Eva Anna Paula Braun was born on February 6, 1912, in Munich, Germany. Her mother, Franziska "Fanny" Braun, worked as a seamstress before marrying and becoming a housewife. Her father, Friedrich "Fritz" Braun, left to fight in World War I when Eva was two years old and returned after the war to work as a school teacher.
Eva was the middle of three daughters. She had an older sister, Ilse, and a younger sister, Gretl. Their parents' attempts at discipline were often thwarted by their charming and mischievous daughters. Eva in particular often feigned stomach aches to get out of meals and coaxed her friends into doing her homework.
Fritz was Lutheran and Fanny was Catholic. Their religious differences exacerbated the stress of raising a family, and the pair divorced in 1921 when Eva was nine. Divorce was nearly unheard of at the time. The children went to live with their grandparents, but Fritz and Fanny bowed to pressure and remarried eighteen months later.
Meanwhile, Germany was experiencing great strife after losing World War I in 1918. The nation was in chaos. Workers and soldiers blamed the aristocracy for the defeat, and the November Revolution toppled Kaiser Wilhelm and twenty-two other German monarchies. The Weimar Republic was established, but it faced a massive reparations debt. Mass inflation ensued, and millions of soldiers returning from the front faced unemployment and poverty.
Despite the desperation, the Braun family was doing quite well. In 1920 they received a sizable inheritance and moved into a spacious apartment in Munich. Guilty about the instability their marital problems had caused, the parents showered their daughters with gifts and paid for lessons in music, art, and dance.
Eva attended a Catholic lyceum in Munich. She was an average student but had a talent for athletics. She was popular and focused on diet, clothes, makeup, and boys. Her parents grew concerned about her rebellious behavior and nights out dancing and drinking. They sent her to a convent school in the country, but within a year she returned home and refused to go back.
Her older sister Ilse had gotten a job working for a doctor, and seventeen-year-old Eva envied her financial independence. When she saw an ad in a photographer's shop window, she applied and was hired as a shop assistant and model. She also learned how to take and develop photographs.
In October 1929, Eva was on a ladder arranging things on a high shelf when her employer, Heinrich Hoffmann, brought in his best client after hours. The forty-year-old politician got a good look at Eva's shapely legs in silk stockings and a short skirt. He liked what he saw.
Just as Heinrich had expected, they chatted and discovered a shared love of movies and operettas. She was impressed with the magnetic older man. She was oblivious to politics and did not recognize him as Adolf Hitler, the leader of a rising political party.
He came more often to the studio to see the teenage shop girl and invited her out to dinner. She was flattered by his interest and attracted to his mystique. Soon he was telling friends that he was keeping a girl in Munich.
Hitler cultivated a public image of a celibate man who sacrificed a domestic life, instead devoting himself entirely to the Nazi cause. The truth is much more complicated. He had been linked to a number of women, several of whom were a good deal younger.
Maria Reiter was only sixteen when Hitler promised to marry her. He then ghosted her, and in despair she attempted to hang herself, but her family found her in time and saved her life. Debutante Unity Mitford came all the way from London to meet him. She was infatuated, and they may have had a sexual relationship, but in public he mostly just lectured her on politics.
Hitler could be charming or harsh with women. His thinking and the Nazi party were patriarchal in the extreme. Women were peripheral, second-class citizens. Hitler once told a colleague that he would never marry, that women were just there for him to get along with, and that they were objects.
Magda Goebbels often invited her husband's boss out to parties in the hopes that he might meet and settle down with a suitable woman, but he often shunned her. Hitler's sexuality has long been debated by historians. Some have argued that he was homosexual, bisexual, or asexual, and that his violent persecution of homosexuals, sending some fifteen thousand to concentration camps, was in reaction to his own self-loathing.
There are stories of him as a young World War I soldier refusing to sleep with French sex workers and chastising his comrades for doing so, and of a report to the Munich police alleging Hitler had a sexual relationship with another soldier. But much of the evidence comes down to rumor and slander.
There is more solid proof of Hitler's heterosexual relationships. Geli Raubal was the daughter of Adolf's half-sister Angela. She had been infatuated with her half-uncle since her early teens. Angela became Adolf's housekeeper in 1925, and mother and daughter moved in with him.
It is likely that Adolf took advantage of his lovesick niece. She allegedly told a friend that she had to engage in sickening sexual acts, but she consented because she did not want to lose him to another woman. In 1931 Geli came across a love letter from Eva Braun. She was so devastated that she shot herself with Adolf's pistol.
He was deeply affected by her death and visited her grave often. He lavished more attention on Geli after her death than he did while she was alive. Having lost one plaything, Adolf focused all the more on Eva. He saw her as an ideal companion. He didn't want a mistress who would stand up to him or challenge him intellectually. He called her his "little chaparral," an Austrian word for a nice little girl of no consequence.
As their relationship intensified and she took a bit more interest in his public persona, she knew she had to keep their courtship a secret from her family. Her father opposed Hitler politically and called him an extremist and an imbecile. Her older sister Ilse worked for a Jewish doctor and disliked Hitler's anti-Semitic rhetoric. But none of this discouraged Eva, who was enchanted by the passionate, charismatic man and the idea of rising at his side.
Eva's little sister Gretl was also unperturbed. She got a job at Hoffmann Studio, and the sisters shared an apartment paid for by Hitler. Gretl was devoted to her older sister and fit her own life around whatever Eva needed.
As the 1932 political campaign season heated up, Adolf's calendar filled with speeches and travel. He had little time for Eva and often ignored her increasingly frantic letters. She displayed symptoms of depression and manic behavior throughout her life and may have been bipolar. Being ignored made her desperate.
She aimed her father's pistol at her own heart. When she fired, the gun jerked and the bullet struck her neck. Her sister found her soaked in blood and managed to call a doctor in time. They told their parents that it had been an accident.
A few months later, Mr. and Mrs. Braun were driving through the countryside and stopped for lunch in a village. A Nazi car pulled up to the same inn, and Adolf Hitler and their twenty-year-old daughter stepped out. Her parents were horrified and begged her to end the relationship, but she refused.
Her father wrote a letter to Adolf imploring him to stop seeing Eva and complaining that a daughter should not be taken from her parents' home until she was married. Fritz foolishly entrusted the letter to Heinrich Hoffmann, who gave it to Eva. She tore it up, and Adolf never laid eyes on it. He did invite Fritz over for a meal and presented him with a gold watch.
Eventually the Brauns resigned themselves to the fact that they had no say in their daughter's personal life. Over time they came to feel proud that she was the girlfriend of such an important man. They continued to complain that Hitler ought to make an honest woman of her, but the Führer ignored them.
In 1933 the Nazi party took over the Reichstag, and Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. They called it the Third Reich, or Third Empire, the first being the Holy Roman Empire and then the Prussian Empire. For the first few months, Germany's gloomy morale skyrocketed with renewed hope.
Then came the Jewish boycott, the ban on political parties, the exit from the League of Nations, and then the Night of the Long Knives, during which Ernst Röhm and one hundred more of Hitler's political enemies were executed without trial. From then on there could be no doubt what kind of man Hitler truly was.
Like the rest of Germany, Eva was well aware of all of this, but she never questioned her boyfriend of two years. Those things didn't interest her. As long as she could drive a car into Munich and go shopping, sail and water ski at the beach house he bought her, she was happy. She borrowed peroxide from his dentist to bleach her hair blonde, just like Adolf liked.
She wrote in her diary in 1935 that his head was full of political problems all the time, that major Röhm caused him a lot of headaches, but that in spite of all that he found time for her. Eva was far from a first lady. Adolf kept her in the shadows and their relationship a secret. He preferred to remain single in the eyes of his female admirers and maintain his persona as the father of all Germany.
When diplomats came to visit, Eva was confined to her quarters. Political matters always took precedence, and Eva often felt neglected. She was a convenience to him. When he felt like being with her, she was ready and waiting, but when he went on the road to make speeches, he forgot she existed.
In the spring of 1935, Eva had gone months without a letter or call. She became frantic and took thirty-five sleeping tablets. Her sister found her and she was revived. Eva's second suicide attempt impressed Adolf. He expected his followers to be unquestionably loyal, even unto death. Adolf became incrementally more devoted.
He moved Eva into the Berghof, his holiday compound on the side of a Bavarian mountain. Hitler had the home renovated and expanded into a luxurious complex. He fenced it off and bought all the other homes on the mountain and demolished them. He and the other high-ranking Nazis who lived there were completely isolated.
Hitler informed party members and staff that Eva was his private secretary, and they displayed zero public affection, but everyone knew what was up. They had separate bedrooms and bathrooms with interconnecting doors. They ended most evenings together in his study, Eva wearing a dressing gown and drinking wine while Adolf stuck to tea. Then they would retire to bed together.
Now queen of the Berghof, Eva treated herself to a silver fox coat, a color camera, loads of designer clothes, and luxury accessories and cosmetics. She changed outfits multiple times a day and had her hair dressed daily, even though there was often no one around to admire her. Life at the isolated Berghof could be rather boring for an outgoing girl in her twenties.
Adolf placed a Mercedes, a chauffeur, and plenty of money at her disposal. She slept in every day, ate meals cooked by her private chef, and spoiled her Scottish Terriers, Negus and Stasi. She kept them away from Hitler's German Shepherd, Blondi. Eva spent her days swimming, sunbathing, biking, mountain climbing, and watching American movies, which were banned in the rest of Germany. She called the estate the Grand Hotel, after the Greta Garbo film.
And of course she pined after her darling Führer, who was often busy imprisoning or murdering his rivals. If Hitler arrived at the Berghof while Eva was on her period, the housekeeper would be sent to the pharmacy to find something to end it. Eva complained to her diary that she felt used and that Adolf only wanted her for certain purposes. Still she justified her lopsided relationship to herself.
A friend described her giggling over a photograph of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain sitting on a sofa in Hitler's Munich flat. She remarked that if only he knew the goings-on that sofa had seen. Hitler felt no qualms about pursuing other women, including director Leni Riefenstahl, who created the propaganda film Triumph of the Will. It inspired millions to join the Nazi party, and Adolf was impressed with her intellect and fervor, quite the opposite of Eva.
But his main mistress subtly maintained her position as queen of the Berghof. She shunned any potential female rivals from the estate. She was the only person allowed to take candid photographs and films of Adolf and the rest of the inner circle. They were often screened at the Berghof, and Adolf encouraged her to sell the photos to her old employer Hoffmann for publication and propaganda books and newspapers.
Eva shot Hitler as a relaxed and gracious host. She often staged scenes around a Christmas tree or an Easter egg hunt with the blonde, blue-eyed children of members of his entourage. She portrayed Hitler as a benevolent father figure. In reality he was awkward around the children.
In summer 1939, Eva went with her mother and sisters on a cruise through the Norwegian fjords. They enjoyed fine meals, sunbathing, and games on deck. That September Hitler invaded Poland, and the UK and France declared war on Germany. Eva cried when she heard the news, not for the impending hardship and death but because Adolf would have even less free time for her. But at least, she reasoned, he wouldn't have time for any other women either.
She ordered the Berghof staff to hoard supplies so that she, the Führer, and their important guests would not have to go without. Hitler proudly donned his uniform, declaring that he would never take it off until Germany was victorious or he had died in it. While her man invaded Norway, Denmark, Austria, and France, Eva shut out anything she found disturbing. She banned radio and newspapers from the house. Instead she read American magazines and romance novels, wore Parisian lingerie, and daydreamed about a happy domestic future with her darling Führer.
She envisioned having blond offspring with him, but Adolf informed her that he never wanted children. He felt that his offspring would always be measured against their famous father and come up short. He also refused to marry her, claiming that he didn't have time for a wife. There were rumors that Eva did become pregnant but had a secret abortion in Munich, however there is no solid evidence of this.
Adolf did display an increased fondness and concern for Eva. He worried when she went out swimming or skiing or was running late for tea. As the Allies bombed Germany, Adolf worried about the safety of the Berghof. He had smoke cannons installed which could hide the estate in thick fog while he was away directing the war.
Ava avoided loneliness by inviting friends and family to stay. She was the only resident of the Berghof who was allowed to have guests. Hitler got in the habit of calling her every day. She would anxiously await his calls, which only lasted about ten minutes. Once they had spoken, she was light on her feet and informed her friends that they could now go out hiking, swimming, or drive into town.
Companions observed that in Hitler's presence Eva was quiet, careful, and sober, but when he was gone she was playful and liked to cut loose, party, drink, and smoke habits Hitler discouraged. She sometimes hummed the American tune "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" to taunt her British boyfriend. When Adolf missed Eva's birthday, which happened frequently, he sent her jewelry to make up for it.
He did make it home for a New Year's Eve party in 1939, and Eva boldly claimed her spot next to him in the group photo. Lady of the manor in all but name. While other Germans were rationing and being bombed, Eva took her sisters and friends on vacation to Italy a number of times. As Mussolini was Hitler's ally, the party could travel freely through the Mediterranean country. They went shopping in Milan, explored the ruins of Pompeii, and sunbathed at resorts in Portofino.
Eva's parents were all too happy to accept Hitler's hospitality, and her father officially joined the Nazi party. Gretl had her own room at the Berghof, but Ilse lost her job when her Jewish boss fled to America and she grew increasingly resentful. She complained that so much time spent with self-important men had turned her sister into a haughty queen.
On the other side of the over-Salzburg mountains, salt mines were used as mass graves for concentration camp victims. Most Germans only knew that their Jewish neighbors and colleagues were vanishing, but not the horrendous fate they suffered. It has long been debated how much Eva and the other women of the inner circle knew about the Holocaust.
Hitler did not discuss politics directly with women, but he wasn't one to hold his tongue at the dinner table either, so it's likely Eva overheard a great deal. She seems to have been unbothered by her man ordering the genocide of millions of people. When the convent that educated her was set to be appropriated as a Nazi training camp, the nuns begged Eva to intercede on their behalf. She replied coldly that they might as well remove their habits and grow out their hair.
Eva even told her sister Ilse, who frequently criticized the Nazis, that if Hitler decided to put her in a concentration camp she would not come to get her out. The only thing she did complain about was that the war made her favorite cosmetics hard to find, but she was still able to get hairdressing from occupied Paris, so somehow she survived.
By June 1944 the Allies had stormed the beaches of Normandy, but Eva was more occupied with her sister Gretl's wedding to SS officer Hans Fegelein. She may have arranged the marriage because she herself was in love with Hans. Eva was rather jealous of Gretl's matrimonial triumph and said she wanted the wedding to be as grand as if it were her own. She ordered the staff of the Berghof to empty out the cellars for a luxurious wedding banquet.
On July 20, members of the German resistance attempted to blow up Hitler by detonating a bomb in a conference room in the Wolf's Lair, but the Führer escaped with minor injuries. He sent Eva his torn and bloody uniform and reassured her of his safety. Eva supposedly responded, though the letter has never been found, "Darling, I am beside myself at this moment. I am scared to death knowing you are in danger. Come back as quickly as possible. You know I always told you that I would die if anything ever happened to you. From our first encounter I swore to myself that I would follow you everywhere, even in death. You know that I live only for your love. Yours, Eva."
For the rest of that summer Hitler was in Berlin frantically trying to salvage the war. Meanwhile Eva pasted on a garish cheerfulness. Every night she screened her films of carefree times. She dragged her friends around to swim, hike, and have fun. They were more concerned with the increasingly grim news coming in from the front, and by October dread had cracked Eva's facade. She wrote her will leaving everything to her family, and she set her mind to being with her beloved to the bitter end.
With Allies advancing into Germany, Hitler came for one final visit to the oasis of the Berghof. He then took Eva back to Berlin with him. By March 1945 the Russians had surrounded the capital. Eva's friends suggested she escape while she still could and go into hiding, but she replied, "Do you think I would let him die alone? I will stay with him until the last moment."
Adolf and Eva sheltered from the bombs in their enormous Führerbunker underneath the Reich Chancellery headquarters. The stress of the conflict had broken Hitler down into an ill old man with ashen skin and early signs of Parkinson's disease. Eva suffered from frequent migraines. She was his emotional support, and he put down his guard and became more affectionate with her in front of others.
Hitler wrote his final will and testament. He bequeathed Eva 12,000 Reichsmarks a year, about half a million dollars today. He also blamed his generals, the German people, and above all the Jews for his impending downfall. He became paranoid and lashed out at those around him. He ordered the executions of several Nazi leaders he suspected of disloyalty, including Hans Fegelein, Gretl's husband and the father of her impending child.
But Eva was unperturbed. After fourteen years as Hitler's secret mistress, she was finally granted her greatest desire. Adolf made arrangements to have a registrar come up from the front to marry them. Shortly after midnight on April 29, Eva donned a black sequin evening gown. Her eyes sparkled with joyful tears in the harsh lights of the bunker. Hitler wore his uniform as usual.
Joseph Goebbels was the best man at the hasty ceremony, where both the bride and groom swore according to Nazi law that they were of pure Aryan blood and free from hereditary disease. When Eva signed the marriage certificate she started writing B for Braun, then crossed it out and wrote Eva Hitler instead. They hosted a modest wedding breakfast with their entourage and toasted with champagne. Hitler abstained.
Hitler had also arranged to have deadly cyanide capsules brought to the bunker. He was growing increasingly agitated and suspicious. He feared that the cyanide would only knock him unconscious so his men could turn him over to the Allies alive, so he decided to test the poison on his dog Blondi.
Eva changed into her husband's favorite dress, dark blue with white flowers around the neckline. She fixed her hair and painted her nails. At 1 p.m. on April 30, the newlyweds bid farewell to their staff and inner circle. Eva gave her friends pieces of her jewelry. They then retired to his study.
At 3:30, just forty hours into their honeymoon, a gunshot rang out. Officers entered the study and found the lifeless bodies of Adolf and Eva lying together on a small sofa. Eva's head rested on Adolf's shoulder. Eva had swallowed a cyanide capsule, and Adolf had taken the poison and shot himself in the right temple just to be sure.
The corpses of the newlyweds were carried upstairs and into the garden behind the Reich Chancellery. As the Red Army bombed Berlin, their bodies were thrown into a ditch, covered in gasoline, and burned. This was Hitler's wish, as he didn't want to become a grizzly trophy for the approaching Allies. What was left of them was later identified by a dentist. Hitler was fifty-six and Eva thirty-three.
A week later Gretl gave birth to a daughter whom she named Eva. The rest of the Braun family survived the war. As a member of the Nazi party, Fritz was put on trial. He testified that Hitler could not have been a bad person, otherwise his daughter would not have loved him. The naive and heartbroken father was let off with a small fine. He and Fanny lived out a quiet life in the countryside.
Eva was not tried at Nuremberg because she had no influence on the atrocities committed by her husband. She was acquitted. She never said a word to Hitler against anyone or for anyone except herself.