Hitlers Bricks on estand?

[Sal Williams]

I would like to know if there is any reason to think these bricks are as advertised?

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=297879

[TxGauleiter]

dust them for Adolf's fingerprints...

[Sal Williams]

dust them for Adolf's fingerprints...

My point exactly.

[EKman]

Ok,

I certinaly don't mind explaining exactly why I am comfortable with having these in my collection and with selling a few of them.

For one thing, I had no reason at all not to believe totally in the source that they came from--a very good friend of my parents when I was a teenager.

Now then, let's talk about the bricks themselves. We all know that when Hitler's house was captued, the silverware went first, the china and crystal followed, the linens went fast...in short, everything portable was taken. Did that mean that the search for a souvenir was over?

No. I direct you to Dr. Griffith's book.

[EKman]

Look at just one example of some of the things that were done to satisfy the craving for a Hitler souvenir...

When you can find these for sale now, they are seen for around $400 and they are faked quite often as well.

[EKman]

But not only that. GIs got to tearing up the carpet, the walls, AND YES, EVEN THE BRICKS!!! In small chucks of course before the house was destroyed. But that changed after the demolition.

Can you see where I am going with this. If people will take a small chip of a fireplace and put it in an ash tray.

If they will tear out the carpet and bring strips of it home and break out pieces of the brick in a standing building and so forth. Imagine after the house is exploded and there are LITERALLY thousands of intact bricks just sitting around on the ground from Hitler's house and no one cares if you fill up your bag and take them with you.

Wouldn't you?

[EKman]

Even now, you can still go there, though I understand that they are a bit more strict on what you can carry out. I did a brief search and found two threads from Forum members who visited.

Some of these bricks can be seen still in place.

Please compare...

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...tesgaden+Brick

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...itler%27s+Home

[Greg]

I want to point out that I don't have a dog in this fight of selling Berghof bricks at all ... I only have some experience in collecting some bricks from there myself. IMO, it's entirely possible that these are bricks from the Berghof. I can't and won't make any attempt to "prove it" or discuss the price or anything else, just pointing out that it's possible these bricks are from the Berghof ruins.

I used to go to the Berghof site quite a lot in the early 90s when the site was still part of a US military recreation area. The house had of course been dynamited and razed by the Bavarian government in 1952, but in the early 90s the ruins of the garage were still visible (you could get into the garage), along with the rear retaining walls. The retaining walls have a brick core, and in several places the walls were partially broken, with chunks of brick laying around. I kept several of them myself, taken out of broken wall fragments.

I would question any bricks or other articles collected there in 2000 or later, because after the US recreation area was turned back over to the Germans, in 2000 they tore down the old Platterhof Hotel that had been the "General Walker" US hotel, and piled the debris on the Berghof site. That raised the ground level a foot or higher in some places, and any building materials that are collected from the site since 2000 are likely to be part of the Platterhof or some other torn down building instead.

JMHO.

Best,
Greg

Edited after seeing EKman's last post - the first link he shows has a photo I was trying to find, that I took of Berghof ruin bricks from the retaining walls as they were in the 1990s.

[EKman]

Lastly by way of response, I don't know how much this will be worth, but I will post some other military items that this same vet gave me. I know very little about US militaria from the Vietnam Era but that is when this man was in the Army stationed in Germany. So, perhaps someone can look at these pins for confirmation and lend some weight to that part of it.

I think that in all that I have posted I have shown that there is a great deal of credibility to the fact that bricks from Hitler's home were carted off as souvenirs in great numbers and were available as such for many many years to thousands of US servicemen. Unlike Sal's comparison that I am trying to sell an old pair of shoes and just ask everyone to trust me that they were Hitler's, there is historical basis here that these bricks are what I say they are and I have backed that up so far as I am able. What will follow are pictures of this veterans military pins to show that he served in Europe during the Vietnam War.

Thank you,

Chris

[EKman]

Pins

[EKman]

More pins

[EKman]

Last one.

Thanks,

Chris

[Sal Williams]

Chris , I made the shoe comparison in a pm. I also have no problem believing these COULD have come from the Berghof, but that is completely unprovable. The only one who can be sure is the guy who took it. I don't think you made this up Chris, but it is unprovable. So now we have $200 bricks. I can not believe you don't see the dangers in this. This really seems like the kind of item you keep or give away to friends. When one needs money I would think it wiser to sell some of ones collection that consists of the more regular items.

Best, Sal

[Glenn McInnes]

I also have no problem believing these COULD have come from the Berghof, but that is completely unprovable. The only one who can be sure is the guy who took it. I don't think you made this up Chris, but it is unprovable. So now we have $200 bricks. I can not believe you don't see the dangers in this. This really seems like the kind of item you keep or give away to friends.

Best, Sal

Agreed!


I will buy your Luftwaffe M43 hat Mr EKman if that is for sale?

I would be comfortable with that item being original,based on the 1 photo..



Glenn

[TxGauleiter]

$200 for a brick even with rock solid (pardon the pun) provenance is too much.

If you had a non-stop one-way plane ticket direct to the field underneath the Berghof site on the Obersalzberg under the guide of sworn witnesses and if your entire trip were video recorded uninterrupted from start to finish and this brick were dug up beneath 3 feet of earth, and you had to push aside buried AH silverware to get to it, $200 would be too much.

the proof that our hobby has officially transcended the ridiculous are becoming more numerous.

(no offense to the seller of the brick intended)