The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

Few public buildings in the world will ever generate the kind of interest generated by the mere mention of the name that "Hitler's New German Reichschancellery in Berlin" does. The building was spectacular; designed and built by a genius, constructed of the finest available materials, it was a mysterious witness to the most dramatic events of 20th century history, and was for a brief period the principal office and show place of the most powerful secular ruler in European history - Nazi Party Führer and Germany's 23rd Chancellor, Adolf Hitler.

This piece of tile was once a part of the floor of the huge, ultra-modern kitchen in Hitler's Neue Reichskanzlei (Reichschancellery) on the corner of Vosstraße at Wilhelmplatz in central Berlin.

Adolf Hitler's architect, 33 year old Professor Albert Speer chose special German white tile for floors in the kitchen rooms in the New Reichschancellery in 1938 because of the need to provide floors and walls with easily maintained sanitary surfaces.

The 77 year old piece of tile offered here was carefully examined by both Ray and Josephine Cowdery (authors of the highly regarded book The New German Reichschancellery in Berlin 1938 - 1945) and declared authentic by them. The Certificate of Authenticity included in the the display case bears serial number 1, as well as the signatures of both Josephine and Ray Cowdery beneath a picture of the excavation of the kitchen where this piece originated. The Cowdery's probably have more exposure to and experience with the construction materials used in the New Reichschancellery than anyone else on earth, and they take the matter of authentication of original pieces very seriously.

The magnificent handmade miniature of the Führerstandarte on the front panel of the display case is a work of art all by itself. The main portion is a very heavy, thick piece of pure copper measuring 75 x 75 mm (just under 3 x 3 inches), hand-filled with red, white and black hard fired cloisonné (melted glass - not paint), then sanded, ground, polished and plated in gold. Surrounding the swastika in the center is a 50 mm (2 inch) deep relief gold wreath of oak leaves, and in each corner there are beautifully die-struck alternating eagles and swastikas of the German Army and the Nazi Party.

The huge New Reichschancellery that Albert Speer designed, was built in less than a year and was opened in January 1939, and it was bombed during World War II but it was certainly not destroyed. The Russian occupiers of Berlin demolished what remained of the building above ground in the winter of 1949 and used much of the material to erect monuments to themselves in Berlin and its suburbs. It was not until the city of Berlin decided to destroy ALL of what remained of Hitler's New Reichschancellery by excavating the site that the first remains of the Reichskanzlei kitchen came to light again in 1988 and this tile was rescued from oblivion at that time.

You can find poorly presented pieces of rubble and broken material from Hitler's New German Reichschancellery at high prices from other militaria dealers if that is what you are after. We believe the building was an extremely significant 20th century European architectural treasure that was needlessly destroyed by the Russians and the subsequent post-war rulers of Germany. Almost nothing associated with the architecture of the Reichskanzlei remains.

With that in mind, there is no doubt that any significant artifact that does remain from the Reichskanzlei building should be properly identified, presented and conserved. We offer this original 15 x 15 cm white vitreous tile, once a part of the kitchen of the New Reichschancellery along with a Certificate of Authenticity, all housed in a suitable custom-made display/storage case.