RARE SS-Oberführer Hermann Fegelein Wartime Signature with Original Feldpost Envelope

Original Wartime Signature on a Private Produced Portrait Card of SS-Oberführer Hermann Fegelein.

SS-Oberführer Hermann Fegelein (30.10.1906 † 28.04.1945) earned the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes on 2 March 1942 as SS-Sturmbannführer and commander within the SS-Kavallerie-Brigade for combat operations on the Eastern Front. He was subsequently awarded the Eichenlaub zum Ritterkreuz on 2 December 1942 as the 90th recipient, and later the Schwerter zum Ritterkreuz on 27 July 1944 as the 73rd recipient, by then serving as commander of the 8. SS-Kavallerie-Division “Florian Geyer.”

Fegelein remains one of the most controversial and well-known Waffen-SS officers of the Third Reich. In 1944 he married Gretl Braun, making him the brother-in-law of Eva Braun and closely connected to Adolf Hitler’s inner circle. During the final days in Berlin, Fegelein was present in the Führerbunker but attempted to flee the city shortly before the collapse of the regime. After being apprehended, he was executed on 28 April 1945, only two days before Hitler’s suicide. His role in the final days of the Third Reich was prominently portrayed in the film Der Untergang (Downfall), where he is depicted as one of the more infamous figures inside the bunker.

Offered is a rare original private produced Agfa portrait card measuring approximately 14 x 9 cm, featuring a drawn portrait of Fegelein and his original wartime black ink signature, “Hermann Fegelein,” on the front.

Included is the equally rare matching original envelope sent by Fegelein in October 1943. The obverse bears the handwritten address together with a Feldpost stamp of the SS-Führungshauptamt in Berlin. The reverse shows the stamped return address of the Kommandoamt der Waffen-SS, SS-Führungshauptamt, Berlin-Wilmersdorf.

Provenance: From the estate of former HJ member Reinhold Brennfleck (1928–2022) from Lauda, Baden, who wrote to numerous Ritterkreuzträger in 1943–1944 requesting signatures and signed photographs, forming an exceptional wartime autograph collection.