ADOLF GALLAND'S DIAMONDS

ADOLF GALLAND'S DIAMONDS

 

Only twenty-seven Ritterkreuzträger received the Brillanten, making it a very rare award. Adolf Galland was one of the first three recipients, receiving the Brillanten as Oberst und Kommodore of Jagdgeschwader 26 on 30.8.1942.   

In Galland’s memoir The First and The Last, the fighter ace recounts the story of how Göring had a set made for him after examining the set given to the Galland by Hitler and that Hitler, on learning of this, then presented Galland with an even better set. Galland wrote: 

“How I got the diamonds is another story. Hitler had given me one set with the usual ceremony. Some time later, when I was sitting opposite Göring in his special train at his H.Q. in the Ukraine, Göring looked at me quizzically and said, "tell me, are those diamonds the Fuhrer gave you? Let me have a look at them.'. 

 

"I put down my knife and fork and started to take off the Knights Cross. Göring took my diamonds in his hand and scrutinised them.  'No,' he said with a grimace of disapproval. 'These aren't diamonds at all. They're just stones, ordinary stones. The Fuhrer has been swindled over this. He knows a a lot about guns, battleships and tanks but hasn't a clue about diamonds. Look here, Galland, I'll get some for you. Then you will see what diamonds really are. I still have a few left.'. He took the diamonds and I fastened on my Knights Cross with a paper clip. 

 

"Later I went to Karinhall to see Göring. The diamonds had been built by his court jeweler and Göring was as pleased as a child. 'Look here,' said Göring, holding a decoration in each hand so that the diamonds sparkled. 'These are the Fuhrer's diamonds and these are the Reichmarschall's. Do you see the difference? Now, which one of us knows about diamonds?'. 

 

"I had to admit that he was right. The Reichmarschall's had a beauty of their own, they were larger and had a wonderful brilliance. Compared with them, the Fuhrer's stones looked very inferior. He gave me both decorations back and I now had two sets. Well, later it seems that Hitler found out about this and stated that the original pair he had awarded were only 'temporary'."

 

Hitler then ordered another pair made which was presented to Galland as a third set after he criticised the second (Göring's pair) as 'just ordinary stones'. Galland recounted: "Towards the end of the war my command post near Berlin was completely destroyed by bombs, and among other things I lost set No. 3. When Hitler heard of this he had a new set made. This was my fourth.". 

 

In 1990, the Deutsches Ordensmuseum published a list of the known fate of genuine examples of the Brillianten.   ‘A’ refers to the platinum sets and ‘B’ to the silver versions: Vorhanden in Familienbesitz, beim Träger oder beim Käufer 15A, 10B; nicht augehändigt 3A, 6B; in den Kriegswirren verloren, gegangen 3A, 0B; von den Siegern erbeutet, gestohlen 1A, 1B; beim Absturz zerstört 1A, 2B; umgearbeitet in eine Brosche 1A, 0B; umgearbeitet in eine Brosche und gestohlen 1A, 0B; mit den Trägern beigesetzt 0A, 3B; in Gefangenschaft abgenommen 0A, 5B; unklar 2A, 0B. Total, 27A 27B.  

 

Not every Brilliantenträger received two sets. Ramcke, for instance, received just one set. The set attributed to Marseille which is on display at the Luftwaffe Museum in Utersen is a copy and there is some question as to whether Marseille actually received the Brillanten before his death. Other RKT, like Adolf Galland, received more than two sets.

 

According to the DO, just two sets were unaccounted for in 1990, both of these being A Stück platinum Brillanten. A set of allegedly genuine Brillanten reportedly realised around $100,000.00 US early in 2004. This was a silver B Stück set and changed hands between two well known collectors.

 

Galland's Brillianten in the Wolfe-Hardin dealership showcase

 

The Californian dealers Wolfe-Hardin had a cased set of Galland Brillanten for sale for years. As the above photograph shows, these Brillanten attributed to Galland resemble neither the 1st Pattern set attributed to Hermann Graf (center) nor the Klein set attributed to Gordon Gollob (right). 

It is interesting that there were no takers amongst Wolfe-Hardin's clientele –– said to include Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Client Eastwood –– for Adolf Galland's Oakleaves, Swords and Diamonds to the Knight's Cross. One would have expected the Galland Brillanten to have been snapped up quickly by any of the collectors with sufficient disposable income.

 

The set taken from Galland by Göring at the dinner table was probably a Godet piece. Galland’s anecdote is sometimes cited as bearing out the story that Hermann Göring had Brillianten production switched from Godet to Klein because he felt that Godet's product was not good enough for his boys, the first five recipients being Luftwaffe pilots.  

 

However, if Göring commissioned Klein, then where did Hitler source the sets he later presented to Galland? Some people have suggested that Göring commissioned Tiffany’s Paris branch to produce the replacement set he gave Galland. 

 

Given Göring’s nature, this story is possible. Göring was certainly a Tiffany's customer before America's entry into the war. However, by the time Galland received the Brillianten from Hitler on 28.1.1942, the United States was at war with Germany and Tiffany’s was an American company. 

 

Revue magazine 23.5.1953 - courtesy of the late Dave Kane

 

In 1953, the German magazine Revue published a story about Galland's family commissioning a new set of Brillanten for the air ace, who was working as a consultant to the Argentine dictator Juan Perón. This article poses some awkward questions for anyone claiming to be in possession of Adolf Galland's Brillanten.

 

If the Galland family had had two sets of Brillanten back in 1953 –– or three sets, if you believe that they sold a set to Wolfe-Hardin a few years ago –– then why did they go to the trouble and considerable expense – DM 3.200.00 - of having a set made for Adolf Galland to wear at functions in Argentina? Why not simply send him one of the two or three sets they had? 

 

One obvious conclusion is that neither Adolf Galland nor his family had any sets of Brillanten in 1953, unless they had the set that Galland was wearing when he went into captivity at the end of the war. If so, why did they not simply have that set sent out to Buenos Aires in the Argentine diplomatic bag or via one of Perón's couriers, given that General Galland was working for the Argentine government? 

 

Sentimental reasons? Did they wish to keep the wartime set safe? It would seem unlikely because for Germans, the document is the award. The medal is merely an outward sign of possession of the document. It is more likely that someone stole Galland's Brillanten during his time as a POW or that he sold them for scrap value during one of his periods of poverty after his demobilisation. 

If Galland or his family had been in possession of at least one of the superior sets from Göring or Hitler in 1953, why would Galland have asked his brother to commission the best possible set money could buy when he could have bought a perfectly acceptable wearing copy to show off in Buenos Aires for considerably less than DM 3.200?

 

It is worth noting that while the 1957 Ordensgesetz instituting the denazified versions of Third Reich awards mentioned the Brillanten, none of the firms which produced 1957 pattern awards appears to have listed the Brillanten in their catalogues, doubtless for commercially-related reasons.There were only twenty-seven holders, of whom several were dead.

 

Some 1957 pattern Oakleaves & Swords exist with crudely inset paste stones but one cannot really imagine a Brillantenträger wearing such cheap-looking versions when he could commission a set from the original maker. Even if he could not afford diamonds, he could still have asked for a decent-looking, well-made replica from Klein in silver  or platinum with zircon stones. Platinum was popular with jewelers for setting stones and prices had not yet been pushed up by the space race. 

Klein's replica Brillanten were sold through various sources, including the Historical Military Art & Collectibles enterprise, operating out of California in the 1960s. One could buy a set in silver with real diamonds for $3,675.00, which was quite a hefty sum in those days. A budget set in silver with fake stones retailed at $795.00. A few years ago, the British dealer Adrian Forman sold a set of replica Klein Brillanten described as having been commissioned by Vern Bowen for £1,000.00 Sterling.  These postwar sets were not identical to the wartime sets.

 

Given that Klein continued to produce Brillanten after the war for collectors and, presumably, for Brillantenträger, it seems likely that the Brillanten in the possession of the Galland family today or, to be more precise, since 1953 are all postwar reproductions. Klein’s reproductions differed slightly from the wartime sets but Klein, like Godet and some other firms, are alleged to have made perfect replicas of the wartime pattern Brillanten to order. 

 

To add to the mystery, the Galland family has declined to comment on the Brillanten offered by Wolfe-Hardin except to say that the air ace's Brillanten remain in the family's possession and that there are two sets. This statement raises the same question as the 1953 magazine article: why would Adolf Galland have gone to the expense of having a new set made if he still had an original set or, as the family allege, two original sets?

We can be reasonably sure that the 1st Pattern Brillanten were supplied to the Präsidialkanzlei by the firm of Godet, which may or may not have entrusted the setting of the stones to another firm. These early Brillanten were replaced by the 2nd Pattern Brillanten by Klein. Any set of Brillanten that does not conform to known original examples of each pattern, be it A or B Stück, must be treated with caution. 

To make matters worse, Klein are alleged to have made some perfect replicas of their wartime Brillanten although the sets they offer publicly as reproductions for collectors incorporate slight differences to the wartime pieces. We are therefore faced with a situaton similar to that pertaining to Godet Oakleaves and Oakleaves & Swords: without unshakeable provenance, who can tell the difference between a 1940s piece and one made twenty years later in exactly the same way? 

 

It is, of course, a rhetorical question. The situation is further muddied by the mistaken description on Page 423 of Gordon Williamson's The Iron Cross of 1939 (Bender 2002) of one of these replica Klein pieces as a wartime set. The set in question belonged to the late Bill Stump, who always claimed to have pointed out to Williamson that the set was a reproduction.  

 

Whatever the case, the evidence suggests that, by 1953, Adolf Galland no longer had any of the four sets of Brillanten to which he referred in his memoir. So where did the various sets of "Galland Brillanten" in the possession of Adolf Galland's family and Messrs Wolfe-Hardin come from?