When Lenin held Hitler in check...
A PICTURE of a young Adolf Hitler playing chess with Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in Vienna 100 years ago has come to light.
The etching, by Hitler’s art teacher, Emma Lowenstramm, is signed on the reverse by both men. Hitler, 20, was a jobbing artist in the city in 1909 and Lenin, 39, was in exile.
The house where they allegedly played 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 in Ludlow, Shropshire, next month. Both items have a pre-sale estimate of £40,000.
The unnamed vendor is confident the items are genuine. His father spent a lifetime attempting to prove their authenticity and compiled a 300-page document that included tests on the paper, the signatures and research on those involved.
Experts, however, have questioned the portrayal of Lenin.
Historian Helen Rappaport said: “In 1909 Lenin was in France and there is no evidence that he was in Vienna. He was also as bald as a bat by 1894 with just hair on the sides of his head.”