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This is rare Third Reich ephemera of the best and most interesting kind! It is the 100% original 10-½ x 15-½ inch seating plan of an official state dinner that took place in Berlin on Monday night 25 March 1935. It originally belonged to Nazi Justice Minister Franz Gürtner. Reichsminister Gürtner was seated next to Mrs. Goebbels only four seats away from Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler (Gürtner's seat is marked with a red arrow), and Mrs. Gürtner sat in between Hermann Göring and British Foreign Secretary Sir John Simon!

The dinner was a large diplomatic affair attended by British Ambassador Sir Eric Phipps and Lady Phipps, Lordsiegelbewahrer (Lord Privy Seal) Anthony Eden (seated between Mrs. Ilse Hess and Mrs. Magda Goebbels) and several other British dignitaries and military officers.

The Nazi dignitaries attending is a who's who of Third Reich Germany: Ministerpräsident Hermann Göring, Dr. Joseph Goebbels and Mrs. Magda Goebbels, Reichsführer-SS and Mrs. Himmler, Reichsminister Rudolf Hess and his wife, Admiral Raeder, Reichswehrminister von Blomberg, Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Dr. Meissner, Reichsminister Darré, Reichsminister Frank, Reichsminister Count Schwerin von Krosigk, Reichsminister Kerrl, Reichsminister Rust, Reichsminister Seldte, Reichsbank President Dr. Schacht, Joachim von Ribbentrop (Reichsminister Ambassador-Plenipotentiary at Large, at the time), Reichsminister Dr. Frick, Staatssekretär Meissner and Lammers, Reichspressechef Dietrich, Luftwaffe General Milch, General von Rundstedt, General von Fritsch, Berlin Police President Magnus von Levetzow, Oberstleutnant Bodenschatz, and many other prominent Third Reich people.

Franz Gürtner studied Law at the University of Munich and then served as an officer in World War I both on the Western Front and in Palestine. He was awarded Iron Crosses (both 1st and 2nd classes) for bravery. After the war ended Gürtner resumed a successful legal career and became State Minister for Justice in Bavaria – a post he held from 1922 to 1932.

It is said that Gürtner used his influence within the Bavarian judicial system to help Hitler when he was put on trial after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. Tried for treason, for which he could have been sentenced to death, Hitler received a five year jail term, part of which was spent in some relative comfort at Landsberg Prison.   Hitler served only nine months before Gürtner used his judicial influence to obtain an early release for him despite the fact that the State Attorney's office opposed it. Gürtner also persuaded the Bavarian state cabinet to allow Hitler to speak in public once again – something that had been banned as part of his sentence. The Nazi Party – also banned after the Beer Hall Putsch – was also given a second life as a result of Gürtner's influence on the state cabinet.

In June 1932, Franz Gürtner was appointed Minister of Justice in the cabinet of Franz von Papen. He kept this position in Hitler's cabinet from 1933, until his death on 29 January 1941.

This 84+ year old original Nazi state dinner seating plan has Reichsminister Gürtner name typed on the back side as well as a handwritten notation. It appears it was given to an unknown person as an anniversary present on 19 July 1987 in Munich.

Very rare and in very good used, folded condition, exactly as shown.  No odor.