Deep in the Bavarian Alps, Adolf Hitler maintained a private residence called the Berghof, perched above Obersalzberg. Around it, his top ministers built their own homes, creating a tightly guarded Nazi alpine village.
Hitler’s inner circle included Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring, and Albert Speer, along with guest houses for VIPs, barracks for his SS bodyguards, a teahouse, staff quarters, a kindergarten, and a post office. Hitler spent as much time there as possible, but his duties often pulled him to the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia or to Berlin.
The person most often in residence at Obersalzberg was Hitler’s mistress, Eva Braun. Staff and locals called her the Queen of Obersalzberg, though few Germans even knew she existed. She lived in a lavishly decorated section of the Berghof, kept largely out of public view.
Braun surrounded herself with family and friends, enjoying the services of servants, swimming in local lakes during summer, skiing in winter, and hosting parties at Hitler’s many teahouses, including the famous Eagle’s Nest. She had been with Hitler since 1929, when she worked as an assistant to Nazi photographer Heinrich Hoffmann.
Eva was 23 years younger than Hitler, who had a weakness for younger women. Their relationship deepened after the suspected suicide of Geli Raubal, Hitler’s half-niece, in 1931. Eva herself attempted suicide that same year with her father’s pistol, which certainly captured Hitler’s attention.
By late 1932, they were lovers. Eva tried suicide again in May 1935, taking sleeping pills because she felt neglected. After that, Hitler gave her an apartment in Munich, shared with her sister Gretl, and later a villa in Bogenhausen.
During the war, Eva’s parents were still alive. Her father, Friedrich Braun, was a schoolteacher and reserve army officer. Her mother, Franziska, had worked as a seamstress before marriage. Eva’s older sister, Ilse, worked for a Jewish surgeon and later in Albert Speer’s architectural office in Berlin. She stayed away from politics and died childless in Munich in 1979.
Gretl Braun was the opposite. She worked for Hoffmann as well and enjoyed the luxurious life her sister’s relationship provided. She loved flirting with military officers and partying. She fell for SS adjutant Fritz Darges, who fought in France and Russia, but refused to marry him despite Hitler’s pressure.
Darges’s downfall came dramatically in July 1944, just two days before the famous bomb plot. During a military conference at the Wolf’s Lair, a fly landed on Hitler’s shoulder. Hitler told Darges to shoo it away. Darges joked that since it was a fly, it was the air force’s responsibility, suggesting Hitler’s Luftwaffe adjutant handle it.
Hitler dismissed Darges on the spot and sent him to a combat unit on the Eastern Front. The real reason may have been Darges’s refusal to marry Gretl. Darges survived the war and died in 2009 at age 96.
After Darges, Gretl became involved with Walther Hewel, a senior Nazi and popular figure in Hitler’s inner circle. Hewel was a diplomat under Joachim von Ribbentrop and served as his liaison at Hitler’s headquarters. He was around 40 and unmarried, and Hitler wanted him to settle down.
Hewel initially wanted to marry Sigrid von Laffert, which Hitler approved. But she married a German aristocrat stationed in Madrid instead. Hitler then pushed Hewel toward Gretl, even reportedly promising him the ambassadorship in Rome if he married her. Hewel married someone else instead and was briefly cast out of Hitler’s circle before being forgiven.
Hewel stayed with Hitler until the end. After Hitler’s suicide, Hewel joined a group trying to escape the ruined city. On May 2, 1945, when Red Army soldiers cornered the group in a brewery, Hewel shot himself.
Gretl then fell for SS General Hermann Fegelein, Heinrich Himmler’s liaison officer at Hitler’s headquarters. Fegelein had risen from pre-war jockey to high rank in the Nazi regime. During the invasion of Poland in 1939, his regiment was involved in the massacre of 1,700 civilians in the Kampinos Forest.
Fegelein was formally reprimanded for looting, sending stolen trucks, Mercedes cars, a Škoda cabriolet, food, coffee, clothing, and furs back from Poland. Himmler protected him from prosecution. During the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Fegelein’s regiment fought extensively and was also tasked with hunting down and killing Jews, partisans, and undesirables in Belarus.
His unit killed 13,788 Jews and more than 3,500 men deemed partisans. After being wounded by a sniper in December 1941, he led the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer on the Eastern Front. Wounded again in October 1943, he was assigned as Himmler’s SS liaison at Hitler’s court.
Fegelein was popular, arrogant, attractive, and well-built, holding the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves. He was blunt and direct, becoming close to Martin Bormann and joining his regular drinking sessions. Eva Braun noticed him too, admitting to a friend that she had fallen for him. But she was too shrewd to cross Hitler, and Fegelein was careful to maintain the right relationship with the Führer.
Soon, Fegelein was involved with Gretl. He was a womanizer and cheated on her before and after the wedding, even trying to seduce Hitler’s female secretaries. Many in Hitler’s circle disliked the arrogant SS general. Albert Speer called him one of the most repulsive people in Hitler’s circle.
Fegelein performed his duties well and showed deep respect for Hitler, but he also made no secret that he thought himself overqualified for the job. Despite all this, he decided to marry Gretl. Why? Likely because it placed him in an unrivaled position of power and influence right next to the Führer. Fegelein was a pragmatist with strong survival instincts.
The wedding took place on June 3, 1944, and was the biggest event on the social calendar of Hitler’s inner circle. Eva Braun planned it meticulously. The main ceremony was held in the Marble Hall of Mirabell Palace in Salzburg. Instead of a Christian rite, the ceremony was pagan in style, favored by senior SS officers.
Heinrich Himmler himself officiated, and Martin Bormann was among the witnesses. The couple rode to the Berghof to pay tribute to the Führer. A reception followed in the Great Hall, with its famous picture windows overlooking the valley and mountains.
After the reception, the couple and their guests, excluding Hitler, headed for the Eagle’s Nest lift. Bormann drove them up the mountain himself. They took Hitler’s luxurious elevator through the mountain to the Kehlsteinhaus, where they celebrated for three days.
The main hall of the Eagle’s Nest, where the wedding party took place, remains nearly unchanged today and now serves as a restaurant. But on June 6, 1944, the party abruptly ended when news arrived that the Allies had landed in Normandy.
Hitler left the Berghof on July 14, 1944, for the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia and never returned. Fegelein went with him. Six days later, Colonel von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in the conference room. Hitler survived, and Fegelein, present at the blast, suffered a minor wound to his left thigh.
In the final months of the regime, Fegelein remained on Hitler’s staff, moving between Führer headquarters and rarely seeing his pregnant wife. By January 1945, with the Ardennes offensive failed and the Soviets launching a massive winter attack, Hitler moved to his last headquarters in Berlin.
On January 19, Gretl arrived at the Reich Chancellery with Eva Braun. Hitler sent both women to Berchtesgaden on February 9 for safety, but Eva returned to stay with Hitler. By late April 1945, Soviet troops had surrounded the city, and Fegelein’s situation became dire.
Trapped in the Führerbunker with the mentally unstable Hitler, Fegelein decided to save himself. On April 23, Gretl received a final letter from Eva Braun, asking her to destroy all business correspondence. Personal letters from Hitler and her letters to him were to be sent to Fegelein’s brother, SS Colonel Waldemar Fegelein, and possibly hidden at Fischhorn Castle as a bargaining tool with the Allies.
At the end of the war, Hermann Göring was in American custody at Fischhorn Castle, and Eva Braun’s correspondence disappeared from the castle during the American occupation.
On April 27, 1945, three days before Hitler’s suicide, Fegelein attempted to flee Berlin without permission. When Hitler called for him during a conference, he was nowhere to be found. Hitler’s bodyguards went to his apartment in the city and found the general drunk in bed with his mistress.
The young woman escaped through a bathroom window, but Fegelein was arrested and brought back to the bunker. With him was a suitcase full of cash, civilian clothes, and forged identification papers. Eva Braun pleaded with Hitler to forgive Fegelein because he was the father of her sister’s unborn child. Hitler temporarily spared him.
But on the evening of April 28, news arrived of Himmler’s secret peace negotiations with the Western Allies. Hitler flew into a rage and ordered Himmler’s arrest. Himmler was free in northern Germany, but Hitler could at least take revenge on Fegelein, Himmler’s SS liaison, suspected of complicity.
Fegelein was brought before a hasty court-martial in the bunker, found guilty of desertion, and sentenced to death. His medals and honors were stripped from his uniform, his shoulder boards torn off, and he was dragged upstairs in disgrace. In the Reich Chancellery garden, amid Soviet shelling, an SS officer shot him in the neck.
His body was kicked into a shell crater and hastily covered with dirt and debris. The next day, April 29, 1945, a second Nazi wedding took place, this time between Hitler and Eva Braun. It ended in death the following afternoon.
Gretl Fegelein gave birth to a daughter on May 5, 1945, in Obersalzberg. She named the child Eva, in memory of her sister. Gretl later married businessman Kurt Berlinghoff in 1954 and lived quietly in Munich. Her daughter Eva committed suicide in 1975 after her boyfriend died in a car accident. Gretl Berlinghoff died in October 1987 in Steingaden, Bavaria, at age 72.