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Militaria, Third Reich, Political Auction
These are four original design architectural drawings commented by Adolf Hitler. Three drawings are on thick textured paper and a fourth drawing on heavy duty tracing paper. They are signed “6 April 1942” with a single initial “S”, this will be for the design architect Siegfried Schmelcher. It is common even now as then to use surname only in Germany for official endorsements. Schmelcher managed the conversion and modernization of the Plassenburg Castle for Fritz Todt for the Todt Organizations training camp and recreation home. The sketches or “comments” as the write up calls them were added by Hitler. They are basically his ideas or changes.
All four of the drawings are the initials “AH” written in red. It was normal for any direct intervention by Hitler to be noted in red as his direct requests on a construction project, this can be seen on drawings by Albert Speer and commented again in red by Hitler.
The drawings come with a letter in the German language from Mr. Robert Brandner who was a local historian who lived all his life in the Berchtesgaden area, the English translation is below:
‘I Robert Brandner, hereby confirm that the four sketches shown below are original drawings by Adolf Hitler. According to the previous owner, these sketches were drawn on the existing copy of the plan by Adolf Hitler himself on the basis of a meeting with the construction management at the Plassenburg. This was a common and very typical method used by Adolf Hitler when he wanted a change. These drawings were almost never signed by Adolf Hitler. Most of the time, the later owners of the sketches added their own notes. These sketches come from the former possession of a well-known and very important person from the Third Reich. I give this information to the best of my knowledge and belief.’
The letter has the impressed Berchtesgaden Castle mark along with the wax seal.
The family where these drawings originally came from asked to remain anonymous but will be revealed to the buyer. Just so much: his first name was Fritz, he had an organization named after him, his organization built the Westwall and the Atlantic Wall, he was responsible for the construction of the Reichsautobahn and he died in a plane crash in 1942. His successor was Albert Speer.
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