Hitler watercolours to be auctioned in Germany

Watercolour paintings and drawing by Adolf Hitler are to be auctioned in southern Germany, a Nuremberg auctioneer announced.

They are some of the estimated 2,000 art works by the future Nazi leader when he was a struggling artist between 1904 and 1920. Some are signed A Hitler, and will be sold later this month by Weidler auctioneers, reports AFP.

Prices for the 14 watercolours and drawing range between 1,000 euros (£730; $1,130) and 45,000 (£32,000; $50,000 euros), with the most expensive painting depicting King Ludwig II's Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.

As a young man, Hitler aspired to become an artist, but his repeated applications to study at the Vienna Academy of Art was rejected.

In November, a 1914 canvas of the old registry office in Munich by Hitler fetched a record 130,000 (£94,000; $146,000) euros in a bid organised by the same auctioneers.

Neither the sellers nor the buyer of the painting wished to be identified.

Some believe that profiting from Hitler's work is unethical, and in March an LA auctioneer pulled a Hitler still life of a vase of flowers from an auction, where it was given a starting bid of $30,000 (£27,000; 36,000 euros.)