July 15, 2020 - Droog Magazine periodical for investigative journalism

Another fake Hitler top hat

to Hitler Forgery Industry main page - to Droog Magazine

The strange business of selling fakes, forgeries and other concoctions attributed to Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and other Nazi criminals.

2020 | Dutch version

© Jaap van den Born and Bart FM Droog, 2020

On July 14, 2020, the Chesapeake City (Maryland, USA) based auction house Alexander Historical Auctions (AHA) plans to auction a top hat, the accompanying hat box and a frock coat, allegedly once owned by Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

As a previous top hat attributed to Hitler was sold in November 2019 for 50,000 euros (55,000 US dollars), AHA's owner Bill Panagopulos hopes to sell the set for 80,000 to 100,000 US dollars.

Both top hats have one thing in common: there's no solid evidence that the hats, that might be authentic top hats from the 1930's, were ever worn by Herr Hitler.  The present hat has supposedly been sold to Hitler in 1936 by a then well known Jewish hat makers family from Munich - that alone makes the 'provenance' story highly unlikely.

But there's more: according to the auctioneer the hat and coat were looted from Hitler's villa at Berchtesgaden by a Major Frank S. Sinclair from the 328th Glider Infantry Regiment. Both the officer and the unit have one thing in common: they never existed.

The real provenance of this set goes nu further back than ca. 2000, when it came into the possession of the Hamburg (Germany) based Nazi militaria dealer Helmut Weitze.  According to him he received the set from 'an American', whose name he can't remember anymore.  

Alexander Historical Auctions has a long history of selling bogus Hitler objects; in 2017 it sold Hitler's alleged underpants for 6700 US dollars. In the same year a fantasy Hitler travel telephone was sold for almost 250,000 US dollars. In 2018 the same auction house made good money with a photo print allegedly decorated by Hitler with glued-on Edelweiss flowers.

The 'authentic' Hitler drawing at the July 14, 2020 auction

On the upcoming auction Mr. Panagopulos also tries to sell a bogus Hitler drawing and fake love letters, supposedly written to Hitler in April 1945.

When confronted with these reports on the disputed objects:

- Report on Hitler's alleged top hat and frock coat (pdf),
- Report on an alleged Hitler drawing (pdf) and
- Report on alleged Maria Reiter letters (pdf);

Mr. Panagopulos commented a. o.: "Your research into many of the statements in our catalog descriptions is faulty, if not entirely biased."

His full comment can be read in the reports.

Update (July 15, 2020): The top hat and coat as well as the love letters remained unsold; the drawing was sold for 5500 US dollars.

With special thanks to Jo Rivett from Switzerland, who alerted us on the fake top hat set.

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