Newsletter 249 March 29, 2017
This is a communication from a reader. I have redacted his name to protect him from vengeful and deluded collectors and exposed dealers”
“Dear Mr. Royster:
I read your site regularly and have learned a great deal from it. It has kept me from buying some of the many fakes that the dealers, and auction houses, are offering to collectors.
I have a question for you and would appreciate your answer.
Someone has offered me a German Cross in Gold with diamonds. It has the name ‘Rath’ engraved in flowing script on the back of the fastening pin. The story is that this came from the Schloss Klessheim vault and that a U.S. Army Combat Engineer Battalion found this, and other rare pieces.
I know there was, and is, a Schloss Klessheim but is this story true?”
Response:
No, sir, it is a fiction. The Deutsche Kreuz in Gold mit Brillianten was a contemplated medal, but never instituted.
Rath was a Munich jeweler who made decorations, like the Blood Order, for the NSDAP. A prototype of this projected decoration was indeed made and the sample found by a U.S. Army unit but this, and three other medals, went to the U.S. Army museum at West Point.
The Combat Engineer Battalion mentioned by several dealers, never existed during the Second World War and the flood of rare medals alleged to have been “discovered and looted” by them is an invention.
Lies always have short legs and the con men never are intelligent enough to do proper research and always get caught out.
Also to note, the Berlin decorations firm of C.E. Juncker made the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. Kleitmann, a thoroughly dishonest “expert,” claimed that Junckers had made ten copies so that he and his friends could sell them to trusting suckers.
There were only two Grand Crosses made by C.E. Juncker and both went to Goering. One example of a post-war copy was allegedly found in Goering house on the Obersalzburg by a U.S. soldier but the inventor of this story did not know that Goering’s house had been bombed flat during an American Air Corps bombing raid and the house reduced to rubble.
More lies with short legs.
I hope I have not ruined your day for you and do not buy any “Hitler Ehrenburger” certificates. All the originals of these were burnt by the SS units stationed by the Berghof and there are pictures of the charred remains in a period LIFE magazine.
A German artist made a bit of money producing these after the war. He sold them to dealers and collectors for DM 100,- which was about $25 dollars at the time.
This kept him in beer money.
Sincerely,
Arthur Royster
English (United States) 
German
10 thoughts on “Newsletter 249 March 29, 2017”
You know, there are people on this planet that believe all kinds of nonsense. The so-called “blogs” have pages of nut news such as giant lizards running the banks or that President Trump is actually a space alien. And the stories about “veteran finds of Adolf Hitler’s ruby ring” or such like nonsense. Yet there are collectors with money and no common sense who will go for stories that a three year old would not. They want to believe and so they do. And remember that a fool and his money are soon parted!
Eric
There are two levels of collectors. There are the realists who collect genuine items and the hopefuls who buy dreams. And the dream collectors rush to the dream merchants to buy obviously humped or fantasy pieces. And I agree that the blogs sell garbage to the public but then many of the blogs are run by our government and their purpose is to conceal and confuse ugly facts with entertaining fictions. ADR
My God, if you got all the Klessheim treasures together in a room, you would need a room the size of 757 hanger and if you didn’t wear dark glasses, you would be blinded by the shining diamonds.
Some place outside of Florence, Italy, is making the leather covers for the Knights Cross papers. The standard terra cotta brown ones and the white leather ones (with the gilded eagle on the cover)
The papers are being made in China thanks to an American dealer who works for the CIA.
He thinks he’s safe!
So a great stack of fancy leather and gilded metal Third Reich documents that are being offered are fake as hell.
On the original Knights Cross parchment documents, the letters of the recipient’s name are cut out and then gilded before being put down.
The fake ones are not.
And what about that fake Doenitz Grand Admiral’s baton that Chink architect bought from that California dealer?
That and the Grand Cross document sold for over a million!
Jesus, talk about serious crime here!
If some of these slimy thieves aren’t careful, we could put a half a dozen of them in the cooler for mail fraud!
Why not give it a try?
Brian
I have enough solid information in my files, information gleaned from websites and angry collectors, to put at least three big dealers behind bars for mail fraud.
They can always claim they bought this or that fake from an unknown person at a big show and did not realize it was fake so I have gotten in touch with the suppliers of fakes as a potential customer and cited the dealer I want to target.
You would be surprised how many Pakistani, Indian,Polish and Chinese fake makers write back and tell me that indeed, Mr. This or That is a “very good customer and buys many of my products.” This negates the “Gee-I-didn’t-know” excuse and leaves them open to prosecution.
Tipping off the left wing and Jewish media is another way to get negative publicity.
And the Donetz baton is another piece of entertainment.
I wonder if the raped collector in Hong Kong dares to show it to his friends?
The California dealer no doubt giggled all the way to the bank.
I wonder if they would giggle when the judge in Federal court says, “Will the defendant please rise?”
ADR
Dear Herr Royster,
in reference to Schloss Klessheim I was wondering where all the Knight’s Crosses of the War Merit Cross come from? Especially the gold versions. Nimmergut said there are only two awarded?
Herbert
Dear Sir:
There were no Knight’s Crosses of the War Service Cross, in gold or silver, in Klessheim.
Albert Speer wanted Hitler to upgrade the decoration to a gold issue but Hitler refused. You will find a transcript of this in Boelcke’s book, “Deutschlands Rustung im Zweiten Weltkreig” Athenaiom, 1969.This is a coverage of the Speer/Hitler conferences from 1942-1945.
Speer did have plated, and did present, two such medals, without swords, to his people.
These were personal gifts, not legitimate medals and gold plated crosses with swords are a pure Keiitmann fiction, as was the Bandenkampf abz. in gold with brilliants.
Sauer was one of the recipients of the decoration, again, without swords and gold-plated
ADR
Thank for the answer. Now I have another question. You say there were no Knight’s Crosses of the War Merit Cross at Klessheim. The dealers have a lot for sale at any time, most cased. Where do they come from?
Herbert
Dear Mr. Loftus:
If you check with the U.S. Army Museum at West Point, New York, they will tell you about the very few decorations the Army CIC discovered when they opened the wall safe at Schloss Klesshem. There were no Knights Crosses of the War Service Cross involved.
Now, these are being made by a British firm.
They are cast in silver and many are gold plated.
Note that on originals, the attachment ring is ribbed on the issue with swords and plain on the one without swords.
The originals came in a blue leather-covered case and the center part that held the actual medal was not shaped to the medal but round.
Also for your interest, many dealers refer to the Dr. Doehle book on German decorations, the color one published in 1943.
It should be noted that the color depictions of decorations are all done as art and are not color photographs of originals.
Also, when a rare medal is offered for a large sum of money, request the seller to provide provenance for his piece.
If he says he bought it from a vet, ask to see the information on the alleged vet.
Then armed with the name, you can write to the U.S. Army records center in Springfield and check to see if the military man existed and was in Germany.
I have caught many of the biggest and most reputable medal dealers with this.
Also, of course, the ribbons must not react positively to the ultra violet (‘black light’) light.
I am looking for the makers of the Knights Cross of the War Service cross cases and will publish this for you.
ADR
I have seen offered at least a dozen Knights Crosses of the War Service Cross with Swords in Gold from the best dealers and for huge money. What you say about Klessheim and Speer is right on. The dealer who invented the Klesseheim story now works for a crooked German auction house. What will we see next? Gold wound badges with diamonds? Will Maerz write a nice expensive book on these?
Brian
A gold wound badge with diamonds from the Schloss Klessheim treasury would not be a surprise. Also nearly all of the L/65 Klein and Quenzer Knights Crosses are post-war restrikes on original dies. A British firm bought these and L/65 pieces grace many collections now. Worthless. Maerz might well write such a book and he does give CoAs for pot metal centered “very rare original strikes” of Knights Crosses. The non-metallic centered KCs are display pieces. They have nickle-silver rims instead of silver. They are worth about $10.00. All original KCs had genuine silver rims. ADR