114 years ago, the most famous lover of all time – Eva Braun – was born. She was so obsessed with Hitler, who was 23 years her senior, that she tried to kill herself twice.
On February 6, 1912, Eva Braun was born, the woman who spent almost her entire life waiting. She waited for his gaze, his arrival, his message. She waited for him to accept her, to show her to the world, to call her his own. In the end, she experienced this, but only for 36 hours.
Eva Braun was the most famous lover in history, but also one of the loneliest women who ever lived. She loved a psychopath who only wanted himself, power, and control. Because of him, she twice turned a gun on her life. Because of him, she agreed to live as a secret. Because of him, she died.
Hitler systematically refused to show Eva Braun in public as a partner, as he sought to maintain the image of an unmarried leader devoted only to Germany. In Nazi propaganda, he was supposed to appear emotionally inaccessible, a mythical figure whom German women could worship from afar. Eva accepted this erasure from public life, becoming a woman who existed only behind closed doors.
Eva Braun, in fact, was not the first woman in Adolf Hitler's intimate life. She had played this role before. his granddaughter, Geli Raubal, with whom he developed a dark, obsessive and deeply problematic relationship. Geli lived in the same house as Hitler, while her mother, Angela Raubal, looked after the family.
Although there is no definitive evidence of the sexual nature of this relationship, historians agree that it was emotionally damaging and characterized by extreme control and pathological jealousy. It was precisely when Geli tried to break away and form other relationships that Hitler reacted with relentless pressure and possessiveness.
In 1931, when Geli concluded that Hitler would not only never marry her, but would not allow her to have an independent romantic life, she committed suicide. The circumstances were investigated and, although various suspicions and theories were raised, no involvement other than suicide was ever proven.
Hitler's grief was considered sincere by close witnesses: Geli's room remained untouched, almost like a shrine, until the end of his life, the Telegraph reports.
When Adolf Hitler entered the Munich photo studio in September 1929, Eva Braun was 17 and a half years old. She worked as an assistant, she was slim, young and cheerful. She was standing on the stairs arranging boxes when she noticed an unfamiliar man looking at her feet. He looked strange to her – funny mustache, light beige coat, hat in hand. But his gaze was not funny at all. This man was on the rise, hungry for power and adoration. And she remembered him immediately.
Historian Angela Lambert, author of the book "The Lost Life of Eva Braun", claims that Hitler then saw in her "the ideal projection of the woman he desired - young, silent, without ambition."
Eva grew up in a “regular” family. Father was a teacher, mother a housewife, Catholic education, no scandals. She was a typical middle-class girl: movies, dancing, fashion, sports. When her parents considered her too interested in boys, they sent her to a convent. There she was spiritually suffocated. She was intelligent, but she refused discipline. In the convent reports she was described as ambitious, but uninterested in the rules. The convent only confirmed one thing: Eva was still a virgin at the time.
Two months after leaving the monastery, she met Hitler. He was 40 years old and already deep in the political ascent. Women adored him, but he chose carefully. He did not want a strong, self-conscious partner. He needed a woman who did not ask questions. Historian Gitta Sereny describes Hitler as a man of “magnetic attraction,” extremely charming in private. He was neat, smelled good, eloquent, and enjoyed the company of women, compliments, and attention. Eva gave him all of this and asked for nothing in return.
Pregnancy was not considered
Their relationship for years was not sexual. Outings, theater, lunches, gifts. He tested her. She hoped. When they finally began an intimate relationship, Eva did everything she could to avoid getting pregnant. On the top shelf of her closet she kept an irrigator, a device for rinsing the vagina with warm water and vinegar after sex. It was a primitive and unreliable method of contraception, but Eva knew one thing: Hitler did not want children.
Historian Heike B. Goertemaker points out that Hitler insisted on remaining an “untouchable bachelor,” a man who sacrificed his private happiness for Germany. A child would shatter this myth. Eva agreed.
Hitler often disappeared. He promised and did not show up. He did not apologize. Eva suffered in silence. In November 1932, he shot himself in the neck. On purpose. Not to die, but to force him to come. He came. He stopped the campaign, showed up with flowers, was gentle. But only after his second suicide attempt, with sleeping pills in 1935, did he decide that “he had to take care of her.”
He bought her a house. He gave her luxury. And a golden cage. Eva had everything: expensive dresses, French perfumes, cosmetics, maids. But she didn't get the money from him, but through Martin Bormann, a man she hated. Bormann controlled her life. He paid her bills, gave her money, reminded her that she was addicted. When she wanted a new dress or a manicure, she had to beg him. She was humiliated.
A silent paradox accompanied her life: Eva Braun was the one who filmed and photographed Hitler in private moments, laughing, playing with dogs, appearing as an ordinary person. These images, preserved in the archives, helped build his “human” image, while the woman behind the camera remained without a public identity.
In Nazi circles, Eva faced contempt. She was considered unintelligent, frivolous, unworthy. Women hated her, men underestimated her. They called her “EB” or “cow.” Only a few people, like Albert Speer, saw something else in her: a loyal, caring, warm woman.
“She was the right woman for a man,” Speer said. “Simple, but sincere.”
Death in the bunker
Eva was never officially accepted. Her name did not exist. She was hidden, invisible, without an identity. This destroyed her. She danced passionately, especially the tango. In dancing, her repressed sensuality exploded. Hitler ridiculed this. However, she stayed.
In the bunker, as Berlin fell, Eva refused to leave. She stayed with him. They were married on April 29, 1945. She was nervous, but happy. For the first and last time, she was the “Mrs. Hitler,” the woman she had always wanted.
The next day, she greeted everyone. She said, "Greetings to Bavaria." She drank cyanide. /Telegraph/
