In the spring of 1944, the social highlight of Hitler’s inner circle was not a military victory or a political rally, but a wedding. The marriage of SS General Hermann Fegelein to Gretl Braun, the sister of Eva Braun, was a lavish affair set against the backdrop of the Nazi alpine retreat at Obersalzberg. It was a union designed to cement power, yet it would end in betrayal, disgrace, and a bullet in the back of the groom’s neck.
The wedding took place on June 3, 1944, in the Marble Hall of Mirabell Palace in Salzburg. It was not a traditional Christian ceremony but a pagan-style rite favored by senior SS officers. Heinrich Himmler himself officiated the ceremony, with Martin Bormann serving as a witness. The event was meticulously planned by Eva Braun, who had long created a royal-like atmosphere for herself and her family within Hitler’s mountain domain.
After the ceremony, the bridal party drove to the Berghof, Hitler’s private residence, to pay their respects to the Führer. A grand reception was held in the Great Hall, the largest room in the building, which offered sweeping views of the valley and mountains below. Following the reception, the guests—with the notable exception of Hitler—traveled to the Eagles Nest, Hitler’s mountaintop tea house. Martin Bormann personally drove the party up the mountain, where they took the luxurious elevator carved into the rock to the summit.
The celebration at the Eagles Nest lasted three days. The main hall, where the wedding party was held, remains largely unchanged today and now operates as a restaurant. However, the festivities came to an abrupt halt on June 6, 1944, when news arrived that the Allies had landed in Normandy. The fairytale atmosphere evaporated as the war demanded immediate attention.
The groom, Hermann Fegelein, was a man of questionable character. A former jockey, he had risen through the SS ranks to become a general. During the invasion of Poland in 1939, his regiment was involved in the massacre of 1,700 civilians in the Kampinos Forest. He was formally reprimanded for looting, having shipped stolen trucks, Mercedes-Benz cars, food, coffee, clothing, and expensive furs back to the SS Cavalry School. Himmler protected him from prosecution.
During the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Fegelein’s regiment was tasked with hunting down and killing Jews, partisans, and undesirables in Belarus. His unit killed nearly 14,000 Jews and over 3,500 men deemed to be partisans. After being wounded by a sniper in December 1941, he later took command of the 8th SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer. Wounded again in October 1943, he was appointed as Himmler’s SS liaison officer at Hitler’s headquarters.
Fegelein was described as popular, arrogant, handsome, and a womanizer. He was blunt and direct, and he became close to Martin Bormann, joining his regular drinking sessions. Eva Braun herself admitted to a friend that she had fallen in love with him, though she was too shrewd to cross Hitler. Fegelein, while flirting with both Braun sisters, was careful to maintain proper relations with the Führer. He soon became involved with Gretl, and despite his infidelities—which continued before and after the wedding—he decided to marry her. The marriage placed him in an unrivaled position of power and influence directly beside Hitler.
Many in Hitler’s inner circle despised 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 did not hesitate to tell others that he was overqualified for his job and was clearly bored with his responsibilities.
Hitler left the Berghof on July 14, 1944, heading to the Wolf’s Lair in East Prussia. He would never return. Fegelein accompanied him, leaving his pregnant wife behind. Six days later, Colonel Count von Stauffenberg planted a bomb in the Wolf’s Lair conference room. Hitler survived, but Fegelein, who was present, suffered a minor injury to his left thigh.
By January 1945, with the Ardennes offensive failing in the west and a massive Soviet winter offensive in the east, Hitler moved to his final headquarters in Berlin. Gretl arrived at the Reich Chancellery with Eva Braun on January 19. Hitler sent both women to Berchtesgaden on February 9 to escape the danger, but Eva eventually returned to stay with Hitler.
As Soviet forces encircled the city in late April 1945, Fegelein’s situation became desperate. Trapped in the Führerbunker with a mentally unstable Hitler, he decided to save himself. On April 27, 1945, just 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. A group of Hitler’s bodyguards went to his apartment in the city and found the general drunk in bed with his mistress. The woman escaped through a bathroom window, but Fegelein was arrested and brought back to the bunker. With him was a suitcase filled with money, civilian clothes, and fake identification papers—evidence of his planned escape.
Eva Braun pleaded with Hitler to forgive Fegelein, arguing that he was the father of her sister’s unborn child. Hitler initially relented. But on the evening of April 28, news arrived that Heinrich Himmler had been secretly negotiating a peace deal with the Western Allies. Hitler flew into a rage and ordered Himmler’s arrest. While Himmler was free in northern Germany, Hitler could at least take revenge on Fegelein, who was Himmler’s SS liaison and was suspected of being complicit in the plot.
Fegelein was brought before a hasty court-martial in the bunker. He was found guilty of desertion and sentenced to death. His medals and honors were stripped from his uniform, his shoulder boards were torn off, and he was dragged upstairs in disgrace by Hitler’s RSD bodyguards. In the garden of the Reich Chancellery, 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: Hitler married Eva Braun in the bunker. Both were dead by 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 a businessman named 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 the age of 72.
The Fegelein wedding was a grand display of Nazi power and pageantry, but it was built on a foundation of brutality, opportunism, and deceit. The groom, who had overseen the murder of thousands, met his end in a muddy shell hole, shot by his own side. The fairytale was always a nightmare.