Is this Adolf Hitler Golden Walther PP Authentic?
An Educational Walk In Wednesday
Hey guys! Today I have a fun video for you. I didn't know if I should call it a Walk In Wednesday. It's more like an educational video because I'm going to talk to you about this gun, which is obviously meant to imply that it belonged to Adolf Hitler, due to the insignia. And the education you're going to receive is when you buy something that purportedly belonged to Adolf Hitler, you might want to do some due diligence. So let's check this out.
Hey I saw this gun, what do you think?
Now first of all, I found out about this gun by one of our viewers, thank you for letting me know. They sent me a link to a website and said, hey, there's somebody who has Hitler's gun. Actually the website never said this was Hitler's gun. I want to be clear about that. But, this gun is out there. Do you think it's real? So I went to the site, and I called up and said, hey, I would like to get this gun just to show it to my viewers, so they know what to watch out for. And I'm hoping that you'll enjoy this.
We already looked at a replica of Hilter's PP
Now about six months ago, you might remember I did a video about -- Hitler actually did have a Walther PP. I always feel strange saying we're going to be looking at Hitler's PP. But we did look at a replica of Hitler's PP, and I did a video you can check it out. There's a link right here.
Quick recap of that video
First and foremost, this is a working gun. It was made by the American Historical Society, and they do make guns that are replicas of famous guns. So this gun was made in the early 90s. And I have a letter about that, and they only made five. But this is a pretty stunning example of the gun that Hitler was given on his 50th birthday.
We actually got two of these
We actually got two of these, I think they made ten of them. And they're an exact replica of the Walther PP that was in Hitler's Munich apartment. There was a safe in his apartment, and two GI went up, and evidently were able to blow up in the safe and brought back a gun that was issued by Walther to Adolf Hitler. And it has a very distinct look. Again, this is just a replica, but it's a gold engraved, deeply engraved. I have not seen that gun in person, but I believe that one is authentic and was gifted to Hitler.
Hitler was not big on guns
But as I say, in the video, he's not known to walk around with a gun unlike other officers. Goring is the most stunning example of somebody was very flamboyant and swords and a baton, and the dagger and lots of guns and shotguns, a little bit of everything. He was always around guns, and I believe a gun collector. Hitler, on the other hand, was not big on guns, and therefore not a lot of guns belonged to Hitler. Although today there are a lot of guns that are purported to have belonged to Hitler and this might be one of them. Meaning I'm not purporting this as Hitler's but it was meant to look like Hitler's gun. Let's take a closer look.
Let's look at this one
So let's start off with the box. First of all, I actually like the box a lot. So this is a black leather at this looks pretty old. Maybe brass, and it tells me this was perhaps done right after the war.
Hitler Memorabilia
Now what I wanted to say about Hitler memorabilia, first of all, there is a lot of Hitler items that came back. Most of it would be things like this. There's like napkins and glassware and silverware. And they have this particular logo. We've carried these before. And usually they came back, people who were in the eagle's nest, 101st airborne brought some stuff back that were in a banquet hall, but also at Hitler's at residence and different places throughout Germany, whenever he would have a banquet. They did actually have real glassware, stemware and that is available. It's fairly expensive and it's very hard to authenticate. Because is, of course, is not serial numbered. And you know, at $1200 - $2,500 per glass, you're highly motivated to try to replicate it. But something like a gold engraved, people of course would, if it really was Hitler's it could easily be worth half a million to a million dollars.
It all started right after the war
So people were very motivated to replicate things like this. And I think this industry started the day after the war ended. Because after all, if you're a GI and you go over there, and you have kids at home or a wife at home, or Mom and Dad, what did you want to bring home other than I took this from Adolf Hitler's house. So like I said, they've been replicating Adolf Hitler memorabilia. Since the day after the war. I'm going to give you four reasons why I believe this is not real. In fact, I'm not even going to say I believe I'm sure. I'm sure this was never issued to Adolf Hitler.
I'm sure this gun was not issued to Adolf Hitler - #1
But it is an actual Walther PP from the serial number we know that this gun was made in 1944. So right toward the end of the war. And also, and this is reason number one, it could not have been issued to Adolf Hitler, it's Waffen stamped, which means it went to the German military. They were always blued, and then 1944, it would be a dull blue. Here's an example of a 1944 era, PP that would have gone to the military. You see Waffen proof and it's a dull blue.
Reason #2
The second reason you can see here are all of the gold engraved guns -- here's another one we're going to be looking at. But all the gold engraved presentation guns that I've seen have ivory grips, or white grips or some kind of a special grip, not the standard black grip, and this has a standard black grip. This magazine might have been swapped out but that's a blued magazine. That's actually not been messed with.
Reason #3
So reason number one, it was issued to the military, not to Adolf Hitler. Reason number two, it would have had a fancier grip, like an ivory grip, or something engraved wooden engraved I've seen. Third reason is because of the level of detail or lack thereof, the most popular. This is a floral engraving. And I've not seen that style before in the German markets. Most of them were oak leaf and acorn, such as this one.
Comparing the details on the engraved guns
Here, you can do a comparison here of the gold engrave replica which looks brand new, and then this one. But to get the level of detail, we'll look at one that was actually made wartime, 1940, it has eagle and proofs. Look at the level of detail. First of all, it's deeper engraved, and it's oak leaf. But you'll notice it's stippling. Behind the oak leaf, there's veins in the Oak Leaf. You can see here, the level of detail on the safety lever. If you look at the top of the trigger, there's a couple of oak leaves, actually oak leaf and an acorn. Oak leaves here and you can just see the level of detail is not at all the same. Let's take a look at the front. The front strap you can see really clearly the level of detail underneath. Look at the trigger guard level of detail. I wish this one had as much gold as this one.
This replica actually shows it was done a while back
Oh it does show age, so I don't think it was done recently. And the case shows age. There's verdigris right here. So this shows age, the finishes age, I was done some time. The gun was made in 44 but this work was done sometime after the war. It might have been in the 50s or 60s.
Unfortunately, we don't have much of this craft today
A lot of these craftsmen have now passed on, so I see a lot less of this going on today. I don't know anybody -- well I do I actually do know somebody who's still engraving Walther PPs and PPKs. But most of the guys that used to do this kind of craftsmanship are no longer around because the current generation just has not learned this art. And that may change, it also may be all done by computers at some point. I also love the bottom of this one. Look at that magazine. How it's deeply engraved with oak leaf there's even engraving here, and nothing there, although in fairness, if it had a flat bottom, whoever did it could have engraved that. Look at the detail between here and here. So just fun to look at. Now this one does have the ivy grips, even the screw the end of the screw is engraved. I wonder if this -- well this one is not because it doesn't even have the right grips. That's not engraved, but even that's engraved. You can see the eagle and swastika here. But also notable is HG or GH; could this be Hermann Goering?
A little about Hermann Goring
Well, I wanted to say a little bit about Hermann Goering. He was a man that did have a lot of engraved guns. In fact, here's a picture of his engraved Krieghoff and he ordered 10 of these. He had guns engraved all the time and gave them out. Also Himmler, we've done Himmler sharpshooter, and he would actually sign his name on Walther PPs. PPKs and Sauer 38H's and we've featured those before. But was this Hermann Goring. I have no provenance to say that but certainly he did have a lot more guns and give them out on a regular basis as opposed to Hitler, who really wasn't known to do that.
Review
Okay, so I gave you three reasons. One is the lack of the lack of detail in the engraving, the fact that it's Waffen proofed, the fact that it just has standard grips and then finally the AH.
It's the AH for me
And I get it makes me chuckle. I hope you'll get a little chuckle out of this as well. So first of all we have AH on the box with the eagle. That actually is kind of cool. I if ever do get Adolf Hitler's gun I would put it in this box because the box does look old and it wasn't made by Walther but a craftsman --It was done after the war. Let's not even speculate it was done after the war. But we have AH here, we have AH here, and AH here. Now who puts their initials on the gun three times. I mean, he wasn't that flamboyant, gaudy. Not at all. And even Goring, would only put a -- we have other guns that have the initials but it's only in one spot. So the fact that he put it in three times he whoever did this said, I really want you to know that this was Adolf Hitler's so I'm going to put it on there 1-2-3 times. And there's a fourth.
My thoughts in a video
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to go over this with you. Obviously if you were going to buy something like this, and kudos to the guy who saw it on the internet and sent me a copy and said, hey, check this out. What do you think? Well, I just did a video about what I think. Hey guys, thanks for watching. I don't know about you, but I prefer this one over this one.