Skip to main content

Just hope it doesn’t ring: Hitler’s personal phone is up for auction

Alexander Historical Auctions, located in Maryland, has a unique lot available on its website right now: Adolf Hitler’s personal bunker phone. The chipped, red, rotary handset was taken right from the German leader’s bunker following the capture of Berlin in 1945 and is expected to fetch as much as $300,000 from a specialist collector.

While most people might shy away from items owned by history’s most notorious war criminal, some like an off-beat, creepy vibe with their collectibles. And there’s no denying that this is an important piece of history.

The story of how the phone ended up on the auction block is an interesting bit of history in itself, though. Following the Allied occupation of Berlin, Brigadier Sir Ralph Rayner entered the city and was given a tour by the Soviets. Purportedly, they offered him Eva Braun’s phone as a souvenir, but eventually offered him this one instead, when he claimed his favorite color was red.

That phone went home with him, and Rayner continued as a British politician after the war. When he eventually died in 1977, the phone was passed on to his son, Ranulf, who is now auctioning off the one-of-a-kind artifact because the insurance costs for it have become too great. He hopes that a museum will purchase it and preserve it for posterity.

Alexander Historical Auctions - Adolf Hitler's Telephone to be Auctioned

In his interview video, Ranulf explains that Hitler used the phone as a portable device, taking it everywhere with him. It was used not only in the bunker, but in trains and cars and in his field headquarters. As the auction listing points out, an argument could be made that this phone is one of the most macabre historical pieces in the world, having borne the wishes of a man who ordered the extermination of millions.

To confirm the device’s authenticity, the auctioneers have collated reports from Hitler’s own personal telephonist, as well as historical images of Brigadier Rayner and the handset in newspapers and private collections.

Along with the handset itself, the lot comes with the original case that Sir Rayner used to bring the phone back from Germany, along with some of its wartime tags and stickers.

Editors' Recommendations

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is the Evergreen Coordinator for Computing, overseeing a team of writers addressing all the latest how to…
I’ll be so angry if the Galaxy Z Flip 5 doesn’t have this feature
The cover screen on the Vivo X Flip.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 (left) and Vivo X Flip (right) Andy Boxall/Digital Trends

Samsung really needs to let the cover screen on the Galaxy Z Flip 5 do its own thing, and not stifle it by imposing nanny-state rules and locking it out from running any app we choose.

Read more
I really hope this iPhone 15 Pro price leak isn’t true
Render of the iPhone 15 Pro in red.

We’re just a few months away from Apple revealing the next-generation iPhone 15 lineup in the fall. However, a new report from Chinese outlet Economic Daily News suggests that the entire lineup could see a price increase of 10% to 20%.

This isn’t great news. For the standard iPhone 15, that means it could start at $899, which is $100 more than the starting price for the current $799 iPhone 14. Currently, the iPhone 14 Pro starts at $999, but with this price increase for the next generation, the iPhone 15 Pro could be $100 to $200 more — starting at $1,100 or $1,200.

Read more
iOS 17 isn’t the iPhone update I was hoping for
iMessage stickers in iOS 17

Apple gave us a jam-packed WWDC 2023 keynote, and it was one of the most significant ones in years. After all, it introduced a brand new product category for Apple with the Vision Pro mixed reality headset. It’s basically as significant as when Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone in 2007, then the iPad in 2010, and when Tim Cook showed off the Apple Watch in 2014.

But the headset isn’t the only thing we got in the WWDC keynote. Since it’s a developer conference, it’s also about the software for all of our devices. This includes iOS 17 for the iPhone, along with iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS 14 Sonoma.

Read more