Adolf Hitler 50th Birthday Silver Presentation Cross

[Adrian]

I will also be sending photos of two sets of Oak Leaves with Swords. For these I would appreciate comments from members who either own a known original or have examined a know original personally in hand.
Reno

Then you will be very limited in your answers. I know of only two people here who fit into the above category. You are very welcome to post but please be aware that you cannot restrict the amount of members who are allowed to answer. This forum welcomes contributions from everyone and each opinion is valid and whether right or wrong is worthy of dicsussion.

Charlie Snyder is a long time and well known scammer and conman. Any item posted from his site will be met with derision and extreme scepticism as he sells the most awful junk. It is always advised to post photos of your own items and not use his photos as the members here will naturally assume you've wasted your money with the guy.

[M422A1]

Charlie Snyder is a long time and well known scammer and conman. Any item posted from his site will be met with derision and extreme scepticism as he sells the most awful junk. It is always advised to post photos of your own items and not use his photos as the members here will naturally assume you've wasted your money with the guy.

Charlie Snyder is so crooked that when he dies, they will have to screw him into the ground!

Mike

[Wagriff]

How very fortunate for Me, that I happen to have owned a Ritter with Oaks and Swords...I can't wait to see what delightfully rare thing you'll produce, after the last such fine article.

[Danmark]

Please post these detailed photographs that you mentioned earlier ........... prove all the skeptics wrong with a cross showing Adolf with a 'smile on his dial'

Dan

[Paul D]

And..........you are exactly right, I did use a stock photo from" that site" because i already had it on file...I did say I had only seen one other and stated the sale price. I'm happy that you "experts" are so concerned about something that you declared a "horrible fake"! The next post photos will NOT be from "that site" and will be of items that "that site" DOES NOT have...
Thanks!
Reno

It is a horrible fake !! Not really sure what road you are wanting to go down with these pieces !! I await your next photos with expectation !!

[HPL2008]

While this is probably an exercise in futility, maybe we should take a moment to explain to Reno - and perhaps other novice collectors - just why this cross is an absurd fake, or, more precisely, an absurd fantasy item.

First, and most basic, of all: Nothing implies that such a thing existed. No matter how hard you look, you are not going to find even the tiniest bit of evidence that there ever was such a thing as an "Adolf Hitler 50th Birthday Silver Presentation Cross". (And its presence on Mr. Snyder's site does not count as evidence; we are talking about period documentation here.)

Still, one might argue that new data surfaces all the time and that not all period documentation is known to us. So - just for the sake of argument - let us assume for a moment that the lack of documentation is irrelevant.

We now have to ask us just how likely the existence of this kind of "award" is. The answer is: Not likely at all. A number of special jubilee/commemorative medals for significant birthdays, wedding anniversaries and coronation jubilees of regents did exist back in Imperial German times, but the tradition ended with this era and had no place in the Nazi way of doing things.

Now - again, just for the sake of argument - let us assume that this, too, is irrelevant and that a "Hitler's 50th Birthday" medal/badge/thingy could have existed nonetheless. So, if such a thing had existed - How would it have looked? Does the design of the item seen at the start of this thread make any sense? The answer is: Not one bit.

The birthday/anniversary/jubilee medals of yore were traditionally just that: medals.. And so were the "been there" (as opposed to "done something") awards of the Nazi era, such as the "Flower War"-, Olympic Games- and West Wall-medals. Pinback crosses were always significant decorations (like the 1st classes of the EK and KVK or the 2nd Class of the Red Cross decoration). The idea of a "birthday medal" in the form of a pinback cross is absurd... and the idea of an alleged neck grade - with swords, no less! - even more so.

But it gets even better: This thing simply copies the design of the Iron Cross 1st Class with an added center medaillon featuring Hitler's profile and some dates on the arms of the cross. The very idea that the designer of such an award would be so unimaginative, lazy and tasteless to simply bastardize the design of a revered, high decoration with a more than 125-year long history is preposterous beyond belief... and could only be topped by the idea that this design would be accepted!

Furthermore: A word on Hitler's head on the cross... While the personality cult around the Führer was immense and all of Germany was filled with countless photographs, prints, paintings and busts of Hitler, there were some things he did not allow. One thing was to have statues of himself erected. Another was the appearance of this likeness on coins, medals and awards/decorations. That is why an initial design for the Austrian Annexation Medal featuring Hitler's profile was rejected. Go figure.

Now, for the quality: It is cheap and poor... And so obviously so that any further words on this aspect are really unnecessary. (And, by the way: What kind of maker's mark is "BERLIN" anyway?)

Finally, one more tiny detail: The date. When writing dates in German, there is always a period behind the numbers: "20. April", but never, as in English "20 April". Hard to believe that such a mistake would appear on a period German item.

If anybody, anywhere, still believes that this thing is or even could be real, they might be interested in an Eiffel Tower I have to sell.

[Adrian]

And that.....


.....is probably the best synopsis of this item you will ever read.


Thank You Andreas.