Hitler etching by Emma Lowenstamm Vienna 1909 showing Adolf Hitler playing chess with a man who has been identified as Lenin. Overall size approx 20x15ins. The etching has been signed by Emma Lowenstamm in the border of the image and on the back there is another signature of her together with pencil markings which have been identified as being the signatures of Hitler and Lenin. The etching is in fine condition. The etching is accompanied by a 300 page dossier of evidence painstakingly compiled by Felix Edenhofer the present vendor’s father throughout his life. He devoted himself to proving beyond any doubt that the image was authentic and was indeed executed from life by Emma Lowenstamm in Vienna in 1909. The dossier contains reports from forensic and other experts as well as testimonies from many witnesses seeking to prove that Emma Lowenstamm certainly existed that she was certainly an artist operating in Vienna at the time and most astoundingly of all that she was Adolf Hitler’s personal art tutor. The provenance of the etching – as well as the chess set itself which is offered as the following lot – is that they both were in a high status Jewish household in Vienna – where indeed the sketches for the etching are believed to have been made. It is a well established fact that the young Adolf Hitler was residing in Vienna at the time eking out a living as a struggling artist. Ironically it was the Jewish community in Vienna who befriended him the most and helped him to market his paintings. The presence of Lenin – or to give him his proper name Vladimir Ulyanov – in the etching is more difficult to decipher. Having adopted the name ‘Lenin’ in 1901 in order to confuse the Russian State Police who were constantly on his tracks it is known that he operated in Germany for some years. The concept that Hitler the exterminator of the Jews was in fact taught his art by a Jewish tutor beggars belief – but certainly runs true with the accepted fact that the struggling Hitler was befriended by many Jews in Vienna at this time. In Felix Edenhofer’s dossier he takes great pains to establish that Emma Lowenstamm existed. It is Edenhofer’s contention that she did indeed exist was an art tutor in Vienna and did teach the young Adolf Hitler. Furthermore he contends based on testimonies obtained during his lifetime that Hitler protected her once he came to power and that unlike so many fellow Jews did not suffer the terror’s of Nazi anti-Semitism nor died at their hands. She in fact lived out her life and died of natural causes in 1941. The fact that so many official documents as to Lowenstamm’s existence and activities have disappeared adds speculation to this belief – Hitler would hardly have wished it to be known in the anti-Semitic world he had created in the 1920s and 30s that he owed his very early career to the tuition of a Jewish art teacher. Just how the etching and the chess set came into the possession of Edenhofer’s family is also established in his dossier.
