life and learned more details from the pilot about the mission, who eventually admitted he had been ordered to drop Hanfstaengl over Republican-held territory, which would have meant almost certain death. The pilot eventually landed on a small airfield near Leipzig after claiming an engine malfunction following a brief talk with Hanfstaengl, which allowed him to escape. That version of the story was related by Albert Speer in his memoirs, who stated that the "mission" to Spain was an elaborate practical joke, concocted by Hitler and Goebbels, designed to punish Hanfstaengl after he had displeased the Führer by making "adverse comments about the fighting spirit of the German soldiers in combat" during the Spanish Civil War. Hanfstaengl was issued sealed orders from that which were not to be opened until his plane was in flight. The orders detailed that he was to be dropped in "Red Spanish territory" to work as an agent for Francisco Franco. The plane, according to Speer, was merely circling over Germany containing an increasingly-disconcerted Hanfstaengl, with false location reports being given to convey the impression that the plane was drawing ever closer to Spain. After the joke had played itself out, the pilot declared he had to make an emergency landing and landed safely at Leipzig Airport. Hanfstaengl was so alarmed by the event that he