A British tycoon who sleeps in Hitler’s bed and owns the world’s biggest collection of Nazi memorabilia is selling his sprawling country mansion for £1.95million, but taking the grim haul with him.
Kevin Wheatcroft, 59, who is one of the UK’s richest businessmen with an estimated £120million fortune, keeps historic items from the Second World War in his home in Wigston, Leicestershire.
The eccentric millionaire, who also owns former Grand Prix circuit Donington Park, has spent decades adding to his collection, which includes a squadron of 88 tanks.
The magnificent property has its own library, pub, museum space and a garage big enough to house 35 vehicles. However, most of the memorabilia has been removed from the property as it goes on the market.
Mr Wheatcroft, who inherited his father’s property empire, famously saved a wooden door to Hitler’s cell in Landsberg Prison where he wrote Mein Kampf which he when he befriended a group of German builders in a pub who were tasked with demolishing the building.
Kevin Wheatcroft, 59, is one of the UK’s richest businessmen with an estimated £120million fortune and keeps items the historic and controversial items from the Second World War in his home
A British tycoon who sleeps in Hitler’s bed and owns the world’s biggest collection of Nazi memorabilia is selling his sprawling country mansion for £1.95million in Leicestershire
A huge conservatory in the large mansion that is on the market. The eccentric, who also owns former Grand Prix circuit Donington Park, has spent decades adding to his collection, which includes a squadron of 88 tanks
The property, which has its own library, pub, museum space and garage big enough to store 35 vehicles, is now on the market for £1.95million
Mr Wheatcroft’s collection includes Panzer tanks. Pictured is a Panzer IV which was the most commonly produced German tank during World War II
Mr Wheatcroft started his collection with a stromtrooper’s helmet that his parents bought him for his fifth birthday and has built it into what is believed to be the world’s biggest hauls of German military vehicles and Nazi memorabilia. Pictured is a Flak 28 anti-aircraft gun
An Sd.Kfz 10 half-track vehicle that was used during World War II to transport guns that had to be towed. It could carry as many as eight men while towing a gun or vehicle
Forgotten army: The tycoon’s memorabilia collection includes these mannequins dressed in Nazi-era uniforms
Mr Wheatcroft has been collecting Nazi memorabilia since he was five. Pictured is another item of uniform in his haul
A Steyr Raupenschlepper Ost or ‘Caterpillar Tractor East’ is a fully tracked vehicle used by the Wermacht in World War II. It was created to be able to travel through mud or snow without getting stuck and was used on the Soviet Front
A Trippel SG6 amphibious prototype with a closed cab. Originally intended for civilian use, Trippel soon realised that the amphibious car would only be economically effective if it was ordered in large quantities by the military
Two eagles sitting atop of Nazi swastikas were once displayed alongside paintings and sketches in the tycoon’s home
He displayed part of his huge collection of Nazi memorabilia, which includes dozens of sketches and signed photos by Hitler, at his sprawling Seven Oaks House estate in Wigston, Leicestershire.
Other memorabilia includes dozens of mannequins in Nazi uniform – including Hitler Youth, SS officers, Wehrmacht – a scale model of Hitler’s Kehlsteinhaus mountain eyrie, a twisted machine-gun from Rudolf Hess’s crashed Bf110, in which he once flew to Scotland, the commandant’s phone from Buchenwald and Enigma machines.
The 11,000 square foot property also has its own gym, swimming pool, wine cellar, snooker room and even a nuclear bunker.
It also has a two-storey library which Mr Wheatcroft had built specially with an octagonal viewing platform.
The 11,000 square foot property also has its own gym, swimming pool, wine cellar, snooker room and even a nuclear bunker
The property, which has its own library, pub, museum space and garage big enough to store 35 vehicles, is now on the market for £1.95million
A Tempo field car is just one of Mr Wheatcroft’s collection of 107 German cars, tanks and guns
This Sd.Kfz 9 was the heaviest half-track vehicle created in Nazi Germany during the war. It was used to transport heavy guns which needed a big vehicle to tow them. About 2,500 of them were built between 1938 and 1945
A kitchen with oaks fittings and marble counters in the magnificent mansion. Dozens of mannequins in Nazi uniform – including Hitler Youth, SS officers, Wehrmacht – are kept in the house
A huge entrance hall with exposed brickwork. Mr Wheatcroft looks after his vast collection in his sprawling mansion once owned by his late father who made millions in the post-war boom
In the drawing room sits Eva Braun’s gramophone and record collection sits and in the snooker room a selection of Hitler’s furniture is housed which was salvaged from Austria.
Mr Wheatcroft looks after his vast collection in his sprawling mansion once owned by his late father who made millions in the post-war boom and spent his life indulging in motor cars.
Mr Wheatcroft’s home appears to have been stripped of his extensive collection ahead of being put up for sale
The property boasts five bedrooms, one of which is pictured above. There are also a further two self-contained apartments
The Panther is a medium German tank used in World War II on the Eastern and Western Fronts in Europe from mid-1943 to the war’s end in 1945
This half-track vehicle is a Schwere Wehrmachtschlepper which was used either as a sort of tractor to ferry artillery around or it could be armoured and mounted with anti-aircraft guns or a 10-barrel rocket launcher
In the dining room he keeps fugitive SS physician Josef Mengele’s grandfather clock, topped with a bear which he smuggled out of Aregntina prestening it was tractor parts headed for a factory in Coventry.
And by a spiral staircase, Wheatcroft keeps a full-length portrait of Hitler which was the favourite image of himself and he used it for stamps and official reproductions.
The property, which has landscaped courtyard gardens, is being sold by Leicestershire-based Bentons.
Mr Wheatcroft’s palatial five-bedroom home in rural Leicestershire features this intricate spiral staircase
In the drawing room sits Eva Braun’s gramophone and record collection sits and in the snooker room a selection of Hitler’s furniture is housed which was salvaged from Austria
The property, which has landscaped courtyard gardens, is being sold by Leicestershire-based Bentons
A slight variation on the original design for the Raupenschlepper Ost, this one (type 03) had a simpler, soft-topped metal cab. All of the models had wooden, drop-side cargo beds