An extraordinary etching of a young Adolf Hilter playing chess against Vladimir Lenin has come to light. The art work is by Hilter’s Jewish art teacher Emma Lowenstramm who witnessed the game Photo: BNPS
Pictured: Hitler playing chess with Lenin
A picture of a young Adolf Hitler apparently playing chess against Vladimir Lenin 100 years ago has come to light.
Published: 9:56AM BST 03 Sep 2009
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.
Lenin was already a highly influential Russian figure who in 1907 went into exile once more after the revolution was crushed by Tsarist authorities.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
Seeing the picture of Hitler makes me vomit.
Seeing this atrocity makes me consider stopping to play chess.
I wonder if Hitler opened with b4? The Polish, as he did in 1939.
I never had an inkling that Hitler ever met with Lenin. If genuine, this painting in my very humble opinion is of great historical value. Perhaps 40,000 pounds is a low estimate for value, though I am not art expert. Truly amazing. Thank you for posting this, Susan.
-Justin Daniel
‘40,000 pounds’
Then buy it, you notsie lover.
It is a famous hoax, Hitler never met Lenin, although they both were in Vienna in 1909, but during the different time periods. It was some article on ChessPro sometime ago.
That seems like a MASSIVE stretch and a find that is too good to be true. There have been a lot concocted artifacts from that period cropping up, like the Hitler Diaries.
Think about how unlikely this is. The equivalent to finding an engraving of a young Obama playing chess with Ronald Reagan in 1979.
a] Yes, Hitler might have attended a Lenin speech.
b] Possibly Hitler shook hands with Lenin.
c] More improbable would be finding a picture of Hitler and Lenin in a photo together.
d] More improbable still would be a photo of Lenin and Hitler shaking hands in a photo, like Clinton-Kennedy.
e] An engraving of a 20 year-old Hitler and Lenin together is nearly unimaginable.
f] Finally, an engraving of them together ALONE as the subjects of an artwork. What planet does that happen on? You have a better shot at winning the lottery.
g] Finally, they happen to be playing CHESS! A supremely intellectual game which Lenin canonized as the official mark of Russian superiority over the rest of the world. The ultimate struggle of Communism verses National Socialism played out over the chess board!
H] And lastly, they both signed the engraving! How completely coincidental. How many of DaVinci’s models were asked to sign the back of his work?
If I were a betting man, I would wager my house that this work will eventually turn out to be something concocted after 1933.
It must the only game Hitler ever played. I’ve never heard of hitler playing chess. It is a hoax !
No! The picture is real! You can actually see a young William Goichberg sitting under the table taking notes from the two world dictators.
Also, you can see evidence of a lecherous old man in the background looking for children to molest.
The whole concept is a fraud because the image of Hitler in the sketch is not of a young early 20 something old man but a Hitler from the 1930’s!
This is so obvious!