'Dr' HENN and the ATLANTA HOTEL, BANGKOK, THAILAND

Klaus Gruner Explodes Several Myths

Barry Williamson

February 2008

In their article on this website, 'Tour of Thailand 2007', June and Barney wrote the following about staying in the Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok:

'Our hotel - the Atlanta - turned out to be quite a find. A 1950's time warp built by a Dr Max Henn, a Berliner who had lived in Thailand for more than 55 years. Its faded grandeur was fascinating, the reception area authentic enough to be used in film sets, with thick red leatherette benches and seating, framed by scarlet and black silk curtains. Outside in the small tropical gardens was the original swimming pool, with cracked tiles and looking past its prime, but a welcome haven from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.

What made the hotel so fascinating though was the information pertaining to Dr Henn. He was clearly a real character, having arrived in Thailand after driving from Tangiers to India and living there for 9 years before continuing his travels. He was very much a pioneer in the country's tourist industry, though he appeared to be something of a Basil Fawlty and steered clear of his guests. All round the place were signs such as 'Don't Complain, this is a budget hotel; if you don't like it you can leave.' The Americans used it during the Vietnam War and crucial meetings were held in the restaurant/bar. All the beer mats had quotes from Dr Henn and we tried to collect a few. Not only was the place quirky and unique but also inexpensive and near the Skytrain and one of the city's main thoroughfares.'

We received the following email from Klaus Gruner in February 2008. Klaus deals with the myth of 'Dr' Henn in a detail which we are happy to reproduce here. Not least, this is a cautionary tale about not believing everything that is put together for tourists!  

Klaus Gruner writes: I just came across your website. Good reading and I also liked to see the photos. But one thing has to be corrected, concerning Dr/Max Henn and the Atlanta Hotel:

It is always extremely surprising for me to read how many people still believe in the old 'Doc' Henn stories, even years after he has died, and also to read about the cult the Atlanta makes of its founder, Max Henn, and his 1950's Thai mistress (who is called his 'wife' at the Atlanta).

Max Henn was indeed the founder of this place but he was not a doctor, nor was he from Berlin, nor has he ever been a secretary to any Indian nobility. Just about everything that you can read about him these days, including on the walls of the Atlanta and in the pages of the Lonely Planet and Fodor's guides, is nothing but the interesting story of a swindler.

Henn's ONLY connection to ANY Indian nobility was the fact that his Austrian wife (the only woman to whom he was ever in fact married) had been the governess of the children of an Indian Maharaja.

Also he had absolutely nothing to do with the Atlanta after the late 1960's, when he lost control of it to one of his Thai 'wives' - a story that many more foreigners have experienced in Thailand, where a non-Thai cannot own land.

So all the ants in the rice, the sour orange juice in the restaurant and the incredibly filthy rooms at this guest house (not hotel) since that time were definitely not Max Henn's fault.

He only stayed on living there until his very lonely death. Nobody could kick him out, since the official house registration paper gave him a written right to stay. Also, after being stripped off his money, he had no other place to go.

According to this fact, the cult that is still made about him now, so long after his death, seems like a hoax to me: pure window dressing. The people who are in charge at the Atlanta, including Charlie Henn (one of his 2 sons born to Thai women), know absolutely nothing about his real life.

It is indeed impressive to see that even the biggest liar is believed at once by professional journalists (obviously without doing even the slightest research), just because the tellers of these lies have probably talked to them in finest Cambridge-English. But the truth is that exactly these people did not even inform the friends and customers of 'Doctor' Henn when he finally died. The truth is that absolutely nobody cared about him. The truth is that his half-breed son, who is now partly living on the legend of his father, was known to give him just 2-3 hours to lunch with him every Sunday. The truth is that 'beloved' old 'Dr' Henn had to call for a taxi or to pay for the Hotel's van if ever he needed a car.

Source: Hans Michael Hensel: Der Doktor von Bangkok. Biographische Fragmente eines Unbekannten. (Privatdruck in 6 Exemplaren für die Freunde von Max Henn, Segnitz 2003.)

This book was to become the official biography, with more than 100 photos and illustrations, but after Max Henn fell seriously ill in early 2001 (he died 2002), certain people (guess who) did not like the contents and tried to squeeze the author not to publish some parts of it. So Hensel lost interest in the biography, but he still had 6 proof-reading copies of the entire book and gave them to known friends of Max Henn. I was given one in 2003, the only unnumbered copy with many corrections by the author (probably the seventh copy used for the very first proof-reading). The author himself signed it for me, writing on page 3 that this was his very last copy.

Hensel told me that he has no interest any more in this story, but after having read so much nonsense about 'Dr' Henn and the Atlanta in so many websites recently, I feel that somebody has to finally know the truth.

Later, Klaus Gruner added the following:

In addition to what I wrote earlier, I would like to point out, that I do not want to make anybody angry with my writing; this is just about (finally) giving the truth a chance. I have written a similar letter to 3 other writers in whose texts I have found about the same or a slightly different story, among them a writer for the Los Angeles Times.

The problem is, that Max Henn's son, Charlie Henn (according to Hensel, Charlie, (pronounced Shaa-lie, written in Thai letters), is his true THAI-Name) obviously seems to know next to nothing about the true personality of his father.

This is not all his fault, since his father (of course!...) tried all of his life, according to Hensel, to hide his true story from Charles. After having read through these papers which nearly had become an extremely interesting book, I can even imagine, that Max Henn only survived so long in the Atlanta among his enemies, because he knew how to produce this special "aura" of an extremely clever man, working for foreign secret services etc and having powerful friends.

But Hensel claims, and gives reasons for it, that Max Henn never had any personal contacts to people like Sihanouk, Churchill or even Hermann Göring as it is now told by Charles Henn. (you can find all these stories in the Internet: Just google Dr. Max Henn and Bangkok and Atlanta)

Charles Henn seems to be, reading between the lines of Hensels text, an extremely intelligent person. But the tragedy of his life is probably, that he himself knows nothing about the true life his father (or just the very selected made-up bits and pieces, which his father finally let him "know"). On the other hand, he definitely knows exactly, that everything that he is (studying in Cambridge etc.), he owes to the work and money of his father. This must be a difficult life for such an intellectual person, as Hensel describes Charles... Perhaps this is a reason why the Atlanta now became something like a Monument for the heritage of Charles Henn.

I have been myself as a guest in the Atlanta (but one day only and never again; the room was just terrible while the restaurant was good, so I came sometimes back for this reason...) and I have even talked briefly to Max Henn in 1998 or 1999.

I believe you that Barney and June Barnett are not people to be sold a pup, and I hope that they will not get too angry to discover that they were misled. Charles himself was and is mislead, by his father, but especially probably by his mother (Hensel does not write and tell much about her).

This is a very complicated Story... and one is always easily misled by people like Charles who tell you an extremely interesting story in very fine Cambridge English...