Alexander Historical Auctions of Chesapeake City, Maryland USA has a rare auction underway, an original “Hoffman” photograph. See the auction here at alexautographs.com. A famous photograph taken by Adolf Hitler’s then personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffman is up for sale to the highest bidder.
Hitler’s personal photographer captioned a photo of Hitler with Nienau, “Hitler’s Sweetheart – it delighted him to see her at the Berghof until some busybody found she was not of pure Aryan descent.” Found on the lot details at alexautographs.com.
The photograph
The photo features a five or six year old Rosa Bernile Nienau being embraced by Hitler at the Berghof in June of 1933. It is believed that she was able to be the center of a photo op because of her shared April 20 birthday with Hitler. After all the occasion of the photograph being taken was Hitler’s late-birthday celebration. This seems to be a likely explanation.
The Berghof was Hitler’s home in the Bavarian Alps located in Bavaria, Germany. Hitler spent more time here than at any other location during the second World War.
Updated: The sale was finalized Wednesday November 14, 2018. The final asking price was $9,000.
At a current bid of over $5,000 US dollars there is nearly two days left in the bidding. It is estimated the photograph will be sold at an estimated price of $7,000 to an upwards of $10,000.
Hitler with Eva Braun at Berghof, Bavarian Alps. Wikipedia Commons
In the auction lot there are several other pieces attached in a combined offering. For instance there is a 1951 letter from the Authorities Office of Otto Hübner requesting to purchase the photograph. The letter written in German reads “…I will also speak on this matter to Mrs. A Winter, former housekeeper of Adolf Hitler. For my personal archive I have great interest to acquire this picture. Please inform me about your decision. Yours sincerely! Otto Hübner”.
The Führer’s child
In the spring of 1933 Bernile was on a visit on Obersalzberg when she caught Hitler’s attention. This was an introduction that would lead to a public relationship for several years.
Bernile became recognized, appearing alongside Hitler, so much so that she became known as “the Führer’s Sweetheart”. Nienau in letters referred to him as “Uncle Hitler.” The girl’s family, according to the auction site, continued to keep in touch with high ranking members of the Nazi Party including Hitler, until being informed in May 1938 that the relationship would not continue further.
Germany’s Nazi Party in power
In 1933 the same year the photograph is taken, Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg on January 30. After the Reichstag Fire of February President Hindenburg signed into law the Reichstag Fire Decree, erasing German civil liberties in the stroke of a pen. The same night dozens of Communists were arrested, citing the new decree.
The Nazi Party with Hitler at its head makes a march on its enemies in an effort to carry out the Führer’s agenda. On March 1 of the same year the Nazis arrest hundreds, mostly political opponents. By March 20 the first Nazi concentration camp Dachau is completed. Finally, by July of 1933 all political parties besides the Nazis are outlawed.
21 March 1933 President Paul von Hindenburg meets Adolf Hitler. Wikipedia Commons
Discrimination against German Jews
Nazi persecution of German Jews begins with a boycott of Jewish businesses on April 1, 1933. It continues into that same week, and on April 7 the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service passes. Jews were banned from all government jobs. Further legislation removes Jews from other professional positions as well.
Grandparents were used as the basis for determining racial purity under the new Nazi racial policies enabled by the Nuremberg Laws. Under these laws anyone with three or more Jewish grandparents was considered Jewish. Those who were Jewish by descent or technically classified as such by the laws were no longer allowed to be German citizens. Nearly half of all German Jews had left the country by the end of 1938.
Imbued with dictatorial power, Hitler put his plan into action for the extermination of the Jewish people. An estimated six million European Jews, homosexuals, political dissidents and other enemies of the Nazi regime lost their lives during the Holocaust. Bernile’s grandmother, Ida Voit was of Jewish descent, therefore this did go over well with the Nazi Party’s leaders.
1935 Nuremberg Laws Racial Chart. Wikipedia Commons
A relationship undone
Also included in the price of the auction, a first-edition memoir by Hoffman titled “Hitler Was My Friend”.(London: Burke Publishing Co.)The auction site mentions a caption found on one of the photographs in the memoir. The picture features a the two posing during a celebration of Hitler’s Birthday party at the Berghof in the Bavarian Alps.
Hitler and Nienau both had an April 20th Birthday. Hoffman’s caption reads, “Hitler’s Sweetheart – it delighted him to see her at the Berghof until some busybody found she was not of pure Aryan descent.”
Hoffman once complained to Hitler that he was no longer able to publish photographs of Nienau. After head of the Nazi Party Chancellery Martin Borman learned of Bernile’s Jewish ancestry, he requested that she be removed from all sightings with Hitler.
Bernile went on to become a technical draftsman. She died of polio on October 5, 1943 at the young age of 17.
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