Eva Braun

by Heike B. Görtemaker

  164. Ibid. The actual words of Section 9, Ehebruch (Adultery), are: “(1) Eine Ehe darf nicht geschlossen werden zwischen einem wegen Ehebruchs geschiedenen Ehegatten und demjenigen, mit dem er den Ehebruch begangen hat, wenn dieser Ehebruch im Scheidungsurteil als Grund der Scheidung festgestellt ist. (2) Von dieser Vorschrift kann Befreiung bewilligt werden.”

  165. Reich Minister and Head of the Chancellery to Minister of Justice Gürtner, Berchtesgaden, November 23, 1938 (copy), in Fa 199/47, IfZ Munich.

  166. Ibid.

  167. See in this regard Lothar Gruchmann, Justiz im Dritten Reich 1933–1940: Anpassung und Unterwerfung in der Ära Gürtner, 3rd ed. (Munich, 2002).

  168. Transcript of the judgment of the Berlin district court from December 23, 1938, ref. no. 220. R.303.38, in Fa 199/47, IfZ Munich.

  169. Hermann Esser to Reich Minister Dr. Lammers, Berlin, December 23, 1938 (copy), in Fa 199/47, IfZ Munich.

  170. Minister of Justice to Reich Minister and Head of the Chancellery Dr. Lammers, Berlin, February 6, 1939 (copy), in Fa 199/47, IfZ Munich.

  171. See photographs of the wedding party, April 5, 1939, in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-24169, BSB Munich.

  172. See “Eva Braun während der Taufe im Hause Hermann Essers in München,” undated, in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-363, BSB Munich. According to a statement by Hedwig Hoffmann, a former employee at Esser’s house, Eva Braun was invited to the celebration as a godmother because she “was an acquaintance of Frau Esser.” (Aussage der Zeugin Hedwig Hoffmann, 18. Oktober 1949, Öffentliche Sitzung der Berufungskammer, München, VI Senat, zur mündlichen Verhandlung über den Nachlass der verstorbenen Eva Hitler, geb. Braun [Witness statement from Hedwig Hoffmann, October 18, 1949, official session of the appellate chamber, Munich, Sixth Senate, for oral arguments concerning the estate of the deceased Eva Hitler, née Braun], in Denazification Court Records, box 718, State Archives, Munich.) Hanfstaengl also stated that Eva Braun was friends with Esser’s second wife since their schooldays: Zwischen Weissem und Braunem Haus, p. 359.

  173. The Brandts’ son, born on October 4, 1935, was given the name Karl-Adolf. Speer’s son, born 1937, was named Friedrich Adolf. Ribbentrop also named his son Adolf. Rudolf Hess, in turn, took on the role of godfather to one of Bormann’s sons, who was named Rudolf (Gerhard) after him.

  174. See Adolf Hitler, “Rede vor der NS-Frauenschaft am 8. September 1934,” in Hitler, Hitler: Reden und Proklamationen 1932–1945, p. 451.

  175. See Michael Rissmann, Hitlers Gott: Vorsehungsglaube und Sendungsbewusstsein des deutschen Diktators (Zürich and Munich, 2001), p. 80.

  176. Ferdinand Hoffmann, Sittliche Entartung und Geburtenschwund, Schriften für naturgesetzliche Politik und Wissenschaft, H. 4, 2nd, expanded, ed. (Munich, 1938), pp. 6 and 14.

  177. See Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 92; Henriette von Schirach, Frauen um Hitler, p. 228. See also Gerda Bormann to Martin Bormann, Obersalzberg, December 25, 1943, in Bormann, The Bormann Letters, p. 38.

  178. Note from the Führer Headquarters, October 21/22, 1941, in Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944, p. 99.

  179. Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, p. 30.

  180. Hitler, quoted in Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 92. See also Hamann, Hitlers Wien, pp. 536ff. The Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, in contrast, did not share this attitude. He is quoted as having said the following: “I’m not married to Italy, after all, the way Hitler is with Germany.” See Rachele Mussolini, Mussolini ohne Maske: Erinnerungen, ed. Albert Zarca (Stuttgart, 1974).

  181. “Der Führer spricht zur deutschen Frauenschaft,” in Reden des Führers am Parteitag der Ehre 1936, 4th ed. (Munich, 1936), p. 44.

  182. Kurt Sontheimer, Antidemokratisches Denken in der Weimarer Republik: Die politischen Ideen des deutschen Nationalismus zwischen 1918 und 1933, 4th ed. (Munich, 1994), pp. 214ff.

  183. Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944, p. 230.

  184. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 92. Kershaw adopts this evaluation of Braun: “For prestige reasons, he kept her away from the public eye” (Hitler 1936–1945, p. 34).

  185. “Besprechung zwischen Mr. Albrecht und Frl. Paula Hitler,” Berchtesgaden, May 26, 1945. See also Zdral, Die Hitlers, p. 207; Alfred Läpple, Paula Hitler—Die Schwester: Ein Leben in der Zeitenwende, 2nd ed. (Stegen am Ammersee, 2005), pp. 147ff.

  186. Rudolf Hess to Ilse Pröhl, Landsberg Castle, June 8, 1924, in Hess, Briefe 1908–1933, p. 332. Otto Dietrich, formerly Reich Press Chief and in Hitler’s innermost circle, remarked on Hitler’s “aversion to everything familial” (12 Jahre mit Hitler, p. 235). See also Hamann, Hitlers Wien, p. 516, which says that Hitler experienced inhibitions and fear of contact with women even in his early years. He apparently confided to Reinhold Hanisch, whom he knew from his time in the homeless shelter for men in Vienna, that he was afraid of the “possible consequences” of an intimate relationship.

  187. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 86 and 92.

  188. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 119.

  189. See Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 166f. Henry Picker, in contrast, claims that Braun was the “lady of the house” and “in charge of running the Berghof”; see Henry Picker, Hitlers Tischgespräche im Führerhauptquartier: Entstehung, Struktur, Folgen des Nationalsozialismus (Berlin, 1997), pp. 352ff.

  190. See Hanskarl von Hasselbach, “Hitler,” in Headquarters Military Intelligence Service Center, U.S. Army, APO 757, OI Special Report 36, “Adolf Hitler: A Composite Picture (2 April 1947),” F135/4, p. 6, in David Irving Collection, “Adolph Hitler 1944–1953,” vol. 4, IfZ Munich, p. 714. Albert Speer, on the other hand, emphasized that Eva Braun was “very shy and very modest” and “much maligned” by others’ backbiting (Sereny, Albert Speer, pp. 192f.). See also Spitzy, So haben wir das Reich verspielt, p. 129: Ribbentrop’s adjutant here describes Braun as “a child of the petit bourgeoisie,” with no “class.” An “educated, intelligent wife at Hitler’s side,” in contrast, would have been able to be a “moderating influence at his side.”

  191. See Ian Kershaw, Hitlers Macht: Das Profil der NS-Herrschaft (Munich, 1992), pp. 31ff.

  192. Ley, “Gedanken um den Führer,” p. 22.

  193. See Emmy Göring, An der Seite meines Mannes: Begebenheiten und Bekenntnisse, 4th ed. (Coburg, 1996), pp. 148f.

  194. See Kube, Pour le mérite und Hakenkreuz, pp. 71ff. and 202. See also Werner Maser, Hermann Göring: Hitlers janusköpfiger Paladin; Die politische Biographie (Berlin, 2000); James Wyllie, The Warlord and the Renegade: The Story of Hermann and Albert Goering (Sutton, 2006).

  195. Emmy Göring, An der Seite meines Mannes, p. 149.

  196. On Hermann Göring’s declining significance, see Kube, Pour le mérite und Hakenkreuz, p. 359. It is noteworthy that Göring applied for membership in the NSDAP for his wife in January 1939 (ibid., p. 203). The issue with Emmy Göring’s invitation of Eva Braun was certainly not the supposed “faux pas” of “inviting Eva Braun to tea together with the staff of the Berghof,” as Anna Maria Sigmund claims (Die Frauen der Nazis, p. 264).

  197. See Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 119.

  198. See Kershaw, Hitler 1936–1945, pp. 19f.; Fest, Die unbeantwortbaren Fragen, p. 240. See also Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 100–101: he describes an “unbreakable wall” and writes that Hitler “was never completely relaxed and human” in others’ presence—not even with Eva Braun. Earlier, Speer claimed that Hitler tried to come across “as a good ‘paterfamilias’ ” in the private realm (Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 112).

  199. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, pp. 92 and 123.

  200. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, pp. 69ff., 112, and 118.

  201. Seventh Army Interrogation Center, APO/758, May 26 1945, “Amann’s Control of German Press,” in David Irving Collection, “Adolph Hitler 1944–1953,” F 135/3, IfZ Munich, p. 490.

  202.
Walther Darré, Aufzeichnungen von 1945–1948, vol. 2, p. 369.

  203. See “Biographical Report, Nurnberg, 26 October, 1945.” Office of U.S. Chief of Counsel APO 403, U.S. Army, Interrogation Division, in ZS 1452 (Franz Xaver Schwarz), IfZ Munich.

  204. Interrogation of Reich Treasurer Schwarz, 21 July 1945, 1600 Hours, in ZS 1452 (Franz Xaver Schwarz), IfZ Munich. An interview record from the same day reports: “Hitler seemed to him [i.e., to Schwarz] an honest, intelligent man of great strength of character. He maintained that his relations with women were on a high plane. Stating that Hitler became a close friend of Eva Braun as early as 1931, he insisted that the relationship was purely platonic since Hitler had decided to forgo matrimony in the interest of his country; Eva Braun frequented the Schwarz household.”

  205. Report on Historical Interrogations of German Prisoners of War and Detained Persons, 20 December 1945 (Lt. Col. Oron J. Hale), War Department Historical Commission, War Department Special Staff, Historical Division, in Fh 51, IfZ Munich.

  206. “Besprechung zwischen Herrn Albrecht und Frl. Schröder, früher Sekretärin von Hitler,” Berchtesgaden, May 22, 1945, p. 3, in MA 1298/10, Microfilm, Various Documents DJ-13 (David Irving), IfZ Munich.

  207. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 155f.

  208. Hoffmann, “Mein Beruf,” pp. 22f.

  209. Ibid., pp. 18ff. and 21f.

  210. “Vernehmung des Julius Schaub am 12. 3. 1947 von 15.30 bis 16.00 durch Dr. Kempner,” pp. 6f., in ZS 137 (Julius Schaub), IfZ Munich. See also Julius Schaub, In Hitlers Schatten: Erinnerungen und Aufzeichnungen des Chefadjutanten 1925–1945, ed. Olaf Rose (Stegen am Ammersee, 2005), p. 278.

  211. See Kershaw, The “Hitler Myth,” p. 121.

  212. Karl Brandt stated in September 1945 that Schaub certainly had a “very exact picture” of “Hitler’s private life.” He described the adjutant as a petty and self-important schemer who spread “gossip of the pettiest kind” and often created conflicts in Hitler’s circle with his “sneaky dealings” and “dreaded deviousness.” Schaub influenced “Hitler’s judgment of people” and therefore “even men of high and dignified office very much paid court to him” (Karl Brandt, “Julius Schaub,” September 20, 1945, “Oberursel/Alaska,”, p. 71, in Kl. Erwerbungen 441–3 [copy], BA Koblenz). On Schaub’s role see also Angela Hermann, “Hitler und sein Stosstrupp in der ‘Reichskristallnacht,’ ” Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 56 (2008), pp. 603–619.

  213. Herta Schneider, “Aussage vom 23. Juni 1949, Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Herta Schneider, geb. Ostermayr,” in Denazification Court Records, box 1670, State Archives, Munich.

  214. Heinrich Hoffmann, “Aussage vom 1. Juli 1949, Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Eva Hitler, geb. Braun,” in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich. Braun’s sister, Ilse Fucke-Michels, stated that Eva Braun “worked in Herr Hoffmann’s sales office until 1945 and also took photographs for the love of it”; Eva Braun “earned a net monthly salary of 400 reichsmarks in the later years.” Her “special photographs” were paid for “separately” by Hoffmann. See Ilse Fucke-Michels, Aussage vom 31. Mai 1949, Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich. See also Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, p. 466. Eva Braun shot movies with a 16 mm Agfa-Movex camera.

  215. See the reproduced receipt in the German edition of Gun, Eva Braun (Eva Braun-Hitler, p. 128 [g]). See also Herta Schneider, statement of June 23, 1949 (previously cited): Braun, Schneider said, still “worked” in Munich “during the first year of the war.”

  216. Heinrich Hoffmann, statement of July 1, 1949, previously cited. See also Sigmund, Die Frauen der Nazis, p. 254: “Eva stopped working at the end of 1935.”

  217. On corruption among Hitler’s entourage, see Bajohr, Parvenüs und Profiteure, pp. 58ff.

  218. Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 93. In late June 1939, Eva Braun traveled with her mother and younger sisters on a cruise through the Norwegian fjords, aboard the KdF ship the MS Milwaukee (Lambert, The Lost Life of Eva Braun, p. 372; see also Gun, Eva Braun, p. 179). The fact that Eva Braun traveled independently contradicts Speer’s claim that Eva Braun had no freedom or latitude and always had to be present whenever Hitler was on the Obersalzberg.

  219. See Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 82. Speer claims that he himself suffered under the need to always be at Hitler’s beck and call.

  220. Statement from Adolf Widmann, “Protokoll der Öffentlichen Sitzung vom 15. Oktober 1948 zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Eva Anna Paula Hitler, geb. Braun,” Munich District Court 1, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich. See also in this regard Joachimsthaler, Hitlers Liste, pp. 459ff.

  221. “Berufungskammer für München, Abteilung Ermittlung an den Generalkläger beim Kassationshof im Bayerischen Ministerium für Sonderaufgaben, München, 13. September 1948,” in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich.

  222. See Munich District Court, land register of Bogenhausen, vol. 90, Bl. 2574, p. 6. A sales contract no longer exists, and the original files were also destroyed, in an air raid on December 17, 1944. Munich District Court, Div. 3, to the General Prosecutor at Kassationshof in the State Ministry for Special Tasks, Munich, March 11, 1948, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun), State Archives, Munich.

  223. Hoffmann, “Mein Beruf,” p. 22. See also Heinrich Hoffmann’s statement of July 1, 1949—he was in prison at the time, and classified as a Class 1 Major Offender—for the “Öffentliche Sitzung der Hauptkammer München zur mündlichen Verhandlung in dem Verfahren gegen Eva Hitler, geb. Braun, in Denazification Court Records, box 718 (Eva Hitler, geb. Braun),” State Archives, Munich.

  224. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 140. See also Eva Braun’s registration card dated August 24, 1935, State Archives, Munich.

  225. See Walter Wönne and Falko Berg, Halte, was Du hast: Erinnerungen (n.p., 2000), p. 404.

  226. Adolf Hitler, “Reichstagsrede vom 7. März 1936,” in Johannes Hohlfeld, ed., Dokumente der Deutschen Politik und Geschichte von 1848 bis zur Gegenwart, vol. 4, Die Zeit der nationalsozialistischen Diktatur 1933–1945: Aufbau und Entwicklung 1933–1938 (Berlin, n.d.) pp. 275ff. See also Kershaw, Hitler 1889–1936, pp. 532f.

  227. Speer, Albert Speer: Die Kransberg-Protokolle 1945, p. 219.

  228. Joseph Goebbels, quoted in Frank Omland, “Du wählst mi nich Hitler!” Reichstagswahlen und Volksabstimmungen in Schleswig-Holstein 1933–1938 (Hamburg, 2006), p. 132.

  229. “Besprechung zwischen Mr. Albrecht und Frl. Paula Hitler,” Berchtesgaden, May 26, 1945, as cited in note 185, above.

  230. Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944, p. 158. See also Rissmann, Hitlers Gott, pp. 176ff., and Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 168f. Hitler, according to Dietrich, believed in “the existence of a higher being and the prevailing of a higher purpose, in a sense that he never explicitly defined.”

  231. See “Gruppenbild, u. a. mit Helene Bechstein, Erna Hoffmann und Eva Braun in der zweiten Reihe hinter Otto Dietrich, Adolf Wagner und Hitler sitzend,” in Heinrich Hoffmann Photo Archive, hoff-12309, BSB Munich.

  232. Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944, p. 356.

  233. Title page, Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, August 24, 1919, in Weimar in Berlin: Porträt einer Epoche, ed. Manfred Görtemaker and Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Berlin-Brandenburg, 2002), p. 186.

  234. Hitler, Monologe im Führerhauptquartier 1941–1944, p. 356.

  235. RMdI, 7. Juni 1935, H 101 13805–09, in Akten der Partei-Kanzlei der NSDAP, p. 59.

  236. “Der Chef des Reichssicherheitsdienstes, Himmler, an die Aussenstelle Garmisch-Partenkirchen der Bayerischen Politischen Polizei, z. Hd. Herrn Hauptmann der Schu
tzpolizei Staudinger, Berlin, 29. Januar 1936. Betr. ‘Sicherungsdienst bei Besuchen der Olympischen Winterspiele durch den Führer’ [Head of the Reich Security Office, Himmler, to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Branch of the Bavarian Political Police, attn. Capt. of the Uniformed Police Staudinger, Berlin, January 29, 1936. Re: Security for the Führer’s Visit to the Winter Olympic Games]” (original), in ED 619/vol. 1, IfZ Munich. See also Wolfgang Fuhr, ed., Olympische Winterspiele 1936: Die vergessene Olympiade von Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Agon, 2006).

  237. See David Clay Large, Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936 (New York, 2007); Arnd Krüger and William Murray, eds., The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics and Appeasement in the 1930s (Urbana and Chicago, 2003).

  238. See Heinrich Hoffmann and Ludwig Hayman, Die Olympischen Spiele 1936 (Diessen, 1936).

  239. Rudolf Hess to his father, n.p., June 8, 1936 (carbon copy), in Rudolf Hess Papers, J 1211, 1989/148, vol. 13, file 57, folder 18, Swiss Federal Archives, Bern. Only Angela Lambert claims the opposite, without providing any proof, in her unreliable, basically novelistic Braun biography (The Lost Life of Eva Braun, pp. 278f.).

  240. See Gun, Eva Braun, p. 152.

  241. Schroeder, Er war mein Chef, pp. 84ff.; Below, Als Hitlers Adjutant 1937–45, pp. 92f.; Dietrich, 12 Jahre mit Hitler, pp. 52f.; Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 109. Gitta Sereny, in contrast, writes that Speer told her upon questioning about his stay in Vienna in March 1938, at the Hotel Imperial (Albert Speer, p. 191).

  242. See Richard J. Evans, David Irving, Hitler, and Holocaust Denial, electronic edition. See also Ron Rosenbaum, Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil (New York, 1999), pp. 228ff. According to Rosenbaum, Christa Schroeder was for David Irving the “key” to the “magic circle.”

  243. For example, Goebbels noted under the date March 20, 1938: “The Führer is magnificent: generous and constructive. A true genius. Now he sits for hours at a time brooding over his maps. It is moving when he says that he wants to see the Greater German Reich again with his own eyes” (Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels, Teil I, vol. 5, p. 222).