Walter Charles Langer (February 5, 1899 – July 4, 1981) studied psychoanalysis at Harvard University, where he worked as a professor upon completion of his education. He was later employed by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where in 1943 he prepared a psychoanalysis profile of Hitler. In this analysis, Langer accurately predicted that Hitler would commit suicide as the "most plausible outcome", and the possibility of a military coup against Hitler well before the assassination attempt of 1944.
Following Langer's analysis and Hitler's subsequent death, Langer turned the report into a book about Adolf Hitler, The Mind of Adolf Hitler: A Secret Wartime Report. This book was Langer's best-known; however, he also wrote the books Psychology and Human Living, A Psychological analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend, and Dissecting the Hitler Mind.