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MERCEDES-BENZ NAZI TRAVEL DOCUMENTS REQUEST
Mercedes-Benz
A REQUEST FROM
MERCEDES-BENZ
AUTOMOBILGESELLSCHAFT
M.B.H. FOR TRAVEL PAPERS
FOR THE WIFE OF THE CEO
This extremely interesting four-piece grouping provides a rare look into the political pressure powerful individuals brought to bear on the German bureaucracy in an attempt to legitimize travel outside of Germany during the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler.

The Chief Executive Officer (Betriebsführer) of the Mercedes-Benz Automobilgesellschaft M.B.H. of Troststraße 109-111 in Wien (Vienna), Germany in 1942 was Günther Wiesenthal. Wien was the second largest city in Großdeutschland, so holding the position of CEO of the Mercedes-Benz franchise there was no small matter.
Mercedes-Benz / Hilde Wiesenthal
The letter on the Mercedes-Benz Automobilgesellschaft M.B.H. letterhead is dated 2 February 1942 and is from the head office (Leitung) of the firm and asks that the CEO’s wife, Mrs. Hilde Wiesenthal, be provided with a visa to travel outside Großdeutschland two or three times per year to visit her ailing 60 year old mother in Pressburg (Bratislava) in Slovakia. The mother was a military officer’s widow in failing health. Although not addressed, this letter was more than likely mailed to Gauleiter Baldur von Schirach. In any case, as a result of this letter the ball got rolling!

The long document in this grouping is an original print-out of a telegram or telex sent on 2 March 1942 (between 8:05 and 8:12 pm!) by Dr. Konstantin who ran the office of the Reichsstatthalter in Wien.
It was sent to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in Berlin to get some action on the request for a visa for Frau Wiesenthal. In a particularly heavy-handed manner the telegram states that the Führer’s friend and Director or Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart, Jakob Werlin, also wanted Frau Wiesenthal to have a visa for Slovakia so that she could visit her mother! Dr. Konstantin virtually demanded to know if the visa would be issued by the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office) in Berlin. There is an original of this message initialed by Dr. Konstantin (the one the telegrapher used) also included in this lot.
Reichsführer-SS / Dr. Konstantin
The final item in this dossier is a small 3 x 8-3/8 inch piece of telex or telegraph paper ripped off the machine in the office of the Reichsstatthalter in Wien on 12 March 1942. It is the response from the Auswärtiges Amt in Berlin which denied the request for a visa for Frau Wiesenthal because any trip she made would not be for State or Nazi Party purposes.

While further research would be required, and we can not prove it by the communications in this grouping, we have reason to suspect that Frau Wiesenthal may have been a Jew, and that could be the reason she was denied the travel visa to Slovakia. Our suspicion is raised by the fact that there is no mention of her maiden name anywhere in the Mercedes-Benz or subsequent documents. In virtually every case, official procedures of any kind in Nazi Germany required that maiden name information be prominently disclosed. It is conspicuously absent in the case of these documents.

Wiesenthal & Co. owns Mercedes-Benz franchises in Lower Austria today and has a website on the internet. Frau Wiesenthal’s maiden name is not revealed in the "About Us" section of the Wiesenthal & Co. website.

Very nice condition, from the collection of authors Ray & Josephine Cowdery. Comes with a signed and dated Certificate of Authenticity.
For more Kripo, Gestapo and SS documents, click HERE.
To see the rare 1936 Mercedes-Benz calendar for sale on this website, click HERE.
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