Chess game: Lenin with Hitler - Vienna 1909

Unknown photographer (Austro-Hungarian Empire, circa 1909). Emma Lowenstamm

The etching was created in 1909 by the artist Emma Löwenshtamm, who, according to some art critics, was a teacher of painting by Adolf Hitler. On the reverse side of the engraving there are pencil signatures of “Lenin”, “Hitler” and the artist Emma Lövenstamm himself, the place (Vienna) and the year of creation (1909) of etching are indicated. The artist's signature is also on the edge of the front of the image.

The size of the etching is about 51 by 38 centimeters ^[4] .

The meeting itself could have happened in Vienna, in a house that belonged to a wealthy and somewhat famous Jewish family. By this time, Adolf Hitler was an unfortunate young watercolorist, and Vladimir Lenin was in exile , where he wrote the book Materialism and Empirio-Criticism ^[1] .

Painter and graphic artist Emma Lovenstamm was descended from an ancient Jewish family with roots in Krakow and Amsterdam . She was born in the family of a merchant in the city of Náchod ( Czech Republic ). She moved to Vienna, where she took private lessons in drawing and painting. Used the technique of drawing coal, pen, mastered and chalk. Exhibited since 1901, later became a member of the Association of German Artists in Prague. She worked in the style of realism with some influence of modernity ^{[5] [6]} .

The Jewish family, whose surname is usually not reported in the media, but implied from the context that it is the artist’s family (some media emphasize that the artist’s house served as a “salon for political freethinkers” ^[7] ) from Austria on the eve of the Second World War , leaving most of their property, including engraving and chess (a board and a set of figures), depicted on it, in the care of the housekeeper. The great-grandson of housekeeper Felix Ednhofer ( him. Felix Ednhofer ) engaged in the study of etching and compiled a dossier of evidence, more than 300 pages. He died in the 1990s, and his son attempted to sell this etching and chess from Mullock’s auction in Ludlow , Shropshire in the west of England. The dossier contains reports of forensic experts and art historians, as well as testimony, proving that Emma Loewenshtamm existed (which also had some doubts initially) that she worked in Vienna and was a mentor to Adolf Hitler ^[8] .

In 1984, the press first reported that this etching, made in 1909, when the artist arrived in the Austrian capital, exists, it is in the private collection of Felix Ednhofer. In 2001, the German chess magazine “Shah” posted information about the etching ^[9] .

Wide publicity and public interest brought the etching message “ The Daily Telegraph ” that the drawing on October 1, 2009 will be put up for auction at Mullock's (lot number 501}) for 40,000 pounds sterling (64,000 US dollars ) ^[10] under the name “ A Chess Game: Lenin with Hitler - Vienna 1909 " . They also put up for sale and chess , which, according to the owner, were etched on the etching (the price for them was also set at 40,000 pounds sterling ^[11] ). Journalists of the New York Times assessed the possibility of selling etching even for $ 95,000 ^[3] . According to auctioneers, there were only five prints of engraving ^[12] . The Russian press even flashed messages about the possibility of selling etching for 400,000 pounds . Some reports claim that drawing and chess were sold together for £ 100,000, and that they were acquired by a collector who wished to remain anonymous ^[13] . According to others, no one bought a picture of Hitler and Lenin at the chessboard (as well as the chess set they allegedly played) ^{[14] [15]} .

The following 2010 confirmed that the auction in 2009 was unsuccessful ^[8] , and both lots were again put up for auction. Just before this sale (for the same price), a “file proving” the authenticity of the etching was added to the lot ^[8] . The dossier is mentioned in all subsequent descriptions of the lot. In addition, the announcement of the sale of 2010 through an online auction ^[16] . Neither there nor there the lot was sold, and the last time it appeared next year in the auction catalog on April 19, 2011. The estimated pre-sale price of lot 570 is marked only at 10,000–15,000 pounds ^[4] . Since then there is no information about the fate of the etching.

In the engraving, Adolf Hitler sits by the window and plays with black pieces, and Vladimir Lenin is depicted opposite in the shade. Hitler reflects on the party, propping up his head with his left hand, while Lenin at this time makes a move with his left hand, while in reality Lenin was right-handed ^[12] .

Chess composer Herbert Grasemann in the book “Schach ohne Partner für Könner” , published in 1982, writes:

When Hitler was twenty-one, he had no concrete plans for the future, and he had not yet decided to devote himself entirely to politics. Young Adolph lived then in Vienna, led a wandering lifestyle and was an avid visitor to chess cafes, sitting in them until late at night. The game fascinated him so much that he began to fear that chess would not completely suck him. Therefore, one day, Hitler made the decision to finish chess once and for all.

- Gennady Sosonko. Did Hitler play chess? ^[14]

He claimed that he received this information from the SS Obersturmführer and the chess composer Ado Kremer (1898-1972), the deputy Hans Frank , the governor-general of the Nazi-occupied Poland, an amateur and patron of chess. And he, in turn, received this information in a confidential conversation with Hitler himself ^[14] .

Dutch grandmaster, journalist and writer Gennady Sosonko , trying to confirm or deny this information, conducted a private investigation. He did not find any traces of chess books in the library of Adolf Hitler, and in his notes and speeches he found only one mention of chess in May 1933, when Hitler addressed the Reichstag deputies, justifying the actions of attack aircraft :

If you call these units as military units, then you can call chess clubs and dog breeders associations as military associations.

- Gennady Sosonko. Did Hitler play chess? ^[14]

There are three main interpretations of the origin of this plot:

I version. The main supporter of this version was amateur historian and etching owner Felix Ednhofer, who published a series of articles in German journals of the 1990s ^[17] . The owner of the rare book was convinced of the authenticity of this etching - this is confirmed by a 300-page expert opinion (which analyzed the image, paper, and ink used for signatures), which he compiled and provided to journalists and auction staff. Experts of Mullock's auction house were convinced of the authenticity of the etching. The art historian of the auction house and his expert Richard Westwood-Brooks ( eng. Richard Westwood-Brookes ) gives an 80% chance that the signatures of Lenin, Hitler and the artist may be genuine. At the same time, he insists that it is generally impossible to determine the authenticity of a signature by 100% on any document of any time ^[11] . The auctioneer claims that Lenin could use a wig for conspiratorial considerations ^[12] . He traveled to Paris at that time, as well as to Germany; there was only a question of a few hours trip from there by train to Vienna, he could easily escape others for a few days ^[15] . Answering all those who doubt authenticity, he writes: “This image is a work of art, not a photo” ^[3] , writing off all inaccuracies and discrepancies to the specificity of the image itself. Doubts from the art historian initially caused only the identity of the enemy Hitler, in which he was ready to see even one of the Austrian Social Democrats. Nevertheless, the authoritative British publication The Daily Telegraph was the first to publish an etching as an image in which Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin play chess ^[1] .

II version. A significantly greater number of art historians, historians and chess players opposed this interpretation of etching.

Vladimir Lavrov , Doctor of Historical Sciences, author of the book “The Name of Russia. V.I. Lenin ”, insists on the incompatibility of the views and characters of Lenin and Hitler, which made it impossible for personal interaction at the chessboard ^[18] .

Some historians believe that at this time Ulyanov was almost bald, his hair remained only on the sides. And the figure shows that the man sitting on the right has no problems with baldness. In addition, Adolf Hitler on the etching, in their opinion, looks too old for a 20-year-old young man, which he really was at this time ^[3] .

Richard John Evans ( born Richard J. Evans ), professor of modern history at the University of Cambridge (wrote the three-volume "History of the Third Reich"), argues that the chess game was a fiction. “No, he could not have taken place,” he said in an interview with The New York Times. In his opinion, the year 1909 was extremely unfortunate for Hitler, he could have a good costume in order to go to the opera , but he would not wear it while playing chess. Evans says that Hitler never studied with the artist, which is why he could not enter the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Evans concluded that the signatures were probably fake: “It would be extremely strange for them to sign such a document” ^[3] .

Richard Pipes , a professor of history at Harvard University , argues that the man on the etching was not Lenin and generally has no resemblance to him. He did not wear makeup and a wig, says Pipes, he did not need them. Although in 1909 Lenin was the head of the Bolsheviks and was well known in Russia, but the authorities were more concerned with terrorists, “Lenin was not considered dangerous,” Pipes said. He also argued that Lenin refused chess because he thought they distract him from more serious work ^[3] . In a letter to his brother, Lenin wrote on February 17, 1910:

Dear Mitya! Having received your task, I “got excited” on chess a little, - but it was completely forgotten. I didn’t play, it seems, a year, but in recent years I have played several “hussar” and semi-semi-Spanish parties. I solved your problem easily. But in “Speech” I saw a sketch today, which I decided not immediately and which I really liked ... Beautiful little thing!

- S. B. Gubnitsky. World chess and chess in the world ^[19]

III version. There is also a suggestion that etching could have been created in the 30s as intellectual fun, by Emma Loewenshtamm or by someone else, as a satirical commentary on the international situation after 1933 or the internal situation in Germany before 1933. Its original meaning was then forgotten, over time it began to be perceived as a true sketch from nature ^[15] . Historian Helen Rappaport claims that there is no evidence that Lenin was in Vienna in 1909, although he had been there at another time. She also insists that Lenin was "bald, like a bat, since 1894, and his hair was only on the sides of the head." In exile, he was not known as Lenin and instead used several pseudonyms at once. She argues that etching makes sense of retrospection, and the history of art is full of such meetings between famous people who were created by the imagination of artists ^[3] .

Alexei Boyko, the curator of the St. Petersburg Museum of Political History, takes etching as part of Lenin's iconography and compares it with works by Soviet artists of the 1930s, although he notes that the first works in which artists tried to capture his image for posterity appeared during emigration. He admits that etching can be considered "both a myth and a reality, since it is approximately possible over the years." “Theoretically everything can be. At that time he was really abroad, ”he concludes. He notes, like Moscow art historian Andrei Erofeev, that at that time etching by contemporaries could not be perceived as a conscious provocation of the public ^[11] .

A series of amateur photographs taken on the Italian island of Capri in 1908 (between 10 (23) and April 17 (30)) was preserved, when Vladimir Lenin was visiting AM Gorky . The photos were taken from various angles and captured Lenin playing with Gorky and Alexander Bogdanov , a famous Marxist revolutionary, doctor and philosopher ^[20] . The author of all (or at least two of these photos) was made by Yuri Zhelyabuzhsky (in the future - a prominent Soviet cameraman, director and screenwriter), the son of actress Moscow Art Theater Maria Andreeva, and Gorky's stepson. At that time, he was a twenty-year-old boy ^[21] .

• Chess in painting
• Stalin and chess
• Napoleon Bonaparte and Chess

• Pictured: Hitler playing chess with Lenin (English) // The Daily Telegraph: Newspaper. - 2009. - 1 September. Archived October 19, 2016.
• McClain, Dylan Loeb. Based on Life or Fantasy, a Picture Goes to Auction (eng.) // NYTimes: Newspaper. - 2009. - 29 September. Archived October 19, 2016.
• Autographs & Ephemera: To include artwork attributed to Adolf Hitler . - Ludlow: Mullock's Specialist Auctioneers, 2011. - p. 54. - 54 p. Archived October 19, 2016.
• Genna Sosonko . Did Hitler play chess? (Neopr.) Chess news (June 11, 2015). Circulation date October 19, 2016. Archived October 19, 2016.
• Did Hitler and Lenin Play Chess Together in 1909? (eng.) Beachcombing's Bizarre History. Circulation date October 19, 2016. Archived October 19, 2016.