The owner of a toilet allegedly used by Adolf Hitler and currently installed in a New Jersey garage plans to sell it this year.

Visitors to Greg Kohfeldt's auto repair workshop have been invited to view the item, which is apparently in complete working order, since it was installed in 1952.

The toilet was scavanged from the Aviso-Grille, Hitler's state ship

The fascinating story of how it came to be there begins with the seizure of the Aviso Grille, the German state yacht, which was first launched in 1934.

It was used regularly by Hitler until 1939 and the outbreak of the second world war - when it was commissioned as a gunship.

Had the invasion of Britain gone ahead in 1940, Hitler had planned to sail up the Thames in the ship. Fortunately this never happened, and in 1942 it was recommissioned as a harbour ship in Narvik, Norway, until it was seized by the British in 1947 and sold to its new owners in the US.

Attempts to open the ship as a tourist attraction fell through, and the Aviso was moored in a scrapyard in New Jersey where it was looted by locals.

Kohfeldt told Roadside America, an offbeat travel guide: "It's encrusted as only a toilet can be that is never, ever, used by women.

"I'm not a good housekeeper…It's not pristine or anything."

The toilet was recently brought to the UK to feature in an episode of the British television show Four Rooms, although it didn't make it into the final cut of the programme.

Ultimately the link to Hitler is a tenuous one - it's entirely possible he never used the toilet at all, and it seems unlikely that it will sell for any significant sum. Memorabilia pertaining to the Nazis remains hugely controversial, although last year a jewelled ring belonging to the dictator sold for $55,000 in the US.

Click here for our free newsletter and get more on unique collectibles straight to your inbox.