Eva Braun

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Not to be confused with Ewa Braun, a Polish producer and designer.

For the Serbian pop rock band, see Eva Braun (band). For the German writer born Eva Braun, see Eva Strittmatter.

Eva Anna Paula Hitler (née Braun; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was a German photographer who was the longtime companion and briefly the wife of Adolf Hitler. Braun met Hitler in Munich in 1929 (aged 17) when she was an assistant and model for his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. She began seeing Hitler often about two years later.

Eva Braun

Braun in the late 1930s

Spouse of the Führer of Germany

In role

29 April 1945 – 30 April 1945

President

Adolf Hitler

Preceded by

Louise Ebert

Succeeded by

Ingeborg Dönitz

Personal details

Born

Eva Anna Paula Braun

6 February 1912

Munich, Germany

Died

30 April 1945 (aged 33)

Berlin, Germany

Cause of death

Suicide by cyanide poisoning

Spouse

Adolf Hitler

​

​(m. 1945; died 1945)​

Relations

Ilse Braun (sister)

Gretl Braun (sister)

Occupation

Photographer; office and lab assistant at photography studio of Heinrich Hoffmann

Signature

She attempted suicide twice during their early relationship. By 1936, Braun was a part of Hitler's household at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Germany, and lived a sheltered life throughout World War II. She became a significant figure within Hitler's inner social circle, but did not attend public events with him until mid-1944, when her sister Gretl married Hermann Fegelein, the SS liaison officer on his staff.

As Nazi Germany was collapsing towards the end of the war, Braun swore loyalty to Hitler and went to Berlin to be by his side in the heavily reinforced Führerbunker beneath the Reich Chancellery garden. As Red Army troops fought their way into the centre government district, on 29 April 1945, Braun married Hitler during a brief civil ceremony; she was 33 and he was 56. Less than 40 hours later, they died by suicide in a sitting room of the bunker: Braun by biting and swallowing a capsule of cyanide, and Hitler by a gunshot to the head.[a] The German public was unaware of Braun's relationship with Hitler until after their deaths. She created many of the surviving colour photographs and films of Hitler.

Early life

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Eva's parents, Franziska Kronberger and Friderich Braun, in the 1930s

Eva Braun was born in Munich and was the second daughter of school teacher Friedrich "Fritz" Braun (1879–1964)[1] and Franziska "Fanny" Kronberger (1885–1976);[2] her mother had worked as a seamstress before her marriage.[3] She had an elder sister, Ilse (1909–1979), and a younger sister, Margarete (Gretl) (1915–1987). Her father was a Lutheran and her mother a Catholic.[4]

Braun's parents divorced in April 1921 but remarried in November 1922, probably for financial reasons; hyperinflation was plaguing the German economy at the time.[5] Braun was educated at a Catholic lyceum in Munich, and then for one year at a business school in the Convent of the English Sisters in Simbach am Inn, where she had average grades and a talent for athletics.[6]

At age 17, Braun took a job working for Heinrich Hoffmann, the official photographer for the Nazi Party.[2] Initially employed as a shop assistant and sales clerk, she soon learned how to use a camera and develop photographs.[7] Braun's younger sister, Gretl, also worked for Hoffmann from 1932 onward. The women rented a flat together for a time.[8] By this time, Braun had begun dyeing her hair to achieve a particular shade of blonde.[9]

Relationship with Hitler

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Photography career

Braun at Hoffmann's studio, where she worked as a clerk, 1932

Braun filming in the late 1930s

In