dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

Eva Braun… was she his handler?

More Than Hitler's Naive "Floozy"

https://www.focus.de/wissen/mensch/geschichte/nationalsozialismus/interessen-familie-tagebuecher-tragische-hoerige-oder-hitlers-wichtige-stuetze-wer-war-eva-braun_id_5609333.html

Eva Braun remained hidden from the public, hardly anyone knew of her existence. And yet she apparently had a close relationship with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and later even became his wife - for a day. Was Braun the Führer’s naive lover or a key proponent of propaganda?

Drawing a picture of Eva Braun turns out to be difficult. There are no references from Hitler to Eva Braun, but only a few testimonies from her are available. Naive, superficial, and more interested in fashion than politics - that's how Eva Braun was portrayed for a long time. That this picture is crooked was only revealed by the biography published by Heike Görtemaker. Today we know more about her interests, her family and her relationship with Hitler. .

Eva's interests

Eva Braun did not exist in public. Only the inner circle around the National Socialist leader knew about the woman who apparently stood at Adolf Hitler's side and later became his wife - for one day.

Therefore, only an indistinct picture of Eva Braun can be reconstructed. One thing is clear: She did not fit into the image of the woman who National Socialism imagined as perfect. She was childless, unmarried. This is why Eve is often described as unhappy, with a lost life in which she often only waited for the guide. "That's nonsense! Eva Braun lived her own life, ”says Görtemaker in an interview with FOCUS Online.

“She was a passionate photographer and athlete,” the historian is certain - and she devoted herself to these activities extensively. On the Obersalzberg - Hitler's retreat - she had the privilege of always being able to take photos. Because she enjoyed the trust of the Führer.

She sold her pictures for a lot of money to Heinrich Hoffmann, in whose photo studio she had worked as a young woman. "Eva Braun was part of the propaganda machine and was busy working on the image that the world should have of Hitler," Görtemaker concludes. Last but not least, Eva Braun portrayed Adolf Hitler as the caring family man he was not.

The historian draws a lot of knowledge about Eva Braun's interests from old pictures. Other sources are statements from her family and the inner circle around Hitler. “There are a couple of letters and a fragment of a diary that may have come from Eva Braun,” says Görtemaker. By contrast, there are no known reports about them from Hitler. It remains unclear what kind of relationship Eva Braun and the Führer had.

Diaries

Self-reports such as diary entries by Eva Braun or Hitler could clarify this question. That is why it was a sensation when the Austrian Luis Trenker distributed what was supposed to be Braun's diary in the 1940s. However, this turned out to be a fake.

However, there is a 22-page diary fragment from 1935 that could actually come from Eva Braun. "She writes in it about purely private things," says Görtemaker. She is depressed that Hitler spends so little time with her. "It is the whining of a 23-year-old who is not sufficiently noticed by her long-distance relationship."

But even the originality of the fragment is still controversial today. Because it is written in Sütterlin. "Usually Eva Braun did not write Sütterlin," says the historian. There is only one card from her in which she addresses her parents with this writing. Görtemaker speculates that the entries could therefore also have been written by a sister.

>>14095985

>>14095947

The family

Eva Braun was born in 1912 and came from a middle-class family. Her father worked as a teacher, her mother was a seamstress. Eva had two sisters, one younger and one older. She grew up in Munich.

Görtemaker writes that Eva's parents' marriage was problematic. How they felt about their daughter's relationship with Hitler is unclear. "They claimed to have known nothing about the relationship," explains the historian.

Whether this statement is true, however, seems more than questionable. As Adolf Hitler's parents-in-law, they had to answer after the war, after all they were seen as beneficiaries of the Hitler dictatorship. It doesn't seem unusual to want to distance oneself from the past.

Görtemaker is certain, however: There was no break between Eva Braun and her parents. The parents can be seen in pictures of celebrations and trips with Eva. The relationship with her family seems to have been normal.

Eva seems to have had a particularly good relationship with her younger sister Margarete, called Gretl. She not only moved in with her in a house in Munich, but also often visited her on the Obersalzberg.

The relationship with her sister Ilse seems to have been more distant. Ilse Braun worked and lived with a Jewish ENT doctor in Munich since the late 1920s. "This fact was a thorn in Eva Braun's side," says Görtemaker. Eva Braun later arranged for her sister to get a new job in Berlin , with Hitler's architect Albert Speer.

The historian also states that Eva Braun, like the other people whom Hitler gathered around him, was not only a witness, but also a believer in the ideologies and views of National Socialism. "They did not gather around Hitler by chance."

Suicide attempts

In the eyes of the National Socialist leader, according to Görtemaker, Eva Braun's attempts at suicide in particular have shown her absolute loyalty and self-sacrifice, which Hitler expected from his followers.

The first suicide attempt is said to have taken place in 1932. When and how exactly it should have expired, however, is controversial. Different versions are known.

A second attempted suicide using tablets is said to have taken place in 1935. According to Görtemaker, it is unclear whether Hitler knew about it. However, there are some arguments in favor of it, because "the relationship between Hitler and Eva Braun changed afterwards," says Görtemaker. Eva Braun gained an increasingly important role from 1935 onwards.

"By 1935 at the latest, she assumed an unassailable position on the Obersalzberg," says the historian, "for those who were looking for Hitler's closeness, it was of great importance to get along with Eva Braun."

So the relationship between Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler changed

According to Görtemaker, this also shows: “Eva Braun was not a tragic servant who fell under the hypnotic power of Hitler. She won her place at Hitler's side with at least one suicide attempt. "

Eva Braun's relationship with Hitler changed over the years. "Eva Braun becomes a psychological support for the notoriously suspicious Hitler," says Görtemaker.

According to the historian, the joint suicide of Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler was planned long in advance. “That also shows the tough character of Eva Braun.” After all, it would not have been necessary for her to go to Berlin and commit suicide there. She would not necessarily have been convicted after the war.

"Eva Braun is just not the fashion doll she likes to be portrayed as," says Görtemaker. "At the latest when they commit suicide, she becomes an accomplice of Adolf Hitler."