Adolf Hitler playing chess with Lenin
HITLER and LENIN – their opposing ideologies would be a central part of the most destructive military clash of the 20th century.
But here the battleground was just a chessboard. This remarkable picture supposedly shows Adolf Hitler pitting his wits against Vladimir Lenin. And its owners claim it is based on a real chess game between the men 100 years ago.
While historians have cast doubt on its authenticity, the family which owns the picture is convinced they can prove it is genuine. The image is said to have been etched in Vienna by Hitler’s art teacher, Emma Lowenstramm. It is also said to be signed on the reverse by the men who would go on to lead their respective nations. Hitler was a 20-year-old jobbing artist in the city in 1909 and Lenin – twice his age – was in exile from Russia. The house where they apparently played the game belonged to a prominent Jewish family.
In the run-up to the Second World War the family fled and gave many of their possessions, including the etching and chess set, to their housekeeper.
Now the 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 they are genuine after his father spent a lifetime attempting to prove their authenticity. He compiled a 300-page document that included results of tests on the paper and the signatures. Richard Westwood-Brookes, of auctioneers Mullock’s, said: ‘The signatures in pencil are said to have an 80 per cent chance of being genuine.’ Some experts, however, have questioned the picture’s authenticity. Historian Helen Rappaport, author of Conspirator: Lenin in Exile, said the etching was probably a ‘glorious piece of fantasy’. She said there was no evidence Lenin had been in Vienna in 1909, adding that ‘he was as bald as a bat by 1894′ – unlike the man pictured, who has a full head of hair. The items are to be auctioned in Ludlow, Shropshire, on October 1.
From the “Chess history”
3958 mentioned a claim that Adolf Hitler was a chessplayer. It emanated from one of the chess world’s least credible sources, yet we note that a reference to Hitler having possibly played chess with Lenin in Vienna in 1909 appeared on page 188 of Persönlichkeiten und das Schachspiel by B. Rüegsegger (Huttwil, 2000):
‘Die jüdische Malerin Emma Löwenstamm (1879-1941) brachte in Wien Hitler und Lenin zusammen, um sie gemeinsam zu malen. Sie lud beide ins Atelier von Julius von Ludassy ein. Im Donau-Kurier Ingoldstadt vom 19. July 1984 erwähnt Bernd Kallina in seinem Artikel die damals angefertige Zeichnung, wo Lenin auf der Rückseite die Worte “Lenin mit Hitler” hingeschrieben haben soll.’
Weiter wird erwähnt, dass sich beide 1909 in Wien getroffen und zusammen Schach gespielt haben …’
Collage by Galina Toktalieva
From Daily Mail
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