Posted on 09/03/2009 2:32:09 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
A picture of a young Adolf Hitler apparently playing chess against Vladimir Lenin 100 years ago has come to light. The image is said to have been created in Vienna by Hitler's art teacher, Emma Lowenstramm, and is signed on the reverse by the two dictators.
Hitler was a jobbing artist in the city in 1909 and Lenin was in exile and the house where they allegedly played the game belonged to a prominent Jewish family. In the run-up to the Second World War the Jewish family fled and gave many of their possessions, including the etching and chess set, to their housekeeper.
Now their housekeeper's great-great grandson is selling the image and the chess set at auction. Both items have a pre-sale estimate of £40,000.
The unnamed vendor is confident the items are genuine after his father spent a lifetime attempting to prove their authenticity.
He compiled a 300-page forensic document that included tests on the paper, the signatures and research on those involved.
Experts, however, have questioned its authenticity especially the identification of Lenin who they say might have been confused with one of his associates.
When the etching was made, Hitler was 20 and Lenin was twice his age and the house was where politicos went to discuss things.
The etching is thought to be one of five and shows Hitler - playing with the white pieces - sitting by a window, with Lenin opposite him in half shadow.
It is titled "A Chess Game: Lenin with Hitler - Vienna 1909".
It raises tantalising questions about what the two men who helped shape the world in the 20th century might have spoken of.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
You don’t think they could have met at the Future Socialist Dictators Club or the Socialist-Facist Mixer where the deviationists are roasted.
I think this photo is about as legit as the Hitler Diaries.
That's it! I'm sort of shocked
I imagine all the Statist and commies would be lining up to bid on their hero Lenin
It’s a little too neat the subjects’ signatures are on the back. The chess set really puts it over the top. JMHO.
=o)
OK. But could they have passed each other in the street? lol
“I think this photo is about as legit as the Hitler Diaries.”
Yep. My impression is, no way, the odds are very remote of those specific two persons meeting in a chess game at that specific place and time.
And who says you can't know a person by the company they keep?
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Thanks GeronL and ConservativeMind....the house where they allegedly played the game belonged to a prominent Jewish family.Wow. The only way to top that profound irony is if it had been the Frank family. |
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I think they are mistaken—the guy on the right looks more like Edgar Allan Poe. Proving Poe was in Vienna when Hitler was there might be a little tricky though.
The housekeeper always seems to make out like a bandit! The Jewish family was friends with these two guys?
Really.
Especially two totally unknowns in 1909. It’s a fantasy
of the artist.
etching ...
Akin to the poker-playing dogs.
Soon to be hanging in the Oval Office.
In 1909 Hitler was totally unknown, just a weird kid.
Lenin was quite an important figure in Russia and in the international socialist movement.
I can’t see why he’d be playing chess with some kid.
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