Germany, NSDAP. A Wartime Signed Portrait of Ulrich Graf, Blood Order Recipient

(NSDAP Porträt mit Unterschrift). A rare wartime signed portrait of Ulrich Graf, depicted in a black SS uniform and with the Blue Order clearly visible, the image overlaid on the left by Graf’s handwritten signature in silvered ink, the reverse in postcard format, unused, with a Hoffmann studio mark, measuring 90 mm (w) x 140 mm (h), in extremely fine condition.

Footnote: An early member of the NSDAP and SA, Ulrich Graf was selected as the personal bodyguard of AH. In 1923 he formed the Stoßtrupp, a small guard unit which stewarded AH’s speeches and rallies until the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, at which time it was disbanded. When gunfire broke out between Munich Police and the Putschists, Graf used his body as a human shield, absorbing several bullets which would have otherwise struck AH. He later joined the re-established NSDAP and SS, becoming a Councillor and member of the Reichstag. For his role in the Third Reich, Graf was sentenced to five years of hard labour in 1948, but served only a portion of his sentence before dying in Argentina on 3 March 1950.