Adolf Hitler’s phone sells for $240,000

Adolf Hitler’s personal telephone, which the Fuehrer used to dictate many of his World War II com­mands, sold at auction for $243,000, the US house selling it announced.

Originally a black Bakelite phone, later painted crimson and engraved with Hitler’s name, the relic was found in the Nazi lead­er’s Berlin bunker in 1945 following the re­gime’s defeat.

The auction house Alexander Historical Auctions, which did not reveal the winning bidder’s identity, had estimated its worth between $200,000 and $300,000. The start­ing bid for the auction on Sunday was set at $100,000.

The Maryland company auctioned off more than 1,000 items including the phone and a porcelain sculpture of an Alsatian dog for $24,300.

Both winners bid by telephone. More than 70 years old, the Siemens rotary tele­phone is embossed with a swastika and the eagle symbolic of the Third Reich.Alexan­der House dubbed the phone – which Hit­ler received from the Wehrmacht, Nazi Ger­many’s armed forces – as “arguably the most destructive ‘weapon’ of all time, which sent millions to their deaths”.

It said Hitler used it to give most of his orders during the last two years of World War II.

Russian officers gave the device to Brit­ish Brigadier Sir Ralph Rayner during a tour of the bunker shortly after Germany’s sur­render.

Rayner’s son, who inherited the phone, put it up for sale, its paint now peeling to re­veal the original synthetic black resin surface.

Andreas Kornfeld of Alexander House told AFP news agency its estimates were based on a number of factors, including “rar­ity and uniqueness”.

Source – The Authority