circa 1935. From the Old Reich Chancellery. The handle features a relief national eagle with surrounding decorative border. Reverse stamped "Bruckmann" and "90" for the fine silver plating, length: 23.5 cm, slight signs of use, condition 1-
This silverware was in use in the Old Reich Chancellery, as well as in German embassies abroad.

We were able to acquire a small remaining stock from US war booty.

The canteen of the Reich Chancellery was under the direction of Arthur Kannenberg (* February 23, 1896 in Charlottenburg; † January 26, 1963 in Düsseldorf). Kannenberg was Adolf Hitler's house intendant. Kannenberg graduated from the Werdersche Oberrealschule in Berlin with intermediate school diploma and began an apprenticeship in 1912 in his father Oskar Kannenberg's gastronomic business. From 1915 he served in Telegraph Battalion I and was discharged in 1918 as a private first class. From 1924 he managed his father's establishments, the Restaurant Kannenberg, Hotel Stadt Berlin and the excursion restaurant Onkel Toms Hütte located in Grunewald, which went bankrupt in 1930.

As manager of Pfuhl's Wine and Beer Taverns, where well-known Nazi leaders such as Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring also frequented, he met Hitler, who offered him the management of the canteen at the party headquarters Braunes Haus in Munich. He took up this position in 1931. Subsequently, he was also given management of the canteen of the NSDAP Reichsführerschule on Schwanthalerstraße.

After Hitler became Reich Chancellor in 1933, Kannenberg became house intendant in the Reich Chancellery. In this role, he organized the operations of the Führer's household. This included particularly the hiring of staff, procurement of food and beverages and preparation of menus, but also the organization of catering at state receptions both in the Reich Chancellery and occasionally at the Berghof; during the war he was then active at the Führer Headquarters in the Wolfsschanze and finally in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.

In May 1945 he was interned by the Americans and released on July 25, 1946.
Many pieces from the Reich Chancellery were popular souvenirs of the occupation troops after the war's end, but many Berliners also restocked their often bombed-out households with the remains of the Reich Chancellery.

471458

€ 950,00

Third Reich Adolf Hitler: Asparagus Server from the Silverware of the Old Reich Chancellery

This asparagus server made of silver-plated cutlery represents a remarkable testimony to the material culture of the Third Reich and particularly the representative furnishings of the Old Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Manufactured around 1935, this piece of cutlery comes from the production of the renowned firm Bruckmann in Heilbronn, which numbered among Germany's most significant silverware manufacturers and became an exclusive supplier for state representational purposes.

The Old Reich Chancellery on Wilhelmplatz in Berlin had served as the office and residence of German Reich Chancellors since 1878. After the seizure of power in 1933, the building became the central control point of National Socialist rule. The representative furnishing of this institution with high-quality silverware corresponded to the importance of the location as a center of state representation and diplomatic receptions. The cutlery was used not only in the Reich Chancellery itself but also deployed in German embassies abroad to underscore the regime's claim to state dignity at official occasions.

The firm Peter Bruckmann & Söhne in Heilbronn had risen since its founding in 1805 to become one of Germany's leading silverware manufacturers. The stamp "Bruckmann" together with the number "90" on the reverse of the asparagus server indicates a fine silver plating of 90 grams per twelve place settings, which corresponded to the contemporary standard for high-quality silver-plated cutlery. The relief imperial eagle on the handle shows the official state symbol of the German Reich as standardized from 1935: the eagle with spread wings holding an oak wreath with swastika in its talons.

The organization of catering in the Reich Chancellery was the responsibility of Arthur Kannenberg (1896-1963), who functioned as Adolf Hitler's house steward. Kannenberg had begun his career in gastronomy and managed various establishments belonging to his father before these went bankrupt in 1930. His acquaintance with leading National Socialists at Pfuhl's Wine and Beer Taverns in Berlin paved his way to higher positions. From 1931 he directed the casino in the Brown House in Munich, the NSDAP party headquarters, and was appointed house steward of the Reich Chancellery in 1933.

In this function, Kannenberg was responsible for the entire household organization: staff recruitment, procurement of food and beverages, preparation of menus, and the arrangement of state receptions. These took place not only in the Old and later in the New Reich Chancellery, which Albert Speer constructed in 1938/39, but occasionally also at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden. During the war, Kannenberg's sphere of activity shifted to the various Führer headquarters, lastly to the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery, where he continued his service until the collapse in May 1945.

After the war's end, the inventory of the destroyed Reich Chancellery became coveted booty. American, British, and Soviet soldiers took numerous objects as war souvenirs. Simultaneously, Berlin citizens also plundered the ruins to re-equip their households destroyed by air raids. Thus cutlery pieces, porcelain, and other furnishing items from the Reich Chancellery found their way around the world.

The present piece is part of a small remaining stock from American war booty that made the long journey from Berlin across the Atlantic and returned to Germany decades later. Such objects possess an ambivalent status today: on one hand, they are authentic historical testimonies of the Nazi era and the material culture of a criminal regime; on the other hand, relics of a defunct state representation. Their scientific and museum value lies in their function as material sources that enable insights into the everyday practice and self-presentation of the National Socialist state.

The slight traces of use on the asparagus server testify to its actual employment at official occasions. One can imagine how this piece of cutlery was used at state receptions where foreign diplomats and dignitaries were entertained. The choice of the asparagus server as a cutlery piece is not coincidental: asparagus was considered a particularly noble vegetable in 1930s Germany and was preferentially served at festive occasions.

Today such objects remind us of the ambivalence of material culture: they were part of a system of representation and demonstration of power that was based on violence, terror, and genocide. Their preservation in collections serves historical education and documentation, not glorification. Arthur Kannenberg was interned by the Americans in May 1945 and released on July 25, 1946. He died in Düsseldorf in 1963, largely forgotten by history.