ON THE ZEISS TELESCOPE GIFTED BY ADOLF HITLER TO THE RANA OF NEPAL

Abstract

: This paper is about a century-old 130-mm (5-inch) Zeiss refractor that is in the possession of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in Darjeeling, India, and is on display in its Museum. The telescope is historical, being a gift from the German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to Maharaja Juddha Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal in 1938. It turns out that this was not Adolf Hitler’s personal telescope as has been presumed by some, although he did have a similar 130-mm Zeiss telescope of his own. The Rana later passed his telescope on to his son Maharaja Bahadur Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, who presented it to the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute in 1961.