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VON MACKENSEN SIGNED PHOTO CARD, TRIMMED, BOLD BLUE INK SIGNATURE, WITH HITLER AND BLOMBERG, SIGNATURE GRADE 10
SIGNED ON REVERSE, UNKNOWN..

Anton Ludwig Friedrich August von Mackensen (6 December 1849 – 8 November 1945), born August Mackensen, was a German field marshal. He commanded successfully during the First World War and became one of the German Empire’s most prominent and competent military leaders. After the armistice, Mackensen was interned for a year. He retired from the army in 1920 and was made a Prussia state councillor in 1933 by Hermann Göring. During the Nazi era, Mackensen remained a committed monarchist and sometimes appeared at official functions in his First World War uniform. He was suspected of disloyalty to the Third Reich, but nothing was proven against him.

According to a radio news report dated 15 April 1945, filed by CBS News correspondent Larry LeSueur for World News Today, Mackensen was briefly captured by the British Second Army at his home during the closing weeks of the Second World War. Upon the arrival of the British, apparently not commenting whatsoever on the general rout, the 95-year-old Mackensen merely asked the new powers-that-be that “freed foreign workers” be prevented “from stealing his chicken”.

Mackensen died on 8 November 1945 at the age of 95, his life having spanned the Kingdom of Prussia, the North German Confederation, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, The Third Reich, and the post-war Allied occupation of Germany. He was buried in the Celle cemetery.