Description:

ORIGINAL PORTRAIT OF ADOLF HITLER, INCORPORATING HIS ANNOUNCEMENT OF WAR AGANST GREECE AND YUGOSLAVIA
An outstanding but very unusual original large portrait of Adolf Hitler, 20.75 x 27.5 in. (sight), oil on canvas, a depiction of the Fuhrer within an oval wreath of laurel and oak leaves, backed by a mobile swastika, all against a blue mosaic-pattern backdrop. Most unusually, the central portrait is overpainted with the complete text, in German, of Hitler's April 6, 1941 'Appeal to the German People', announcing the opening of hostilities with Yugoslavia and Greece. In very small part: '...Since British imperialism set out to conquer the world, its aim has been to entangle Europe and its peoples in ever new internal wars, thereby weakening them. England has all too often found statesmen and popular leaders, partly deluded and partly bribed, who placed their countries at the service of this British world domination. For centuries, the greatest beneficiary of these wars of conquest instigated by England has been Jewish high finance. Under the slogan of 'democracy', this conspiracy of imperialism and capitalism has led the world, and Europe in particular, into countless entanglements...No sooner had the power of the National Socialist movement succeeded in raising the German people and leading them to a new rise after one and a half decades of horrific disintegration of the German economy and German life than the same forces immediately proclaimed their old goal: the independent, rebuilding Germany must be destroyed once again!...Since the beginning of the war, England has persistently striven to win the Balkans as a theater of war. Indeed, British diplomats have succeeded in first trapping Greece by offering a guarantee, following the example of the World War, and finally by abusing it for their own purposes. The documents published today give us insight into the practice of a procedure which tries time and time again to get others to fight and bleed to death for English interests in accordance with the most ancient British recipes. In contrast to this, I have repeatedly emphasized the following: 1. that the German Volk is not in opposition to the Greek people, and 2. we will never tolerate that, as happened during the World War, a power gains a foothold on Greek territory aiming to penetrate the German Lebensraum from there when the time is ripe. We swept the northern flank clean of the British. We are determined not to tolerate a like threat in the south either. In the service of a true consolidation of Europe, I endeavored from the day I seized power to establish friendly relations above all with Yugoslavia. Consciously, I forgot about everything that had happened between Germany and Serbia. Not only did I offer the Serbs the hand of the German Volk, but I also labored, as an honest broker, to assist in a review of the difficulties in the relations between Serbia and individual nations allied to Germany. However, barely had the ministers who had signed the treaty returned to Belgrade before elements hired by the English, a military clique forever organizing coups d'état, struck back. The government which sought peace with Germany was toppled... The German envoy was insulted; the German military attaché was attacked; one of his assistants, an officer, was injured; numerous officials, representatives of companies, and so on, were publicly maltreated. German exhibition halls, businesses, offices, and firms were demolished and devastated. Countless women and men were beaten up, especially our Volksdeutsche, their businesses and apartments partially plundered, and a number of ethnic Germans were murdered in the process. These events were staged by the same creatures who, in the year 1914, had already plunged the world into nameless misfortune with the assassination at Sarajevo. And, just as at that time, the British Secret Service financed and incited this military clique of criminals. And even if the events are the same, one thing has changed: Now, the attacked state is not the erstwhile Austria but the present German Reich! The new Serb government has ordered a general mobilization. It has admitted to doing so secretly for days. Thus, it has revealed that it believes it to be able to have force replace peaceful relations with Germany. The force that it has summoned will now destroy it! The German Volk does not hate the Serb people! The German Volk sees no reason, above all, to fight Croatians and Slovenes. It does not want anything from them! The German Volk will get even with the Serb clique of criminals in Belgrade which believes it can place itself a second time at the disposal of the British assassination attempt on peace in Europe... Since this morning, the German Reich is fighting the usurpers of Belgrade and those units which Great Britain is again attempting to lead from the Balkans into battle against peace in Europe. The German Wehrmacht will not lay down its arms in this area until it has overthrown this circle of conspirators in Belgrade for good, and the last British man has left this part of the continent as well. May the unhappy, blinded people realize that they owe all this to the worst 'friend' this continent has had in the last three hundred years and continues to have: England. The German Volk has entered this fight in the knowledge that its leadership has done everything humanly possible to spare it this confrontation. All we now ask of Providence is that it continue to protect and bless the paths of our soldiers, as it has done up to now!' The painting is signed at bottom right by the artist, 'K. Streletzky', adding 'Munchen [Munich] 1941'. Shows horizontal crazing to the paint overall, likely from being rolled, with some abrasions to the upper right edge and with the text somewhat light at the upper left quadrant, otherwise in very good, vibrant condition. Nicely matted and framed, 28.25 x 38.5 in. overall.

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November 13, 2025 10:00 AM EST
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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