The Uncomfortable Truth About Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom

Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom is arguably one of the most beloved structures in the world, serving as the backdrop for thousands of photos, proposals, and family moments over the last 50+ years.

Recently, Disney fans have been excited anew about the castle after Disney announced that its traditional color scheme was returning after a year-long absence. (I’m admittedly one of them. I’ve been visiting Disney World for 30 years and was desperately waiting for the original colors to return. However, what many may not know is that underneath all of the selfies and smiles, one of Cinderella Castle’s most identifiable design features was the work of a man some would consider a Nazi war criminal.

During World War II, Hans Scharff had a reputation of being one of the most effective interrogators Nazi Germany had to offer. Known as the “Master Interrogator of the Luftwaffe”, he was responsible for interrogating captured American fighter pilots, flying aces, and other high-ranking prisoners during the war. Scharff, who spoke fluent English and was familiar with British and American cultural customs thanks to his ancestry on his mother’s side, shied away from violence and intimidation techniques, instead putting on an elaborate attempt to relate to his captives as a route to having them reveal information when they “didn’t even realize they were doing so.”

Following the end of the war, Scharff — like many major Nazi military and scientific figures — was recruited by the United States as part of coordinated operations to utilize their knowledge and expertise, like Operation Paperclip. Scharff met with USAF officials and lectured about prisoner interrogation techniques at the Pentagon and other locales. To this day, several U.S. agencies, including the FBI, utilize his methods.

In the years following the war, Scharff turned his attention to art, an interest from his pre-war life. He began crafting fruitier and art pieces made of tile mosaics. His firm, Hanns Scharff Designs, became so successful that he was able to move to Los Angeles and began working on high-profile projects… which brings us to Disney World.

In the early 1970s, Scharff and his daughter-in-law, Monika, began work on the massive 15-foot wall mosaics that told the story of Cinderella inside the castle.

Based on designs by Imagineer Dorothea Redmund, the Scharffs crafted the murals using thousands of tiles made of multicolored Italian glass, silver, and 14-karat gold, with more than 500 colors represented throughout.

The mosaic has the distinction of being one of the few pieces at Disney World to feature a credit, as both Hans Scharff and Dorothea Redmund are credited by name at its end.

A decade later, the Scharffs worked with Disney once again, this time producing the massive nature-themed mosaics that flow up and down the two entrance ramps to The Land at the park then known as EPCOT Center.

The murals, which were designed by Walt Peregoy, are comprised of about 150,000 individually cut and shaped 150,000 tiles made of marble, granite, slate, Byzantine glass, Venetian glass, gold, mirror, ceramic, and pebbles. The designs feature an intertwining collage of earth tones representing nature.

These EPCOT mosaics have become Disney World lore, as an urban legend has sprouted up about a seemingly misplaced tile. See, each is nearly identical, outside of one emerald tile that’s not featured on the other side. Over the years, several myths about this discrepancy have arisen, including the idea that the one mistaken tile was included because the artists did not want to repeat themselves. However, Monika Scharff went on record denying this several years ago, saying it was simply a mistake during installation.

Beyond their Disney work, the Scharffs installed several other mosaics, including a marbled mosaic floor in the California state capitol building, a building facade mosaic at Utah Tech University, an eagle mosaic floor at the University of Southern California campus, and several other “private homes, hotels, schools, universities, department stores, shopping malls and churches worldwide.” Hans Scharff passed away in 1992, with Monika continuing design work until the 2000s.

The mosaics within Cinderella Castle and at the entranceway of EPCOT’s Land Pavilion are two of the more beloved artistic installations in  Walt Disney World, but the truth behind their creation holds a dark secret that may change the way some look at them going forward. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on Disney World history.

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Were you previously familiar with the backstory of these mosaics? Let us know in the comments below.

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