Hitler's Mistress: Eva Braun

How an ordinary German girl became the Nazi dictator's wife.

Eva was, by all measures, unremarkable. She was the daughter of an ordinary teacher. She didn’t have any high ambitions in life. She certainly didn’t think she would be married to the Fürher of a powerful Nazi Reich. How did a 17-year-old girl fall into the grips of Hitler, a convicted political criminal and a terrorist from Austria? 

Despite her status as Hitler’s wife, Braun had no role in the atrocities of the Holocaust. She gave no orders. She was a simple, charming German girl. She liked clothes and makeup. She was a normal girl, except that she was the wife of the Nazi dictator. 

For Hitler, Eva was an object for his amusement. The emotional satisfaction she gave the Fürher only empowered him to commit more crimes. Many women were seduced by Hitler’s larger-than-life charisma. Hitler, for his part, wanted an uneducated simpleton for a wife. He didn’t want a woman that would interfere in his affairs. But Eva was madly in love with the mustached madman. 

Parents

After the Great War ended in 1918, Germany was left in ruins. The Allies imposed the Versailles Treaty to punish Germany’s ruthless aggression. Inflation ensued. German veterans came home penniless and jobless. One of these soldiers was able to find employment, find a wife, and produce three young daughters. 

Fritz Braun was a diligent worker, and nominally Protestant. His wife Fanny was an extraverted, athletic woman. She was a devout Catholic. Of the three daughters, Eva was charming and cunning. She feigned stomach aches to get out of meals, and made her school friends do her homework. She had a good relationship with her parents. 

Eva’s parents divorced, citing religious and personal differences. Divorce was uncommon, especially among the Catholics in Germany. The couple were pressured into remarrying 18 months later. The Brauns made up for the instability by lavishing their girls with gifts. 

Teenage years

The family moved into a spacious apartment in Munich, where the three girls enjoyed Germany’s vibrant social life. Eva enjoyed makeup, cuisine, clothing, and boys. She liked having a good time. She loved parties and dancing. 

In 1928, the 16-year-old Eva was sent by her parents to the Catholic Youth Women’s Institute, a convent school in the German village in Simbach. She didn’t like the school, and left the following fall. This was all quite normal for the time. She was a rebellious teenager. 

Meeting Hitler

When she returned home, she found that her sister was working for a doctor. Her sister thus enjoyed financial independence from the parents. In an attempt to follow suit, she answered an ad hanging in the window of a small photography shop. It was owned by Heinrich Hoffman, Hitler’s official photographer. The walls were filled with pictures of the 40-year-old Nazi politician. 

Politically, Berlin was a left-wing city, but there was a desire for a national revival. Hitler thoroughly took advantage of that. By this time, Hitler and his Nazi Party had gained a considerable number of seats in the Reichstag. Hoffman, mindful of Hitler’s rising popularity, wanted to keep his best client happy. He knew that Hitler had a fondness for pretty young women. 

One evening, Hitler stopped by Hoffman’s shop. There, he found Eva, standing on a ladder after the shop had closed. She was arranging books on the shelf. Hitler got a good glance at the young woman’s legs. He liked what he saw. Eva had shortened her dress a little. Hoffman then facilitated the formal introduction between Eva and Hitler. Eva was not familiar with politics at all. She only knew that Hitler was famous. Hitler began to frequent the shop, gradually ingratiating himself to the young girl. She was smitten by a man who was 23 years older than her. 

Nazi dictatorship 

As the 1930s began, post-war Germany was suffering political instability. This vacuum was quickly filled by Hitler and his Nazi Party. Beginning in the 1920s, Bavarian politicians began to make a Faustian bargain with Hitler, who was still a nobody. Sparks flew between Hitler and Eva, and the couple began to go out often for dinner. She kept the courtship a secret. Her father, Fritz, saw Hitler as a dangerous extremist, and called him an imbecile. Her mother didn’t like Hitler’s anti-Jewish rhetoric. 

Despite any misgivings from Eva’s parents, Hitler made a meteoric rise in the fragile Weimar democracy. He became Germany’s chancellor in January 1933. Most people didn’t realize how he even got into power, but they blindly followed the charismatic leader. 

Hitler’s mistresses

To Hitler, Eva was insignificant. The Nazis were all-boys club, with male bonding and male rituals. Hitler told Albert Speer, “I will never marry. The women, they are just there for me to get along with. They are objects.” 

Hitler had a lot of mistresses. Many of his amorous liaisons were failures. One of them committed suicide in 1931, just before Eva Braun became his girlfriend. 

Geli Raubal was the daughter of Hitler’s half-sister Angela, and had been in love with Hitler since her teenage years. She told a friend that she had to engage in sickening sexual acts with Hitler, in order not to lose him to someone else. On September 17, 1931, she came across a letter to Hitler, written by Eva Braun. Realizing that Hitler was seeing another woman, Geli killed herself. Hitler was devastated. He visited her grave more often than he saw her in life. 

Not wanting to repeat his mistakes, Hitler became an attentive boyfriend to Eva. But it was only temporary. As Hitler gained political power, he increasingly sidelined his new girlfriend. Hitler often traveled on the roads to campaign in elections. She often missed him. Whenever she did not hear from him, Eva would take her father’s pistol and aim it at her heart. She shot herself. Her sister Ilse found her body, and called a doctor just in time. She told her parents it was just an accident. 

Forbidden love

After Eva’s suicide attempt, she went to lunch with her parents. The parents were soon horrified to discover the secret courtship between Hitler and their 20-year-old daughter. Her father demanded an end to the relationship, but she refused. Hitler didn’t care much about Eva’s parents either. 

Piece by piece, the Nazi Fürher dismantled Germany’s democracy. He imposed a boycott on Jews. He criminalized political parties. He withdrew from the League of Nations. On June 30, 1934, 100 of Hitler’s enemies were murdered. No one was left in any doubt about Hitler’s deranged reign of terror. 

By this point, Eva had been Hitler’s mistress for about two years. Braun was not even remotely phased by the dictatorial tyranny of her boyfriend. She didn’t have any interest in politics. She exhibited a frightfully ignorant, oblivious attitude toward Germany’s degeneration under her boyfriend’s regime. But she didn’t care. She only cared about three things: being Hitler’s wife, athletics, and shopping. 

Again neglected by an increasingly busy Hitler, Eva attempted suicide a second time. Hitler moved her into the Berghof, his compound in the Obersalzberg region of Germany. Publicly, Hitler claimed she was only his secretary. In this role, she enjoyed some political authority over Hitler’s subordinates. 

Frivolous life

Hitler gave her a Mercedes and a personal chauffeur. She had plenty of money, and bought a lot of clothes. Every day, she woke up late. After breakfast, she went for a walk. She had a cook living the house year round. She enjoyed many mundane activities, such as playing with dogs, swimming, and mountain climbing. In those activities, she was supervised by SS guards. 

She spent her days at the Berghof sunbathing, exercising, and watch banned American movies. She referred to the estate as the Grand Hotel, named after the Greta Garbo film. She had a bowling alley in the cellar. She had access to the finest perfumes and cosmetics. She changed outfits hourly. Her hair was coiffured daily. Sometimes, Hitler would arrive when Eva was on her period. Hitler would summon his subordinates to fetch something from the pharmacy to counteract it. 

Despite her shallowness and frivolity, Eva was still aware enough to realize she was being exploited by Hitler for his own erotic needs. 

Hitler always had time for his other liaisons, including Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. Leni enthralled the dictator with her intelligence and wit, as well as her fanatical dedication to the Nazi cause. Hitler made her the Reich’s official documentarian. Her propaganda film Triumph of the Will brought Nazism to Germany’s mass market. Hitler’s infatuation cooled after he learned of Leni’s affair with a flamboyant German pilot. Hitler’s many mistresses were sophisticated and intellectual, in stark contrast to Eva. Hitler forbade Braun from receiving any serious education. Eva was the only person allowed to take candid photos of Hitler. 

World at war

Eva enjoyed the WWII years, because Hitler didn’t have any time for other women. 

By June of 1940, just nine months after invading Poland, Nazi Germany had successfully subdued Norway, Denmark, Austria, and Northern France. Paris and Vienna belonged to Hitler. 

Back at the Berghof, Eva read movie magazines and romance novels. She wore the finest lingerie from Paris, and swimsuits from Vienna. Her life at the compound was very superficial and uninteresting. She kept herself busy with sports and beauty, and simply ignored any political realities. 

In 1938, her sister Ilse was fired by her Jewish employer. The Jewish man fled to the US, which deepened Ilse’s resentment of Hitler. But the rest of the Braun family readily accepted Hitler’s hospitality. Fritz Braun came to like Hitler, and officially became a Nazi Party member in 1939. 

Salt mines were used as mass graves. Concentration camps were built nearby residential areas. But Eva paid no mind. Nor did she have any real influence over Hitler anyway. 

Death

As it became apparent that Nazi Germany would lose WWII, the Allies advanced in from all sides. Hitler made a final trip from the Berghof to Berlin. Eva voluntarily came with him. On December 16, Hitler gave her a bracelet. The Russians were moving into the German capital. Hitler refused to leave Berlin, and so did Eva. 

By March of 1945, the Russians had largely captured Berlin. Hitler and Eva hid underneath the Reich Chancellory headquarters. The Fürher blamed the German people, the Nazi generals, and ultimately the Jews for the total destruction of National Socialism. 

36 hours before Hitler’s suicide, Eva married him. On the afternoon of April 30, 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Adolf Hitler together committed suicide. Hitler took cyanide and shot himself. Eva only took the poison. She told her hairdresser to ensure her corpse looked beautified. She had on a dark blue dress with white roses. Gasoline was poured on the bodies and burned. When the Russians arrived, the corpses were largely destroyed. 

Nazi trials

Because of Eva’s marriage to Hitler, her parents were tried in de-Nazification courts. Fritz was declared a non-active member of the Party, and forced to pay a fine. 

Eva was tried posthumously at Nuremberg, but was not convicted. This is because Braun was never an official member of the Party. She knew of the atrocities, but was not actively involved in them. 

Allied bombs demolish the Braun home, where Eva had lived at the time she first met Hitler. After the war, her parents moved to a small village outside of Munich, until Fritz died in 1964 at the age of 78. Her mother died 12 years later, at the age of 90. 

Conclusion

Eva Braun was exactly the kind of woman one would expect Hitler to be involved with. She lacked the intelligence and sophistication to pose any serious challenge to his dictatorial reign of terror. She was not cunning, clever, or independent-minded. Nothing about her, besides her relationship with one of humanity’s most egregious tyrants, is even remotely interesting. 

Eva’s story demonstrates a couple of moral lessons. For one thing, it shows the folly of pursuing meaningful relationships with psychopaths. She was routinely ignored and sidelined by a man who cared for little beyond mass murder and grandiose delusions of power. Despite realizing this, the moronic mistress remained loyalty to the hideous Hitler even unto death. It is a steadfastness that would be admirable, if it weren’t so sickening! 

Perhaps most tellingly, Braun’s life shows the utter frivolity, careless, and disengagement of everyday people. Even as the voices of the innocent could be heard in the background—as her husband perpetrated some of the most flagrant human rights abuses in human history—Eva was nothing more than a meaningless, insignificant pawn. She couldn’t even be bothered to pay attention to the outside world of politics. 

She typifies the “bread and circus” ethos, which eschews all political and moral responsibility in favor of egocentric, short-term gratification. Citizenship, in a republic, requires active engagement. Democracy cannot subsist on a population of unenlightened, uneducated philistines who willingly cede control of their lives to unscrupulous, bloodthirsty tyrants. 

Eva’s story shows just how truly dangerous and reckless the world becomes in the face of mass complacency. 

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