In his position as "Kreisleiter" of Westend in Berlin, Hanke was the first party official to establish contact with the young architect Albert Speer. Hanke contracted Speer to convert a villa in the western suburbs into an office for the local party organization in 1932. Hanke and Speer became close friends. In 1944, according to Speer's book ("Inside the Third Reich"), Hanke strongly advised Speer never to visit "a camp in Upper Silesia" (Auschwitz) for any reason. Hanke had ""seen something that he was not allowed to describe and indeed could not describe.""