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A wonder.
It must be a miracle.
How else could it be explained that at Christmas 1932 Adolf Hitler wrote a dedication on a picture postcard, the original of which was only photographed in August or early September 1933?
The original photo postcard with a forged dedication of Hitler in the offer from Hermann Historica, allegedly from 1932
Source: Hermann Historica / Screenshot WELT
The forged dedication by Hitler, dated Christmas 1932, on a photo postcard, the motif of which was taken in the summer of 1933
Source: Hermann Historica / Screenshhot WORLD
Of course, lot 11016, which the Munich company Hermann Historica is offering in its online catalog for the auction on December 11, 2020, is not a miracle.
It's a fake.
More precisely: the picture postcard itself is not counterfeit;
this motif, taken by Hitler's “personal photographer” Heinrich Hoffmann, was printed ten thousand times - and Hitler always cashed in, as did Hoffmann.
However, the alleged "autograph" on it certainly does not come from Hitler.
The forgers, it seems, are getting worse and worse as the distance to the Third Reich grows.
At least always bolder.
In the past, as a look back at the almost 90-year history of the Hitler counterfeiting shows, they had at least a basic knowledge of the biography and habits of the man from whom they wanted to capitalize.
So it took a while for the vertigo around his diaries to be exposed.
Or maybe it is simply because facts have become even more fragile in times of online trading.
Screenshot of the photo with Hitler in the catalog of the BSB Munich (with deliberately poor resolution of the actual photo)
Source: BSB Munich / Screenshot WELT
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The template for the picture postcard that Heinrich Hoffmann took on Obersalzberg in August or early September 1933 can easily be found in the online catalog of the Bavarian State Library in Munich with this date under the signature hoff-1939.
A seller (or his supplier, i.e. the counterfeiter) who does not even carry out this basic check before offering his product is acting rather short-sightedly.
A second indication, regardless of the dating of the Munich library, tells every expert at first glance that this card could never have been dedicated to Christmas 1932.
Because Hitler wears the “Führer uniform” in the photo, a special variant of the NSDAP party clothing that was only designed in the spring of 1933 and has often been used since May of that year.
At the latest since a lecture given by historian Esther Sünderhauf on Hitler's style at the end of 2015, which was picked up by many German and foreign media, this has been general knowledge in specialist circles.
Harald Sandner, the author of the enormously useful "Hitler 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 On August 26th, he was no longer on the Obersalzberg until October 7th, 1933, where this photo was undoubtedly taken.
The original photo of Hitler, taken by Heinrich Hoffmann in the summer of 1933
Source: picture alliance / arkivi
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It is all the more astonishing that companies like Hermann Historica, the Nuremberg auction house Weidler, the US company Alexander Historical Auctions and other trash falsely attributed to Hitler keep finding buyers who apparently want to be cheated.
So far, despite several preliminary investigations, none of these companies could be proven intent;
For this it would be necessary to prove that they offered the forgeries with certain knowledge of the incorrect attribution.
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 offerers: "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 inscribed on it, it comes from the Berlin Reich Chancellery.
More often, however, supposed ownership notices are attached to objects that are worthless in themselves - for example on a cylinder (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.
These are the most beautiful fake Hitler signatures
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This signature can be found on a "Hitler" forgery that was recently confiscated in Berlin.
Source: REUTERS
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The signature at the bottom right.
Source: REUTERS
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The signatures of one of the other images now confiscated - there is no resemblance.
Source: Kloss auction house
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This is a real signature from Hitler.
Since 1930, at least twelve million copies of "Mein Kampf" have been printed
Source: Archives
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The forger didn't even bother here - an offer from the Weidler auction house in Nuremberg.
Source: picture alliance / dpa
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Hitler is said to have made this signature at the age of 14 - only those who want to believe can believe it (weidler auction house as well).
Source: picture alliance / dpa
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Male nude, wrongly attributed to Hitler and offered in 2010.
The signature has nothing in common with other real and false Hitler initials.
Source: picture alliance / EPA
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In 2009 even this handwriting signature was assessed as "genuine".
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
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And another completely different signature, this time supposedly from 1914.
Source: picture-alliance / dpa
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Suddenly "Adolf Hitler" is supposedly writing his name in a completely different handwriting
Source: picture alliance / dpa
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And yet another signature, again offered at the Weidler auction house in Nuremberg.
Source: picture alliance / dpa
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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 was 84.
In reality, only a few dozen watercolors from the period from 1910 to World War I are known that Adolf Hitler actually painted;
almost all of them are verifiably stored in state museums or archives.
All other works with - incidentally, often very different looking - signatures such as “A.
Hitler ”or“ Adolf Hitler ”are falsified.
It is particularly shocking that the forgers - like Konrad Kujau, the creator of the "Hitler diaries" - have long since stopped bothering at least a little.
In September, Bart FM Droog again discovered an example of this in the online catalog of Hermann Historica;
it is a parallel to the piece now on offer.
A postcard with forged signatures, supposedly from 1939
Source: Screenshot Bart FM Droog
The forger wrote the signatures of Hitler, Hermann Göring, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph with various pens on a - probably real - picture postcard with a greeting Hitler and the inscription “Our Führer”, which was sent from Prague in March 1939 and is stamped accordingly Goebbels, the then Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Jodl, who later became chief of the Wehrmacht command staff.
A glance at the Goebbels diaries would have revealed to him 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, but held the position in Berlin.
Where Wilhelm Frick was on those days cannot be precisely determined without researching the Federal Archives.
But Colonel Jodl officiated in mid-March 1939 as the artillery commander of the 44th Infantry Division in Vienna and not - as until September 30, 1938 and again from August 23, 1939 - as head of the Wehrmacht Command Office (the forerunner organization of the Wehrmacht Command Staff).
So it would have to be proven that on March 15 and 16, 1939, he was actually in Hitler's immediate vicinity.
It goes without saying that there is not a single piece of evidence for such “multiple autograph cards” from 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 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 still demand, there will always be counterfeiters who produce corresponding offers.
You should make a little more effort, however.
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