http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2109259/Seasons-greetings-Uncle-Wolf-Christmas-card-Hitler-favourite-composer-s-grandson-goes-sale.html Season's greetings from your Uncle Wolf': Christmas card from Hitler to his favourite composer's grandson goes on sale
By Emma Reynolds
Last updated at 2:21 PM on 2nd March 2012
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Intriguing: In a rare glimpse of a more human side to the dictator, pictured, he addresses the boy as 'My dear Wieland', and signs it 'Ever yours, Adolf Hitler'
Intriguing: In a rare glimpse of a more human side to the dictator, pictured, he addresses the boy as 'My dear Wieland', and signs it 'Ever yours, Adolf Hitler'
A fascinating Christmas card from Adolf Hitler to a grandson of his favourite composer Richard Wagner has gone on sale.
In a rare glimpse of a more human side to the dictator, he addresses the boy as 'My dear Wieland', and signs it 'Ever yours, Adolf Hitler'.
Wieland and his younger brother Wolfgang Wagner knew Hitler affectionately as 'Uncle Wolf' - and enjoyed his company so much they played truant from school to visit him just before Christmas in 1936.
They told teachers that they had an important mission to visit the Nazi leader in Berlin, phoning him when they reached the capital and meeting him at the German Chancellor's office.
There he gave them their presents and cards, including the one now up for auction, which is unadorned apart from bearing the Nazi swastika and eagle.
Hitler offers teenage Wieland - later a famous composer in his own right - 'Season Greetings at Christmas' and has dated the card December 24, 1936.
The card, which is still in the original envelope, is expected to fetch £5,000 when it is sold on behalf of a collector by Mullock’s auction house in Ludlow, Shropshire, on March 8.
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Richard Westwood-Brookes, from the saleroom, said: 'This really is a remarkable item that links Hitler with the Wagner family.