Book from Eva Braun personal library at The Berghof.

Here is something a little special obtained in Berchtesgaden.

This book is titled Italien Landschaft und Baukunst (Italian Landscapes and Architecture), published in 1939 and all images internal (estimate 80 to 100) are by Kurt Hielscher, a little about him below:

Kurt Hielscher (1881-1948) Kurt Hielscher was a German Photographer born in Strzegom/Striegau, today’s Poland, Germany at the time. He was born the son of a ranger, but ended up in an orphanage at a young age in Bunzlau, Germany, todays Bolesławiec in Poland.

As a youngster he already liked to hike the mountains of Silesia. His studies gave him the opportunity to travel once a year and he got a taste for it. He became a teacher. In his first major trip abroad, he went to Spain. The following years he travelled from Scotland to the Caucasus and from Sicily to Spitsbergen. In 1914 he went to Spain for a second time.

During his active years Kurt Hielscher was a guest of the King of Spain, Reichspräsident Hindenburg, Mussolini and the King of Romania.

This book would have been a special order for Eva Braun library. Internal embossed in the paper is her personal emblem designed by Albert Speer – EB reversed into a butterfly like clamshell. All books in her library were marked in this way – War-Den has never seen another book marked in this way from the Berghof. No doubts many would have been looted or destroyed in the bombing raid of April 1945.

The book would have had a dust cover, it measures 240 mm X 180 mm. An incredibly rare item.