Bernile Nienau

Bernhardine Nienau (born April 20, 1926 in Dortmund , † October 5, 1943 in Munich ), called Bernile, was a German student who was known as "the Führer’s child" because of her close contact with Adolf Hitler .

Life

Bernhardine Nienau was the only child of the doctor Bernhard Nienau (June 23, 1887 - February 29, 1926) in Dortmund. The father died shortly before she was born. The mother, the nurse Karoline, geb. Helwig (March 15, 1892 - July 26, 1962), moved to Munich and bought a newly built house there around 1928 at Laimer Strasse 31 in Nymphenburg . There also lived the grandmother Berniles, the Roman Catholic teacher widow of Jewish descent Ida Voit, widowed or divorced Helwig, née Morgenstern (July 18, 1867 - December 29, 1942). Probably at the instigation of his mother, Bernile pushed himself into the front rows of the stream of visitors at Obersalzberg in the spring of 1933 in order to draw Hitler's attention. A "friendship" developed from the contact that lasted until 1938. In the Federal Archives in Berlin 17 letters Store Girl's it - probably with the help of the mother - between January 18, 1935, and November 12, 1939, the "leader" and his chief aide Wilhelm Bruckner wrote:

“Munich, September 27th, 36th Dear Uncle Brückner! I have a lot to tell you today. During the holidays we were on the Obersalzberg and I was allowed to visit my dear Uncle Hitler twice! Unfortunately you were never upstairs. [...] I'm already working on the Christmas chores. […] Uncle Hitler I knit a couple of socks again because I asked him if they fit him last year. He said yes! This year I will be able to knit with finer wool, only my heels will help me. You get very warm; and when he's always on the move, he shouldn't have cold feet. [...] Many greetings from Mutti and from me many greetings and kisses from your Bernile! "

The fact that Bernile could be considered a quarter Jew because of her grandmother had already become known to Hitler through an informer in 1933. The "Führer" then apparently felt that "a purely human attitude towards the child", as adjutant Fritz Wiedemann informed the subordinate party offices on April 19, 1938, made an exception to the anti-Semitic Nuremberg race laws - a grace that he let only a few Jews, mostly quarter or half Jews, be given. However, when Reich Minister Martin Bormann got wind of the lack of “German blood”, he forbade mother and daughter to continue to appear at the Berghof . Hitler found out about this in a roundabout way because his personal photographer Heinrich Hoffmann complained that Bormann had forbidden him to continue to publish photos showing the Führer with “his child”. In the book Hitler as I saw him, Hoffmann relates that Hitler is said to have said about Bormann's ban on visiting Bernile: "There are people who have a real talent for spoiling my every joy". While Hoffmann's photo book Jugend um Hitler was allowed to be sold on despite Bormann's intervention, the Nienau family's personal contact with those in power in the Third Reich had been over since May 1938. The mother was officially asked to stop contact with the party offices. She had tried to use her good relations with the “Führer” to fight for a higher widow's pension from the medical association. Bernile, who learned to be a draftsman, died on October 5, 1943 at the age of 17 in the Schwabing hospital from spinal polio . Her grave is in Munich's Westfriedhof , as the journalist Justina Schreiber researched in collaboration with the Institute for Contemporary History for a radio broadcast on Bavarian Broadcasting .

Web links

Photo with Hitler and a Jewish girl auctioned for 10,000 euros. In: stern.de . 15th November 2018.; accessed on November 16, 2018

Individual evidence

↑ BArch NS / 10/230, pag. 117.
↑ BArch NS / 10/371, pag. 47.
^ John M. Steiner, Jobst Freiherr von Cornberg: Arbitrariness in the arbitrariness, exemptions from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Volume 46, 1998, Issue 2, pp. 143-187, JSTOR 30185607 .
↑ Heinrich Hoffmann: Hitler as I saw him. Notes from his personal photographer. Herbig, Munich and Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-7766-0668-1 , p. 166.
^ Heinrich Hoffmann (ed.): Youth around Hitler: 120 picture documents from the Fiihrer's surroundings, recorded. "Zeitgeschichte", publishing and sales company M. B. H., Berlin 1934.
↑ Justina Schreiber: Dear good uncle Hitler: The blonde girl Bernile Nienau. In: Bayern 2 broadcast “Land und Menschen”. October 27, 2013, accessed November 16, 2018 . Volker Dahm, Albert A. Feiber, Hartmut Mehringer, Horst Möller (eds.): The deadly utopia, images, texts, documents, data on the Third Reich. Publishers Documentation Obersalzberg in the Institute for Contemporary History, Munich and Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9814052-0-0 , p. 127.

personal data
SURNAME	Nienau, Bernile
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Nienau, Bernhardine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German schoolgirl, called Führer’s child
DATE OF BIRTH	April 20, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dortmund
DATE OF DEATH	October 5, 1943
Place of death	Munich

[1] BArch NS / 10/230, pag. 117.

[2] BArch NS / 10/371, pag. 47.

[3] John M. Steiner, Jobst Freiherr von Cornberg: Arbitrariness in the arbitrariness, exemptions from the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws. In: Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Volume 46, 1998, Issue 2, pp. 143-187, JSTOR 30185607 .

[4] Heinrich Hoffmann: Hitler as I saw him. Notes from his personal photographer. Herbig, Munich and Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-7766-0668-1 , p. 166.

[5] Heinrich Hoffmann (ed.): Youth around Hitler: 120 picture documents from the Fiihrer's surroundings, recorded. "Zeitgeschichte", publishing and sales company M. B. H., Berlin 1934.

[6] Justina Schreiber: Dear good uncle Hitler: The blonde girl Bernile Nienau. In: Bayern 2 broadcast “Land und Menschen”. October 27, 2013, accessed November 16, 2018 . Volker Dahm, Albert A. Feiber, Hartmut Mehringer, Horst Möller (eds.): The deadly utopia, images, texts, documents, data on the Third Reich. Publishers Documentation Obersalzberg in the Institute for Contemporary History, Munich and Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-9814052-0-0 , p. 127.