Margarete Berta Braun, known as Gretl, was the younger sister of Eva Braun, who married Adolf Hitler in the final days of the Second World War. While Eva remained with Hitler in Berlin, Gretl was elsewhere, and she survived the war. Her life after 1945 was marked by silence and obscurity.
Gretl Braun was born in Munich on August 31, 1915. She was the youngest of the Braun sisters and left school at 16. She worked as a clerk in the photography studio of Heinrich Hoffmann, the man who would become the official Nazi Party photographer. It was through this studio that her sister Eva first met Hitler.
After Hitler began courting Eva, he paid for a three-bedroom flat for Eva and Gretl to share. The sisters hosted parties there with senior Nazis. Their father was unhappy with the arrangement and wrote to Hitler to complain about his involvement with his daughters.
Gretl was a regular presence at Hitler’s mountain retreat, the Berghof, near Berchtesgaden. She was known to smoke, which Hitler disliked. He once told her to give up cigarettes and promised her a villa in return. She reportedly declined, saying that smoking gave her many small daily satisfactions.
Hitler took an interest in finding Gretl a husband. He suggested Heinrich Hoffmann’s son, but Gretl was not interested. She later had a brief relationship with an American diplomat, which ended quickly. She then became involved with Fritz Darges, one of Hitler’s adjutants. That relationship did not last, and Darges was sent to the Eastern Front.
Hitler also tried to arrange a marriage between Gretl and Walter Hewel, a close associate. Hewel refused the idea and married someone else, which angered Hitler for a time. Eventually, Hewel was forgiven and returned to the inner circle.
Gretl then became involved with Hermann Fegelein, an SS officer who served as Himmler’s liaison to Hitler. Fegelein was described as a ruthless figure and was linked to serious war crimes on the Eastern Front. He was known for his charm and his many affairs.
The couple married on June 3, 1944. The wedding was celebrated at the Berghof and the nearby Kehlstein tea house. It was one of the last large Nazi celebrations before the war turned decisively against Germany. The marriage was not a happy one, and Fegelein continued to pursue other women.
In early 1945, Gretl joined her sister Eva at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. She later returned to the Berghof, where she remained because she was pregnant. Eva stayed in Berlin with Hitler.
On April 28, 1945, Hermann Fegelein was arrested in Berlin after attempting to flee the Führerbunker. He was found drunk and was shot for desertion. His body was never found.
On April 29, 1945, Hitler married Eva Braun. This made Gretl his sister-in-law, but only for about 40 hours. On April 30, Hitler and Eva died together in the bunker.
Gretl gave birth to a daughter on May 5, 1945. She named the child Eva Barbara Fegelein, in honor of her late sister. The child was a niece of Adolf Hitler.
After the war, Gretl cut off contact with much of her family. She remarried in February 1954, to a man named Kurt Bellinghoff, in Munich. She returned to live in Bavaria as many of her former associates were tried, imprisoned, or executed.
Her father later spoke out against Hitler, accusing him of taking advantage of his daughters and pulling them into a dangerous life.
In 1971, Gretl’s daughter Eva Barbara died by poisoning, after her boyfriend was involved in a fatal car crash. In the late 1970s, a cousin found Gretl living in a small town near Munich. By that time, she was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Gretl Braun died on October 10, 1987, at the age of 72. She never spoke publicly about her relationship with Hitler or the Nazi inner circle after the war. It is not known whether she felt any remorse for the actions of those she had been close to.
She was buried in a cemetery in Bavaria, in the same plot as her daughter and her second husband. Gretl Braun, the sister-in-law of Adolf Hitler, died in obscurity, taking her knowledge of the Nazi leadership with her.