Bar From Hitler's Yacht Spent 69 Years in a Maryland Barn

'Fantastic relic' is now being auctioned off
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 19, 2020 3:44 PM CDT
'Fantastic Relic' From Hitler's Yacht Being Auctioned Off
The Aviso Grille was built in 1935 and broken up in 1951.   (Bundesarchiv)

The bar from a yacht that Adolf Hitler planned to sail down the Thames to celebrate his conquest of Britain is being auctioned off after spending almost 70 years in a Maryland barn. After the war the globe-shaped bar from the Aviso Grille, which can be seen at Alexander Historic Auctions, ended up in the US, where the 377-foot ship was broken up for scrap in 1951. The auction house, which describes the bar as "simply a fantastic relic, symbolic of the false grandeur and excesses of Hitler’s 'Hundred Year Reich,'" says it was kept by a friend of the boatyard's owner, whose son is now selling it, the Guardian reports.

The auction house estimates that the bar will fetch between $150,000 and $250,000. The listing says the bar, which comes with five bar stools, is a "large, cumbersome piece" that is being sold "as is, where is." The auction house says Hitler used the yacht to entertain high-ranking Nazis and fellow fascist leaders including Benito Mussolini—but it's highly unlikely that the bar was the scene of wild parties involving a blitzed Fuhrer. "According to the captain of the vessel, Hitler objected strenuously to drinking and often gave his staff violent temperance lectures," the listing states. (More Adolf Hitler stories.)

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