Eva Braun
Sobriquet: Hitler's Mistress - 1933 {In reality, only the most powerful and influential members of the Nazi party knew of Eva's position as Hitler's mistress in 1933.}
Appearance:
Behavior: In his post-war memoirs Hoffmann characterized Braun's outlook as "inconsequential and feather-brained"; her main interests were sports, clothes, and the cinema. By all accounts, she led a sheltered and privileged existence and seemed uninterested in politics.
History: Eva Anna Paula Hitler (née Braun; 6 February 1912 – 30 April 1945) was the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler and, for less than 40 hours, his wife. Braun met Hitler in Munich when she was 17 years old, while she was working as an assistant and model for his personal photographer, and began seeing him often about two years later. She attempted suicide twice during their early relationship. By 1936, she was a part of his household at the Berghof near Berchtesgaden and lived a sheltered life throughout World War II. Braun was a photographer, and many of the surviving color photographs and films of Hitler were taken by her. She was a key 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.
Recent Events: Hitler lived with his half-niece, Geli Raubal, in an apartment at Prinzregentenplatz 16 in Munich from 1929 until her death. On 18 September 1931 Raubal was found dead in the apartment, shot with Hitler's pistol, an apparent suicide. Hitler was in Nuremberg at the time. The relationship was important to him, likely the most intense of his life. Hitler began seeing more of Braun after the suicide.
Braun herself attempted suicide on 10 or 11 August 1932 by shooting herself in the chest with her father's pistol. Historians feel the attempt was not serious, but was a bid for Hitler's attention. After Braun's recovery, Hitler became more committed to her and by the end of 1932 they had become lovers. She often stayed overnight at his Munich apartment when he was in town. Braun worked as a photographer for Hoffmann from 1933 on. This position enabled her to travel—accompanied by Hoffmann—with Hitler's entourage, as a photographer for the Nazi Party.
Events Soon to Occur:
Should the Time-line Remain Stable: As the Third Reich collapsed 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. As Red Army troops fought their way into the neighborhood on 29 April 1945, she married Hitler during a brief civil ceremony; she was 33 and he was 56. Less than 40 hours later, they committed suicide together in a sitting room of the bunker, she by biting into a capsule of cyanide, and he by a gunshot to the head. The German public was unaware of Braun's relationship with Hitler until after their deaths.
