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Twenty-seven Pieces of Hitler's Formal Silver by Bruckmann,

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:8,000.00 - 10,000.00 USD
Twenty-seven Pieces of Hitler's Formal Silver by Bruckmann,
ca 1938, struck for Bruckmann & Sohn, Heilbronn, each having a National Eagle with wings folded and displayed, the talons holding a wreath with a swastika, flanked with the initials A.H., surrounded by a stepped border. All marked with the Bruckmann eagle and content marked with the crescent moon, crown and 800. Includes 2 tablespoons, 8.5", 5 dinner forks, 8.5", 4 luncheon forks, 7.25", 4 demitasse spoons, 4.5", 5 bouillon spoons, 5.625", 3 teaspoons, 5.75", 2 dessert forks, 5.75", an ice cream fork, 5.5" long and a gravy ladle, 7.5".

The Bruckmann "formal pattern" of presentation silver flatware was made as a spectacular 50th birthday present to Adolf Hitler, and appears to have been used exclusively by the firms of Bruckmann and Wellner. There are believed to be six complete sets of 500 pieces, or possibly five sets of 600 pieces, that were distributed among the places Hitler frequented the most: the "Berghof" (Hitler's Mountain home); "Der Adlerhorst" (the Eagle's Nest); the "Gasthaus" (Guest House) at Obersalzberg: the "Braune Haus" (the Brown House); the "Prinzregentenplaz" apartment in Munchen: and the "Reichskanzlei" in Berlin. Service pieces were of .925 silver and the matching tableware, which needed to be harder and more durable, was made of .800 silver.

Hitler's mountaintop chalet, the "Eagle's Nest", was another gift in celebration of his 50th birthday in 1938. It was an extravagant lodge and compound of 80 buildings that served as Hitler's second seat of government, was where the major decision leading up to WWII was inspired, and which was his planned refuge of last resort. It included a complex underground bunker system which included meeting rooms, offices and archives for the government, and lavish living quarters for Hitler connected by four miles of tunnels cut through solid rock by slave labor. All was stripped bare after the war, and almost everything was destroyed by the victorious allies.

Family legend purports that these pieces were found in the bunker system of Der Adlerhorst (the Eagle's Nest), Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden, Germany, by Staff Sergeant Walter E. Neal, who served for 15 months in France, Germany and Austria with the 232nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Rainbow Division, and brought back to the States following the War.(Historical information courtesy of www.hitlersnest.co.uk and www.ricksteves.com).
Condition: Some expected wear from use; few tines bent on dessert forks; tarnish; some oxidation to a demi spoon.