Hi there Bill!
Thank you very much for a reply of gratitude and interest Bill and am glad you like it.
The card was produced by Hoffmann. Not only was he Hitler's photographer but he also ran stationery. Eva worked as an apprentice and this is how they met. Hitler paid a visit, Eva slipped a note into his jacket pocket whilst it hung on the coatstand.
It's a fantastic piece. All the colours are still rich as it's on top quality acid free card. I suppose it could not be any other really.
What is not seen is the remnants of gold leaf around the edges. There is a slight discolouring only where the card folds at the centre.
I don't know if you have noticed but Keitel has acknowledged receipt the same day it be written. Hitler was in Berlin at this time with Keitel and his other upper echelons.
The card was probably produced months before Xmas with the intention of them being sent from his home as Obersalzberg is printed upon the card.
A friend of mine is a professor (since retired), spent all his life in the drudges of Liverpool University. He lectured on European history from 1850 onwards. Early days of research would take him to visit and interview people that knew and worked alongside Adolf.
One person that he did interview was Julius Schaub. When the interview concluded, Julius handed this to Brian as a momento of their acquaintance. Interesting to hear that Hitler never ever lost his temper. The only time you knew he wasn't happy with something, he would throw a pencil down on the map or similar acts. He could also draw a perfect circle with his right hand, you could place a compass to it.
Brian kept the card all those years in his locker at the university and would show his students. When he retired, he gave it to me.
Schaub was responsible for burning all Hitler's personal documents, birth cert etc.
So, the card is linked to three, top wartime figureheads.
Davey
Birth: Aug. 20, 1898
Death: Dec. 27, 1967
German SS Major General and Adjutant to German Dictator Adolf Hitler. Born in Munich, Germany, he joined the Nazi Party in October of 1920, as its 81st member. In November 1923, he participated in the Munich Putsch, Hitler's failed attempt to take power in Bavaria (when the Nazi Party later came to power, they awarded the Blood Order to each participant in the Munich Putsch, it becomes one of the Nazi Party's top awards). As a personal Aide to SA Group Leader Wilhelm Br�ckner, Schaub had access to the early years of the Nazi Party hierarchy, and especially to Adolf Hitler. Br�ckner became Adjutant to Hitler in 1930, but ten years later, in October 1940, he was fired for having an argument with Hitler's house manager, Kannenberg. After Br�ckner's dismissal from the Nazi inner circle, Br�ckner's aide, Julius Schaub, was appointed to become Hitler's personal Adjutant. While highly intelligent and extremely loyal to Hitler and the principles of the Nazi Party, Schaub was never considered an intellectual, and most of the Nazi's top inner circle thought that they could control him. But his devoted loyalty to Hitler assured him his position, and it is from him that much of the knowledge of Hitler's psychological condition during the last years of World War II is known. Schaub also provided much information of the inner workings of the top leaders of the Nazi Party during the war years. On April 22, 1945, Hitler ordered Schaub to leave the Berlin bunker and go to Hitler's home in Obersalzberg to destroy all of Hitler's personal records and documents, an order he obeyed. At the end of the war, Schaub was arrested by the American Army near Berchtesgaden, and was interned until 1949. During this time, he was investigated for war crimes, but was never taken to trial since he never actually participated in any war crimes, and eventually he was released. After his release, he operated a pharmacy in Munich, until his death in 1967.
Hitler and Schaub....
