The Globe for State and Industry Leaders It is the official name given to a model of a balloon that was built in the 1930s in Berlin for Hitler and the Nazi party. It would later be popularized through the parody of Charles Chaplin in The Great Dictator .
Only two editions were manufactured. of the globe, one for the party and the other for Hitler. Apparently Hitler's was almost as big as a Volkswagen beetle and, unlike the other edition, it replaced Abyssinia by Italian East Africa . What is not known with certainty is the number of balloons produced in total, since the manufacturer's archives were destroyed in one of the Allied bombings in 1943.
The only evidence we currently have of the balloon that Hitler had in the Chancellery, the largest and most expensive of all those ever made, is a photograph from May 1945 taken by one of the Soviet army photographers. strong> .
Another specimen was found that same month in Hitler's refuge in the Alps, known as the Eagle's Nest , by American soldier John Barsamian, and sold 60 years later for about $100,000 at an auction in San Francisco.
The Polish historian Wolfram Pobanz is of the opinion that, contrary to what is shown in The Great Dictator Hitler didn't think much of the balloon, or at least it wasn't significant to him. The proof would be that there are no photographs of Hitler in which the balloon appears. If it had meant something special to him, we would surely have pictures.
Today, as with other types of religious objects, there are many globes around the world that, according to their owners, belonged to Hitler. The authenticity of all is quite doubtful.
In Germany alone we have three in Berlin, one at the Geographical Institute , another in the Märkisches Museum , and a third in the German Historical Museum . And two more in Munich. Virtually all show a bullet hole going through German territory, fired by American or Soviet soldiers.
But none of these balloons is the original that Hitler had in the Chancellery. According to Pobanz, his fate is unknown, although he points out that he could be in Moscow. The mystery of what happened to him is still valid after more than 60 years.