Lot 685

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Description:

SALZBURG GAULEITER GUSTAV ADOLF SCHEEL - BANNER, FLAG, RELIC AND PHOTOGRAPH GROUPING
A most important and extensive group of items seized by an American soldier from the Salzburg, Austria office of Gauleiter, Superior SS Leader and Chief of the S.D. Gustav Adolf Scheel (1907-1979), a favorite of Adolf Hitler and appointed in his last testament to serve as Reich Minister for Science, Art, and National Education. Included in this historic grouping is Scheel's gauleiter's office banner, 58" x 48", a red velvet field with silver metallic cloth national eagle and swastika, the details expertly embroidered, with the design bordered with a 1 3/4" band of the same silver cloth. This was a hanging banner as one edge shows the once-hidden canvas loop which was wrapped about a horizontal pole. The bottom of the banner bears a silver metal fringe. Also present is a 32" x 19" single-sided N.S.D.A.P. hanging banner, two-piece construction with white cloth fringe on three sides and fabric ties on the fourth side which suspended the flag vertically. Also included are other important official items belonging to Scheel, including his personal leather desk portfolio, 10" x 13 1/2" with gilt eagle and swastika on the cover and containing within two of Scheel's official calling cards and five pieces of letterhead; an official hand stamp from his office (not his personal hand stamp); Scheel's SS black-bordered armband of three piece construction with RZM tag within; excessively rare 15" embroidered cuff title "HJ Wache des Gauleiters"; and two RZM-marked silver garment buttons. Of a more personal nature is a sterling silver cigarette case, 3 1/4" x 3 3/4" engraved within with the signatures of six friends, 1926-28; a high-quality gold stickpin displaying a static swastika and sword; a presentation set of 113 stereoscopic photographs and viewer set into the 8" x 11 1/2" volume "Greater Germany Reborn" by Dr. Karl Bartz, Vienna, ca. 1938, the photos centered on the Anschluss, Vienna and the Danube, with printed presentation by Vienna Gauleiter Josef Burckel; five books from Scheel's office including a 1943 war atlas, a pictorial history "The National Socialist Revolution in Vienna", copies of Hitler's 1936 and 1937 speeches, etc.; and four large 1944 calendar photos showing Scheel alone, with Hitler, Goebbels, and with Otto Skorzeny. Approximately 130 original candid photographs found in Scheel's office are also present, including 17 or more picturing Adolf Hitler. Topics include visits by Hitler, Mussolini and Hermann Goring to Salzburg and Schloss Klessheim, Martin Bormann, Wilhelm Keitel, Robert Ley, Francisco Franco, Fedor von Bock, Walther von Brauchitsch, Hermann Esser, Ernst Henlein, Ambassador Hiroshi Oshima, the funeral of Adolf Hunlein, a Munich parade in memory of the Beer Hall Putsch, Party Day parades, Hitler Youth Gauleiter Security members, and Scheel himself in a number of different settings. This grouping was obtained by T/Sgt. Samuel Sack of the Headquarters Detachment of XV Corps whom it appears served as a personal aide or clerk to a general. A very large quantity of documents and letters were kept by Sack, with many placing him in Austria. These also include several hundred pages of after action reports from October, 1944 through the Battle of the Bulge until well after the end of the war, almost all marked as "Secret" or "Restricted", commendations, orders, newsletters, newspapers printed at sea including one mentioning Patton's firing for de-nazification comments, and much more of great interest. GUSTAV ADOLF SCHEEL (1907-1979), originally a physician, was born the son of an Evangelical minister and joined the NSDAP in 1930. In 1934 he joined the SD and advocated for the exclusion of Jewish students from academia. In 1941 Scheel was appointed SS Brigadeführer and a police major general, and in the same year, he was installed as Gauleiter of Salzburg. After the discovery of resistance groups in Salzburg, he organized a widespread wave of arrests, including members of the White Rose. Gauleiter Scheel was also responsible for the deportation of thousands of Karlsruhe Jews to their deaths in concentration camps. At the end of the war, the unrepentant Nazi was repeatedly tried and jailed until 1954 when a lack of evidence freed Scheel to practice medicine until his death. Scheel was also involved with fellow Austrian Otto Skorzeny in the Naumann Circle, a post-war effort to re-establish Nazi administrators to counter the influence of the Soviets in East Germany. Rarely does a grouping of this scope from such an influential gauleiter come to market!

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March 18, 2016 10:30 AM EDT
Chesapeake City, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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Bid Increments
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$0 $99 $10
$100 $499 $20
$500 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 + $10,000