longtime companion and late wife of Adolf Hitler
not to be confused with Ewa Braun, a polish producer and couturier. For the serbian pop rock ‘n’ roll band, see Eva Braun ( band ). For the german writer born Eva Braun, see Eva Strittmatter

Reading: Eva Braun

Eva Anna Paula Hitler ( née Braun ; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945 ) was a german photographer who was the longtime companion and former the wife of Adolf Hitler. The two first met in Munich when she was a 17-year-old assistant and model for his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann ; she began seeing Hitler frequently about two years later. Braun took many of the surviving color photograph and films of Hitler. She attempted suicide doubly during their early relationship. By 1936, Braun was a part of Hitler ‘s family at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden and lived a shelter life throughout World War II. She became a key figure within Hitler ‘s inner social circle, but did not attend public events with him until mid-1944, when her sister Gretl married Hermann Fegelein, the SS liaison policeman on his staff. As Nazi Germany was collapsing towards the end of the war, Braun swore loyalty to Hitler and went to Berlin to be by his side in the heavily reinforced Führerbunker beneath the Reich Chancellery garden. As crimson Army troops fought their way into the center government zone, on 29 April 1945, she married Hitler during a brief civil ceremony ; she was aged 33 and he was aged 56. Less than forty hours late, they died by suicide in a seated room of the bunker—she by biting into a capsule of nitrile, and he by a gunfire to the head. The german public was unaware of Braun ‘s kinship with Hitler until after their deaths .

early life

Eva ‘s mother, Franziska Braun Eva Braun was born in Munich and was the second gear daughter of school teacher Friedrich “ Fritz ” Braun ( 1879–1964 ) and Franziska “ Fanny ” Kronberger ( 1885–1976 ) ; her mother had worked as a dressmaker before her marriage. She had an elder sister, Ilse ( 1909–1979 ), and a younger sister, Margarete ( Gretl ) ( 1915–1987 ). Braun ‘s parents were divorced in April 1921 but remarried in November 1922, credibly for fiscal reasons ( hyperinflation was plaguing the german economy at the time ). Braun was educated at a Catholic lyceum in Munich, and then for one year at a occupation school in the Convent of the english Sisters in Simbach am Inn, where she had average grades and a endowment for athletics. At old age 17, Braun took a job working for Heinrich Hoffmann, the official photographer for the Nazi Party. initially employed as a shop adjunct and sales clerk, she soon learned how to use a camera and develop photograph. She met Adolf Hitler, 23 years her elder, at Hoffmann ‘s studio in Munich in October 1929. He had been introduced to her as “ Herr Wolff ”. Braun ‘s younger sister, Gretl, besides worked for Hoffmann from 1932 forth. The women rented an apartment together for a clock. Gretl much accompanied Eva on her subsequent trips with Hitler to Obersalzberg .

kinship with Hitler

Hitler lived with his half-niece, Geli Raubal, in an apartment at Prinzregentenplatz 16 in Munich from 1929 until her death in 1931. On 18 September of that class, Raubal was found dead in the apartment with a gunfire wound to the breast, an apparent suicide with Hitler ‘s pistol. Hitler was in Nuremberg at the time. His relationship with Raubal—likely the most intense of his life—had been important to him. Hitler began seeing more of Braun after Raubal ‘s suicide. Braun herself attempted suicide on 10 or 11 August 1932 by shooting herself in the chest with her don ‘s pistol. Historians feel the attack was not serious, but was a command for Hitler ‘s attention. After Braun ‘s recovery, Hitler became more commit to her and by the end of 1932 they had become lovers. She frequently stayed overnight at his Munich apartment when he was in town. Beginning in 1933, Braun worked as a photographer for Hoffmann. This position enabled her to travel—accompanied by Hoffmann—with Hitler ‘s cortege as a photographer for the Nazi Party. Later in her career, she worked for Hoffmann ‘s art press. According to a fragment of her diary and the history of biographer Nerin Gun, Braun ‘s second suicide attack occurred in May 1935. She took an overdose of sleeping pills when Hitler failed to make meter for her in his animation. Hitler provided Braun and her baby with a three-bedroom apartment in Munich that August, and the following year the sisters were provided with a villa in Bogenhausen at Wasserburgerstr. 12 ( now Delpstr. 12 ). By 1936, Braun was at Hitler ‘s family at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden whenever he was in mansion there, but she lived by and large in Munich. Braun besides had her own apartment at the new Reich Chancellery in Berlin, completed to a design by Albert Speer. Braun was a member of Hoffmann ‘s staff when she attended the Nuremberg Rally for the first fourth dimension in 1935. Hitler ‘s half sister, Angela Raubal ( Geli ‘s mother ), took exception to her presence there and was late dismissed from her placement as housekeeper at the Berghof. Researchers are unable to ascertain if her disfavor for Braun was the only reason for her departure, but other members of Hitler ‘s cortege saw Braun as untouchable from then on. Hitler wished to present himself in the prototype of a chaste hero ; in the Nazi ideology, men were the political leaders and warriors, and women were homemakers. Hitler believed that he was sexually attractive to women and wished to exploit this for political advance by remaining individual, as he felt marriage would decrease his appeal. He and Braun never appeared as a pair in populace ; the lone clock time they appeared together in a published news program photograph was when she sat near him at the 1936 Winter Olympics. The german people were unaware of Braun ‘s relationship with Hitler until after the war. Braun had her own room adjoining Hitler ‘s at both the Berghof and the Führerbunker building complex beneath the Reich Chancellery garden in Berlin. Biographer Heike Görtemaker wrote that women did not play a big function in the politics of Nazi Germany. Braun ‘s political influence on Hitler was minimal ; she was never allowed to stay in the room when business or political conversations took home and was sent out of the room when cabinet ministers or other dignitaries were show. She was not a member of the Nazi Party. In his post-war memoirs, Hoffmann characterized Braun ‘s lookout as “ inconsequent and feather-brained ” ; her main interests were sports, clothes, and the cinema. She led a sheltered and privileged being and seemed uninterested in politics. One exemplify when she took an pastime was in 1943, curtly after Germany had fully transitioned to a sum war economy ; among other things, this meant a potential ban on women ‘s cosmetics and luxuries. According to Speer ‘s memoirs, Braun approached Hitler in “ high indignation ” ; Hitler quietly instructed Speer, who was armaments minister at the time, to halt production of women ‘s cosmetics and luxuries quite than instituting an outright ban. Speer former said, “ Eva Braun will prove a great disappointment to historians. ” Braun continued to work for Hoffmann after commencing her relationship with Hitler. She took many photograph and films of members of Hitler ‘s inner traffic circle, some of which were sold to Hoffmann for highly eminent prices ; she received money from Hoffmann ‘s company a former as 1943. Braun besides held the status of secret repository to Hitler. This guise entail she could enter and leave the Chancellery unperceived, though she used a side entrance and a rear stairway. Görtemaker notes that Braun and Hitler enjoyed a convention arouse life. Braun ‘s friends and relatives described Eva giggle over a 1938 photograph of Neville Chamberlain sitting on a sofa in Hitler ‘s Munich flat with the remark : “ If lone he knew what goings-on that sofa has seen. ” On 3 June 1944, Braun ‘s sister Gretl married SS – Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, who served as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler ‘s liaison officer on Hitler ‘s staff. Hitler used the marriage as an excuse to allow Braun to appear at official functions, as she could then be introduced as Fegelein ‘s sister-in-law. When Fegelein was caught in the close days of the war trying to escape to Sweden or Switzerland, Hitler ordered his execution. He was shot for abandonment in the garden of the Reich Chancellery on 28 April 1945 .

life style

When Hitler purchased the Berghof in 1933, it was a small vacation home on the batch at Obersalzberg. Renovations began in 1934 and were completed by 1936. A big wing was added onto the original house and several extra buildings were constructed. The integral area was fenced off, and remaining houses on the batch were purchased by the Nazi Party and demolished. Braun and the early members of the cortege were cut off from the external world when in mansion. Speer, Hermann Göring, and Martin Bormann had houses constructed inside the compound.

Hitler ‘s valet, Heinz Linge, stated in his memoirs that Hitler and Braun had two bedrooms and two bathrooms with interconnect doors at the Berghof, and Hitler would end most evenings alone with her in his survey before they retired to bed. She would wear a “ dress gown or house-coat ” and drink wine ; Hitler would have tea. Public displays of affection or physical contact were nonexistent, flush in the enclose universe of the Berghof. Braun took the character of hostess amongst the regular visitors, though she was not involved in running the family. She regularly invited friends and kin members to accompany her during her stays, the lone node to do so .
Braun and Hitler, June 1942 When Henriette von Schirach suggested that Braun should go into shroud after the war, Braun replied, “ Do you think I would let him die alone ? I will stay with him up until the last moment … ” Hitler named Braun in his will, to receive 12,000 Reichsmarks annual after his death. He was very fond of her, and worried when she participated in sports or was late render for tea. Braun was identical affectionate of Negus and Stasi, her two scots Terrier dogs, and they appear in her home movies. She normally kept them away from Hitler ‘s german Shepherd, Blondi. Blondi was killed by one of Hitler ‘s cortege on 29 April 1945 when he ordered that one of the cyanide capsules obtained for Braun and Hitler ‘s suicide the adjacent day be tested on the chase. Braun ‘s dogs and Blondi ‘s puppies were shot on 30 April by Hitler ‘s frump handler, Fritz Tornow .

marriage and suicide

In early April 1945, Braun travelled from Munich to Berlin to be with Hitler at the Führerbunker. She refused to leave as the Red Army closed in on the capital. After midnight on the night of 28–29 April, Hitler and Braun were married in a small civil ceremony within the bunker. The event was witnessed by Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann. Thereafter, Hitler hosted a modest marry breakfast with his raw wife. When Braun married Hitler, her legal diagnose changed to Eva Hitler. When she signed her marriage certificate, she wrote the letter B for her class list, then crossed this knocked out and replaced it with Hitler. After 1:00 autopsy on 30 April 1945, Braun and Hitler said their farewells to staff and members of the inner circle. Later that afternoon, at approximately 3:30 pm, respective people reported hearing a loudly gunfire. After waiting a few minutes, Linge, accompanied by Hitler ‘s SS adjutant, Otto Günsche, entered the humble discipline and found the lifeless bodies of Hitler and Braun on a little sofa. Braun had bitten into a nitrile ejection seat, and Hitler had shot himself in the right temple with his pistol. The corpses were carried up the stairs and through the bunker ‘s hand brake exit to the garden behind the Reich Chancellery, where they were burned during the Red Army blast in and around the area. Braun was 33 years erstwhile when she died. By 11 May, Hitler ‘s dentist ‘s adjunct Käthe Heusermann and dental technician Fritz Echtmann identified dental remains as belong to to Hitler and Braun. The remains of Joseph and Magda Goebbels, the six Goebbels children, General Hans Krebs, and Hitler ‘s dogs were repeatedly buried and exhumed, with the last localization being the SMERSH compound in Magdeburg, East Germany. Hitler and Braun ‘s remains were alleged to have been moved a well, but this is most likely soviet disinformation. There is no evidence that any bodily remains of Hitler or Braun – with the exception of the alveolar consonant remains – were found by the Soviets. On 4 April 1970, a Soviet KGB team with detailed burying charts secretly exhumed five wooden boxes of remains in Magdeburg. The remains were thoroughly burned and crushed, after which the ashes were thrown into the Biederitz river, a conducive of the nearby Elbe. The rest of Braun ‘s family survived the war. Her mother, Franziska, died at historic period 96 in January 1976, having lived out her days in an old farmhouse in Ruhpolding, Bavaria. Her father, Fritz, died in 1964. Gretl gave parturition to a daughter—whom she named Eva—on 5 May 1945. She former married Kurt Beringhoff, a businessman. She died in 1987. Braun ‘s elder sister, Ilse, was not part of Hitler ‘s inner circle. She married twice and died in 1979 .

References

Citations

bibliography

further read

  • Alexander, Alex (2005). In De Ban Van Hitler: Maria Reiter, Geli Raubal, Unity Mitford, Eva Braun (in Dutch). Rijswijk: Elmar. ISBN 978-90-389-1547-0.
  • Gun, Nerin E. (1968). Eva Braun: Hitler’s Mistress. New York: Meredith Press. OCLC 712347.