December 11, 2020 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

The forgers are growing worse

to Hitler Forgery Industry index | 2020 | to Droog Magazine

 
by Sven-Felix Kellerhoff

A miracle. It must be a miracle. How else could it be explained that at Christmas 1932 Adolf Hitler wrote a dedication on a photo postcard that was published no earlier than August 1933, as the photo originated from August or early September 1933?

Of course, lot 11016 at the December 11, 2020 auction of the Munich company Hermann Historica, is not a miracle. It's a fake. More precisely: the picture postcard itself is authentic; the photo, made by Hitler's "personal photographer" Heinrich Hoffmann, was printed ten thousand times - and Hitler always cashed in, as did Hoffmann. But the "autograph" on it certainly wasn't made by Hitler.

The forgers, it seems, grow worse and worse as the distance to the Third Reich grows. At least they have grown bolder. In the past, as a look back at the almost 90-year history of the Hitler counterfeits shows, they had at least a basic knowledge of the biography and habits of the man from whom they want to exploit. So, in 1983 it took some time for the fraud around “his” diaries to be exposed. But maybe it is simply because facts have become even more fragile in times of online trading.

The template for the photo postcard that Heinrich Hoffmann took on Obersalzberg in August or early September 1933 can easily be found in the online catalog of the Bayerisches Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) in Munich with this date under the signature: hoff-1939. A seller (or his supplier, i.e. the counterfeiter) who didn't even make this basic check before offering his product is acting rather short-sightedly.

A second indication, regardless of the dating by the Munich library, tells every expert at first glance that Hitler could never have signed this card at Christmas 1932. Because on the photo Hitler wears the “Führer uniform”, a special variant of the NSDAP party clothing that was only designed in the spring of 1933 and often used by Hitler since May of that year. This is common knowledge among Hitler specialists since 2015, when historian Esther Sünderhauf gave a lecture about Hitler's clothing style. A lecture which was picked up by many German and foreign media.

See also:: Esther Sophia Sünderhauf. Hitler's Dress Code – Attire and Meaning1889-1945, in: Dress & Politics, Nafplion, 2015. Susanne Hermanski. Wie sich Hitler durch seine Kleidung inszenierte. Mode des Diktators. Süddeutsche Zeitung, München, December 5, 2015. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/mode-des-diktators-wie-sich-hitler-durch-seine-kleidung-inszenierte-1.2768788 Alan Hall. Adolf Hitler threw a strop about wearing lederhosen because of his knobbly knees. The Express, London, December 8, 2015. https://www.express.co.uk/news/history/625111/Hitler-lederhosen-knobbly-knees Sven Felix Kelderhoff. Hitler war ein ausprochen modebewusster mann. Welt, Berlin, December 11, 2015. https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article149845205/Hitler-war-ein-ausgesprochen-modebewusster-Mann.html

Hitler, the Itinerary

Harald Sandner, the author of the enormously useful "Hitler, the Itinerary" , can with high probability limit the creation of the photo to August 23-25, 1933: The dictator wore the special visor cap for the first time on August 19 and from August 26th, he was no longer on the Obersalzberg until October 7th, 1933. And this photo was undoubtedly taken on the Obersalzberg.

It is all the more astonishing that companies like Hermann Historica , the Nuremberg auction house Weidler , the US company Alexander Historical Auctions succeed in finding buyers for this wrongly to Hitler attributed rubbish. Apparently these want to be cheated. So far, despite several preliminary investigations, it could not be proven that these companies acted intentionally. To do so, it would be necessary to prove that they offered the forgeries with certain knowledge of the incorrect attribution. But at least there is gross negligence.

For decades, specialist journalists have been reporting on the "Hitler Forgery Industry", as the Dutchman Bart FM Droog calls the business model. He has a clear opinion about the dealers: "I would rather buy a used car from Donald Trump than a Hitler devotional from Hermann Historica or a similar auction house."

Everything that can be even remotely associated with the dictator is forged. Sometimes these are just fictitious ascriptions, for example when a hideous vase made of Meissen porcelain with a sailing ship  is said to be originating from the Berlin Reich Chancellery. More often, however, supposed ownership “evidence” is attached to objects that are worthless in themselves - for example on a top hat (sold for 50,000 euros) or on a poorly preserved red telephone  (sold for 243,000 dollars). Annoyingly, the latter had an English-made receiver on a device manufactured by Siemens & Halske.

The masses of fake "Hitler" watercolors and paintings have long been overwhelming. For the period from January 1 to the beginning of December 2020 alone, Droog found 136 counterfeits on offer; In 2019 it were 84. In reality, only a few dozen watercolors from the period from 1910 until the First World War are known actually painted by Adolf Hitler; almost all of them are verifiably stored in state museums or archives. All other works with - by the way, often very different looking - signatures such as “A. Hitler ”or“ Adolf Hitler ” are falsified.


Postcard from Prague

It is particularly shocking that the forgers - like Konrad Kujau, the creator of the said "Hitler diaries" - no longer bother to make convincing forgeries. In September, Bart FM Droog again discovered an example of this in the online catalog of Hermann Historica; it is quite similar to the piece now on offer.

A forger imitated the signatures of Hitler, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, the then Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Jodl, who later became chief of the Wehrmacht command staff with various pens on a - probably authentic - photo postcard depicting a greeting Hitler and with the inscription "Our Führer". This card was allegedly sent from Prague in March 1939 and is stamped accordingly.

A fast check of the Goebbels diaries would have learned the forger that Hitler was in fact in Prague on March 15 and 16, 1939, and Göring and Himmler were with him. But Goebbels did not belong to the entourage; he stayed in Berlin.

Where Wilhelm Frick was on those days cannot be precisely determined without research in the Bundesarchiv (Federal Archive) in Berlin. But Colonel Jodl was serving in mid-March 1939 as the artillery commander of the 44th Infantry Division in Vienna and not - as he was until September 30, 1938 and again from August 23, 1939 - as head of the Wehrmachtführungsamt (Wehrmacht Command Office, the forerunner organization of the Wehrmachts-führungsstab (Wehrmacht Command Staff). So it would have to be proven that on March 15 and 16, 1939, that he was actually in Hitler's immediate vicinity in Prague.

Of course, there is not a shred of evidence that such “multiple autograph cards” were signed by six leading representatives of the regime. But regardless of this, the alleged signatures are absolutely forged because Goebbels would never have been able to sign it in Prague.

Although the buyers of the alleged "Hitleriana" have been deceived almost without exception in recent years, the market has still not dried up. And as long as there is demand, there will always be forgers to satisfy the buyers. But they should put some more energy in their fakes, though.

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© Sven Felix Kellerhoff / Welt, 2020, by courtesy of Axel springer SE Berlin.
Original German version: Warum nur fälschen die Hitler-Fälscher so schlecht? Welt, Berlin, 05-12-2020.
https://www.welt.de/geschichte/article221818124/Angeblich-echt-Hitler-Faelschungen-werden-immer-schlechter.html
Translation Droog Magazine, 2020.

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