Hitler Photo and Signature

[brannow]

Hi All,

I just picked this up and thought I would share it. What do you guys think? What period do you think the signature is from.

Enjoy!

Bill Rannow
Mpls, MN

[Frank Heukemes]

Hi Bill,
Do you spell minister "minisfer" in the US?

Additionally, in Germany, we do not say "Autographs", that is English.

[brannow]

sig

Hi,

I think it was meant for foreign sale. The original owner is looking for the recipt for me.

Bill

[Frank Heukemes]

Hi Bill,

What I wanted to tell you is that it has "mistakes-a-plenty":

1) Reichswehrminister after 1933 was Werner von Blomberg
2) Hitler wears the uniform of the "Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht" so the pic was taken when the war had already begun, i. e. no more Reichswehr in Germany.
3) minister is spelled not right
4) autographs is an English word.

if I may add one

5) the framing looks "modern American", not Third Reich German, not even modern German

All in all, it does not look good. Just my opinion.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Bill, I would send this back ASAP. Frank has pointed out all the problems with this item and I totally agree with his assesment.


Cheers, Ade.

[D.Blume]

Hello all, I have looked at this picture/autograph and see the following.

1)The signature appears genuine. 2) The autograph store was apparantly marketing this to English speaking market thus the English on the back, also I believe you can substantiate the firm being active and reputable in those days. 3)The picture itself is not signed and therefore not necessarily meant to be from the same date as the signature. 4) If I am not mistaken, some of the older german books and printings I have seen have a compound character like "ts" written differently than we would in english, and possibly the f character in the title was meant to be that character. I would not honestly think the errof of the apparant mispelling of the title of the signature would be perpetrated on a buying public collecting autographs then, or now. 5) This was obviously a postwar frame due to the interest in the then defunct third reich. Modern American framing would be the vogue if catering to modern americans back in the 50's after the war. I would not discount the genuineness of this piece based on your assessment considering my observations. Just my .02! A new list member, Doug Blume

Hi Bill,

What I wanted to tell you is that it has "mistakes-a-plenty":

1) Reichswehrminister after 1933 was Werner von Blomberg
2) Hitler wears the uniform of the "Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht" so the pic was taken when the war had already begun, i. e. no more Reichswehr in Germany.
3) minister is spelled not right
4) autographs is an English word.

if I may add one

5) the framing looks "modern American", not Third Reich German, not even modern German

All in all, it does not look good. Just my opinion.

[Bill D.]

Anyone have Charles Hamilton's books on Third Reich signatures ? I recall that he did a summary of Hitlers' various signatures over time. For some reason this signature looks a bit "short" to me. I thought that "Hitler" had more "points" following the "H", but I may well be mistaken.

[Erich B.]

I agree--check out the known styles of AH signatures--this one does not appear to be a good one.
Erich

[TerryG]

Anyone have Charles Hamilton's books on Third Reich signatures ? I recall that he did a summary of Hitlers' various signatures over time. For some reason this signature looks a bit "short" to me. I thought that "Hitler" had more "points" following the "H", but I may well be mistaken.

Hope this helps. If you pm your email address I can send you this as an attachment (after work, tonight)

[Frank Heukemes]

..and it doesn´t disturb you in the least that Hitler never was Reichswehrminister (if it was spelled right)?
There are so many things wrong with this (see again post #4), you really do not have to worry about that signature of the "Reichswehrminisfer".

1)The signature appears genuine

No, it doesn´t

2) The autograph store was apparantly marketing this to English speaking market thus the English on the back, also I believe you can substantiate the firm being active and reputable in those days.

Yeah, reputable, the managing director would have gone to jail for selling these in post war Germany

3)The picture itself is not signed and therefore not necessarily meant to be from the same date as the signature.

Granted.

4) If I am not mistaken, some of the older german books and printings I have seen have a compound character like "ts" written differently than we would in english, and possibly the f character in the title was meant to be that character. I would not honestly think the errof of the apparant mispelling of the title of the signature would be perpetrated on a buying public collecting autographs then, or now.

You talk about combined characters in German Fraktur, but the text above the signature is in a more modern German font (which could theoretically be wartime, but the spelling mistake is very apparent (to a German).

5) This was obviously a postwar frame due to the interest in the then defunct third reich. Modern American framing would be the vogue if catering to modern americans back in the 50's after the war.

There is old German framing and modern German framing, the differences to American framing are a matter of taste and materials used, no matter when the German framing was made. That is not German framing, especially not German 50ies framing.

[VtwinVince]

Looks ridiculous, Hitler was only referred to after 1933 as "Der Fuehrer", "Der Reichskanzler des Grossdeutschen Reiches", "Der Fuehrer und Oberste Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht" etc., unless this is clipped from a larger document having both Hitler's and Blomberg's signatures, but of course this doesn't explain the typo.

[brannow]

sig

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the help. Cant return it its out of the woodwork.

[Jon Fish]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the help. Cant return it its out of the woodwork.

Looks like oit was put together in the 60/70's by the background etc etc,probably sold to toursists, I don't like it,and I have collectied Hitler signitures for a fair while now. It would not go in to my collection.

[Jon Fish]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the help. Cant return it its out of the woodwork.

Looks like oit was put together in the 60/70's by the background etc etc,probably sold to toursists, I don't like it,and I have collected Hitler signitures for a fair while now. It would not go in to my collection.

[Robin Lumsden]

The signature is a poor forgery.