Cellar hoard alleged to be Hitler's

However, Stelzer claimed that Hitler's household sent Heinrich a package of delicacies in return for hiding the food. Photo / AP

A German restaurateur claims to have found a secret store of cognac and champagne that once belonged to Adolf Hitler.

Silvio Stelzer found the liquor stored in a deep complex of cellars under the gardens of his restaurant in Saxony.

He said he had also found ledgers which showed Hitler's staff had moved the valuable bottles there to protect them from Allied air raids on Berlin in 1944.

Hitler rarely drank, and it is likely the brandy and champagne would have been used for entertaining.

Stelzer said the records also showed that Hitler's staff had sent cheese, salami, chocolate and cigarettes to be stored in the cellars.

At the time, most of the German population was living under the privations of wartime rationing.

Chocolate, in particular, was something most Germans would not see again until decades later.

Mr Stelzer made the find at his restaurant in a historic villa on the grounds of the Moritzburg Water Palace.

While renovating the grounds, workmen stumbled on a six-storey deep complex of cellars under the garden.

"At the end of 1944 Adolf Hitler had his household food and drink stores moved to my cellar by his steward Kannegiesser as they were not safe because of air raids on Berlin," Stelzer told Bild newspaper.

The palace was the home of Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony, the youngest son of Friedrich August II, the last King of Saxony.

Prince Ernst Heinrich had openly opposed the Nazis.

He was forced to spend five days in a concentration camp and was later interrogated by the Gestapo.

However, Stelzer claimed that Hitler's household sent Heinrich a package of delicacies in return for hiding the food.

Stelzer said he found no trace of the food Hitler had sent to Saxony. "Nothing remained of the food and consumables. After May 8, 1945, Russian troops looted everything," he said.

But the cognac and champagne survived in the cellars. "What will become of them is unclear," Stelzer said.

- Telegraph Group Ltd