Paintings hung at the Berghof.

[Geoff Walden]

Getting ahead of myself slightly then for a moment by moving out of the great hall, but still within the Berghof is another painting known to have hung at there, it was reputedly a portrait of Eva Braun and it hung in her bedroom. Perhaps someone will know the Artist? I also believe this painting still exists.

Hi Kunstler,

Here is the painting that has been said to be a nude of Eva Braun that hung in her bedroom in the Berghof. The only source where I can recall reading this is in Nerin Gun's biography of EB - I can't recall exactly what he says about it, but some of Gun's statements in that book are questionable. The painting has been said to be by Adolf Ziegler, and to perhaps have been a model's body with EB's face painted on (source: US National Archives).



But the original does still exist in England, and I don't think this face looks like EB at all.

http://www.theprovenance.co.uk/

The painting at http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r216 ... 125643.jpg is another Ziegler painting called simply "Akt" (Nude). It was displayed in the Haus der Deutschen Kunst.

I think this next one was a Bismarck portrait, if I remember right. I have a good clear view of it somewhere but I can't find it just now. Below is a view of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor walking past this area in the Berghof corridor when they visited Hitler in October 1937 (credit: Ullstein). The portrait can be seen on the wall.



Geoff

[Geoff Walden]

Going back upstairs to Hitler's office, it is well known that two of the paintings that hung on the front wall (between the windows) were of Hitler's parents Klara and Alois. They were based on these photographs.

[Kunstler]

Aha!...thank you for the clarification Geoff, I remember when taking that Ziegler nude jpeg it had been labelled as having been in EB's bedroom, the poster had obviously been mistaken.

You have also answered a question that I had been pondering regarding the two portraits in the study, I had a hunch that one was of Clara Hitler but couldn't quite make them out. Now I'm racking my brains as I try to recall where I read a topic whereby a painting of Hitler's mother had come up for sale fairly recently! I can think of no one else who might have owned one except Paula perhaps?

[Geoff Walden]

I saw this one for sale recently. I didn't pay much attention to it, so I don't recall if they were trying to sell it as an original. It's not the one that was in AH's Berghof office. Really, it looks like a framed print to me.

Geoff

[Geoff Walden]

Isn't that last picture of AH giving a speech the same one that hung on the wall with the microphone in it in Klink's office in Hogan's heroes?

Hi Biber,
I can see why you might think that as many of the official buildings were furnished in the contemporary style, and the grand hall of the Berghof was similarly furnished. ...

No I'm pretty certain that's the Berghof note the style of chairs and the wall-bench behind them. That would be the chairs and table infront of the fire place. And given the topic of the Munich accords it isn't unreasonable that it's probably the Berghof.

B

Biber, I'm convinced you're right. I was mistaken when I said that photo was taken in Munich and speculated it was at Hitler's Prinzregentenplatz apartment. I had forgotten that Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler at the Berghof in mid-September 1938, and this was their first meeting that eventually led to the Munich Accords at the end of the month. The picture also shows Nevile Henderson, British ambassador to Berlin, who accompanied Chamberlain on his Berghof visit (the other man seated with these two and Hitler was interpretor Paul Schmidt.)

So we know that the Pannini Coliseum painting was hanging in the Berghof Great Hall in September 1938 (where a different Pannini was earlier hung).

Geoff

[majorplm]

Going back upstairs to Hitler's office, it is well known that two of the paintings that hung on the front wall (between the windows) were of Hitler's parents Klara and Alois. They were based on these photographs.

Hello,

Please find below the paintings of Hitler's parents..

all the best,

Philippe
(majorplm)

[Kunstler]

Those are fantastic images majorplm, exactly what was needed!

Biber I too now think you are correct about the Berghof being the venue of the Munich meeting, what I took to be plain upholstery was in fact a cushion as you pointed out!...must get my eyes checked LOL.

[Geoff Walden]

Great pictures, Philippe - thanks!

Are those period photos, or do those two paintings still exist somewhere?

Geoff

[majorplm]

After the fireplace, still on the south wall, is a painting that is pretty well known, and shows up well in period images (Item 9). This is sometimes called a Botticelli or a Titian, but it has been identified as Paris Bordone's "Venus et Amor" (although I believe the correct title should be "Venus et Cupid" ... but I don't really know anything about classical art.

I have read that this original piece still exists in a museum, maybe in Warsaw, but I haven't found a picture of it online.

Geoff

Hello,

Please found below the photo of the Pâris Bordone (1500-1571) painting “Venus and Amor”.

This painting was sold in 1936 by Karl Haberstock to Hitler, his most important customer.

Haberstock was an experimented art dealer in Berlin, dealing with “quality museum” antiquities, his gallery was located in Kurfürstenstrasse 59.

He was a party member since 1933 for only business reasons.. His customers were Hitler, Göring and Goebbels to name a few. He was also an art advisor for Hitler, and he had convinced to hire as director his friend Hans Posse for the Führermuseum in Linz.

All the best,

Philippe

[majorplm]

Great pictures, Philippe - thanks!

Are those period photos, or do those two paintings still exist somewhere?

Geoff

Thanks Geoff.. They are period photos, unfortunately I don't know if the painting still exist somewhere.

All the best,

Philippe

[Geoff Walden]

I did some more book searching, so here are some more notes.

The portrait in the Berghof hallway (Korridor) was indeed Bismarck. This is confirmed by notes in "The Hitler Book" edited by Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl (NY: Public Affairs, 2005). Here are some other entires from that book concerning artwork in the Berghof (although I must advise caution when using this book, and only take what it says with outside confirmation - the book is a collection taken from the writings of Otto Günsche and Heinz Linge while they were in Soviet captivity after the war, and it was edited by Soviet officers for Stalin to read).

p. 9 - A valuable old Italian painting of the Colosseum in Rome hung in the "drawing room."
(This is the Pannini we were discussing before, that I had thought was in Munich but was actually in the Berghof (see below). It must have sometimes hung in the Haus Wachenfeld part, because that's what the editors called the "drawing room.")

p. 9 - "A few steps led down to the drawing room, next to the lowest of which a head of Zeus excavated in Italy stood on a pedestal."
(I have no idea what they mean - I've not seen a bust in the Berghof that looks like a head of Zeus. Anyone else know what they might be talking about? Surely not the bust of Dietrich Eckart? Were Günsche and/or Linge pulling the Russians' leg???)

p. 9 - A bust of Richard Wagner was on the Bechstein grand piano.
(Confirming what we speculated before.)

p. 9 - A portrait of Bismarck was in the Berghof entrance hall.
(see below)

p. 9 - The portrait above the fireplace in Hitler's office was Helmuth von Moltke, Chief of the Prussian General Staff.
(see below)

Geoff

[Geoff Walden]

I forgot to point out - in the postcard view above of Hitler in his office, you can see a lamp in the background. The lampshade was decorated by Sofie Stork (also spelled Sophie Storck), an artist friend of Hitler's and Eva Braun's, and part of it (at least) still exists. It was part of the war booty of an officer in the French 2nd Armored Division on the Obersalzberg in May 1945. Four soldiers took the lampshade apart and each kept a piece.

Geoff

[Geoff Walden]

Sofie Stork also decorated the famous Kachelofen (tile stove) in the Haus Wachenfeld part of the Berghof. When the Berghof was built around Haus Wachenfeld in 1935-36, the original green tile Kachelofen was replaced by a biege color stove with tiles painted by Sofie Stork. I have seen these scenes described as Nazi girls and drummer boys, but they were actually Trachten costumes, the traditional wear of German peasants. (These were interspersed with tiles showing flowers.)

The large tile at the top did have Nazi flags and pennants on it, and some saying at the bottom (I can't make it out) flanked by swastikas. But the people were still dressed in Trachten, not in Nazi or Hitler Youth uniforms.

Geoff Walden

[majorplm]

Hello Geoff,

Please find below a fragment of the Kachelofen (private coll. photo G.T.), you can see in black the monogram of Sofie Stork "S" with "St".

[Johnnyrocket]

This is a great thread. Thanks.
This thread would ma a great book idea.

Johnny R.