The auctioneer’s hammer comes down with a loud rap as a black bust of Adolf Hitler changes hands for €2 400.
”Going for the third and last time,” the auctioneer calls as a lipstick that once belonged to Eva Braun, Hitler’s partner whom he married just before they committed suicide, goes for €1 100.
The auction of items from Germany’s years under the Nazis from 1933 to 1945 was held on a recent Saturday in the town of Kirchheim unter Teck in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
A flying badge set with precious stones reaches €44 000 euros, the highest achieved at the auction. The buyer chose to remain anonymous.
Auctioneer Andreas Thies maintains his clients have nothing to hide, as he tries to filter out rightwing extremists from his auctions.
Buyers also have to pledge not to use the items for any kind of propaganda.
Those participating reject the notion that there are moral issues involved here, maintaining that the period is part of 20th century Germany.
”These things are just history,” says one German participant, who declined to be named. He collects medals but denies any political significance in his hobby.
Towards the end of the auction, he lays claim to an air force helmet from the period.
All at the auction insist that they are buying the items either out of an interest in history or in the hope that they will rise in value.
The buyers mostly come from countries that were directly involved in World War II: Germany, Russia, Italy, the United States and Japan.
”They see these things as a part of their own history,” Thies says. He maintains that outside Germany objects with a link to Hitler do not carry the same psychological burden as in Germany itself.
There were no takers for a water colour painted by Hitler and estimated to go for €18 500.
”Painting really wasn’t his metier,” says Stuttgart art dealer Andreas Heilig. Anyone buying the painting would have to have other interests than purely art in mind.
The German authorities, who carefully monitor any signs of a Nazi revival, have yet to take an interest in Thies and his clients.
And Heilig advises against buying Hitler paintings not only on artistic grounds. Looking at the quantity on offer, he says: ”I don’t know when he found the time to do all the stuff that is attributed to him.”
The state of Bavaria has raised objections to some of the items auctioned, such as Braun’s lipstick. These items remain in the possession of the auction house until the legal position is cleared up.
”But the onus is on Bavaria to make its case,” Thies says, adding that he does not believe the Bavarian authorities would win a court case on the matter.
Following the war, Bavaria gave an undertaking to the Allies to take objects linked to Hitler out of the public domain with the aim of preventing a personality cult around Hitler.
Thies does not comprehend the interest that his business generates. He has been selling Hitler era stuff for the past 20 years and views the day’s proceedings in a purely commercial light.
But some of the buyers are now beginning to fear they may have to justify their interest in uniforms, medals and badges to the Bavarian authorities. – Sapa-DPA