Adolf Hitler's sexuality

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Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler at the Berghof am Obersalzberg , June 14, 1942

The Sexuality of Adolf Hitler is not fully explored the subject of history of scientific and psychological debates and according to current knowledge. Hitler met his longtime partner Eva Braun in 1929 and married her on April 29, 1945, the day before they committed suicide . Before that, Hitler had two long-lasting relationships.

Scientific research

General

To date, there is no complete study of Hitler's sex life (the sexual activities of numerous people close to Hitler are considered to be quite well documented). There is evidence that Hitler had several (mostly one-sided) relationships with women, some of whom were younger. Hitler strictly rejected homosexuality; there is no evidence of Hitler's homosexual tendencies. Adolf Hitler's possible monarchy is largely proven by an investigation carried out by the prison doctor von Landsberg in 1923.

During the Second World War , false information was spread to discredit Hitler, who accused him of stigmatized sexual practices.

Much information about Hitler's private life comes from people close to Hitler, such as B. from Albert Speer , various adjutants and secretaries and the Wagner family . In his youth, Hitler had a few brief relationships. There is speculation about a relationship between him and his half-niece Angela Raubal, called "Geli" . In October 1929 she moved to Hitler's apartment in Munich; There she shot herself on September 18, 1931, the day after an argument with Hitler.

Hitler met Eva Braun in 1929 . Braun worked for his photographer Heinrich Hoffmann . After Geli Raubal's death, Eva Braun's relationship with Hitler intensified either in 1931 or more likely in 1932.

Until their death, Hitler and Braun maintained a long-term relationship; this was only known to Hitler's immediate circle. In relation to this environment, Hitler and Braun lived openly as a couple in Berchtesgaden . Hitler had a keen interest in Braun and reportedly worried about her if she played sports or came home late. Hitler and Braun married before they committed suicide. (→ Hitler's lover ).

Ernst Hanfstaengl , a member of Hitler's inner circle, whose reports are often cited as evidence of investigations into Hitler's sexual life, wrote about Hitler's sexuality:

“I felt Hitler was a case of a man who was neither fish, flesh nor fowl, neither fully homosexual nor fully heterosexual. [...] I had formed the firm conviction that he was impotent, the repressed, masturbating type. "

"I believed that Hitler was a case of a man who was neither fish nor meat nor poultry, neither entirely homosexual nor entirely heterosexual [...] I had come to believe that he was impotent , the downtrodden, masturbating type."

- Ernst Hanfstaengl : Quoted from Hitler: The Missing Years

Notwithstanding this impression, Hanfstaengl tried (unsuccessfully) to arrange a relationship between Hitler and the daughter of the American ambassador, Martha Dodd .

Investigation of the OSS

In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of the USA, A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend , written by Walter C. Langer with the support of several psychoanalysts, received an investigation intended to enable a better understanding of Hitler. Parts of the text were incorporated into The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report , in which the original text is supplemented with a foreword by Langer's brother William L. Langer , an introduction by Langer himself and an afterword by the psychoanalyst and historian Robert GL Waite . The aim of the authors was a "psychological analysis [...] which tries to make Hitler understandable as a person and the motivations on which his actions are based". The OSS report describes Hitler as impotent and coprophilic . The authors identify possible homosexual tendencies in Hitler, which, however, would be too little pronounced to have an influence on Hitler's decision-making ability. Otto Strasser , a rival of Hitler in the NSDAP, alleged that Hitler forced his niece Geli Raubal to defecate and urinate on him. Langer, citing Ernst Hanfstaengl, assumed that Helene Bechstein , the wife of the Berlin piano manufacturer Edwin Bechstein , was trying to arrange a marriage between Hitler and her unattractive daughter Lottie . A request from Hitler was rejected by Lottie.

The psychologist Henry Murray wrote another psychoanalytic report for the OSS in 1943 under the title Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler: With Predictions of His Future Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany's Surrender , in which he examined Hitler's assumed coprophilia, but mainly diagnosed a schizophrenic illness in Hitler. Murray based his report on WHD Vernon's 1942 essay Hitler, the man: Notes for a case history .

Investigation after 1945

In the years after Hitler's death, numerous theses about Hitler's sexuality were put forward, including the assumption that Hitler was homosexual, bisexual, asexual or had only one testicle .

The historian Lothar Machtan states in Hitler's Secret that Hitler was homosexual. His speculations are based on reports of Hitler's contacts with friends in Vienna , with Ernst Röhm , Hanfstaengl and Emil Maurice, and the Mend-Protokoll , a transcript of information that Hans Mend , a former soldier who came into contact with Hitler during the First World War came across to the Munich police in the early 1920s. In 2004 HBO produced a documentary based on Machtan's theses under the title Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler's Sexuality . Mend was a convicted fraud, the historian Anton Joachimsthaler describes the protocol as unreliable. Ron Rosenbaum criticizes Machtan's work with the argument that his evidence is inconclusive and often far from being evidence at all.

The 1995 book The Pink Swastika by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams deals with similar issues. The pink swastika and similar books are often criticized for inaccuracies and the manipulation of facts and their theses are therefore not recognized by most historians. In a paper for the Southern Poverty Law Center on The Pink Swastika , Bob Moser wrote that the book was being promoted by homophobic groups and the basic thesis of the book that most high-ranking Nazis were homosexual and that this is an example of the violence and dangerousness of homosexuals was rejected by almost all historians.

Jack Nusan Porter, at the University of Massachusetts Lowell , wrote:

“Did Hitler despise homosexuals? What he ashamed of his own homosexual identity? These are areas of psychohistory that are beyond known knowledge. My own feelings are that Hitler was asexual in the traditional sense and had bizarre sexual fetishes. "

“Did Hitler despise homosexuals? Was he ashamed of his own homosexual identity? These are areas of psychohistory that are beyond our knowledge. I believe that Hitler was asexual in the traditional sense and had bizarre sexual fetishes. "

- Jack Nusan Porter : Genocide of Homosexuals.

After the death of Winifred Wagner's husband Siegfried in 1930, Wagner's contact with Hitler intensified. In 1933 rumors were circulating that a marriage between Hitler and Winifred Wagner was imminent.

Leni Riefenstahl was friends with Hitler for twelve years; individual reports indicate a sexual relationship between Hitler and Riefenstahl. According to Ernst Hanfstaengl, a close friend of Hitler's during the 1920s and early 1930s, Riefenstahl tried to start a relationship with Hitler in his early years, which Hitler refused. Riefenstahl denied having had an amorous or sexual interest in Hitler. In her memoir, published in 1987, she describes a scene in which Hitler is said to have tried to kiss her.

In summary it can be said that the statements about Adolf Hitler's sexual preferences hardly go beyond guesswork. The scientific discussions are more or less plausible theses. So-called “disclosure reports” often have the character of gossip and gossip stories. In the political controversy, pronouncements about “deviant” sexual behavior on the part of Hitler indicate rather an instrumentalisation that can be seen as an expression of helpless resistance. This was also clearly expressed in the third Reich's whispering jokes and poems about Hitler and his circle. Homosexuality and impotence were among the preferred areas when the intimate lives of Hitler and other Nazi greats were joked about.

Relationships with women

Surname lifespan Age at the time of death Cause of death First contact with Hitler relationship swell
Charlotte Lobjoie 1898-1951 53 Presumably met in 1917 According to various speculations, the relationship came from the son Jean Loret .
Erna Hanfstaengl 1885-1981 96 Natural causes Met Hitler in the 1920s Presumed relationship
Geli Raubal January 4, 1908–

September 18, 1931

23 suicide Lived with Hitler in 1925 Niece, alleged relationship
Maria Reiter December 23, 1911-1992 81 Natural causes, unsuccessful suicide attempt 1927 Met Hitler in 1927 Presumed relationship
Eva Braun February 6, 1912–

April 30, 1945

33 Double suicide with Hitler at the age of 33 Met Hitler in 1929 wife
Renate Mueller April 26, 1906–

October 7, 1937

31 Fall out of window. Speculation about a murder. Met Hitler in the 1930s Presumably one-time sexual contact.
Unity Mitford August 8, 1914–

May 28, 1948

33 Died of the consequences of a suicide attempt eight years ago. Met Hitler in 1934 Acquaintance, possible relationship

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Andrew Nagorski: Hitler Country: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power . Simon and Schuster, New York, p. 81.
  2. Sven Felix Kellerhoff : The real reason for Hitler's disturbed sex life . In: Die Welt from December 18, 2015 ( online , accessed December 18, 2015).
  3. Heike B. Görtemaker: Eva Braun: Life with Hitler. Munich, 2010 p. 19, 51f.
  4. ^ Albert Speer: Inside the Third Reich . Avon, New York 1971, ISBN 978-0-380-00071-5 .
  5. ^ Antony Beevor: Berlin: The Downfall 1945 . Viking-Penguin Books, London 2002, ISBN 978-0-670-03041-5 .
  6. ^ Ernst Hanfstaengl: Hitler: The Missing Years . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1957, p. 123.
  7. Eric Larson: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin . Crown Publishers, New York 2011.
  8. ^ Walter C. Langer: A Psychological Profile of Adolph Hitler. His Life and Legend . The original version is available online here through the Nizkor Project .
  9. ^ A b Walter C. Langer: The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report . Basic Books, New York 1972, ISBN 0-465-04620-7 .
  10. Oliver Cyriax: Crime: an encyclopedia. Andre Deutsch, 1993, p. 135.
  11. ^ The Mind of Adolf Hitler. Walter C. Langer, New York 1972, p. 96.
  12. Entry for Dr. Henry A. Murray, Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler at Cornell University Law Library
  13. ^ WHD Vernon: Hitler, the man - notes for a case history. In: The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology , July 1942, Volume 37, No. 3, pp. 295-308; see also Medicus: A Psychiatrist Looks at Hitler. In: The New Republic , April 26, 1939, pp. 326-327.
  14. Ron Rosenbaum: Queer as Volk . Slate. Retrieved July 23, 2012.
  15. ^ Erik N. Jensen, The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution . In: Journal of the History of Sexuality . 11, No. 1/2, January / April 2002, pp. 319–349, here pp. 322–323 and N. 19. doi : 10.1353 / sex.2002.0008 .
  16. ^ The Other Side of the Pink Triangle: Still a Pink Triangle . October 24, 1994. Retrieved November 8, 2008.
  17. Bob Moser: Making Myths . In: Southern Poverty Law Center (Ed.): Intelligence Report . No. 117.
  18. Jack Nusan Porter: Genocide of Homosexuals. October 10, 1998
  19. ^ Glenn B. Infield: Eva and Adolf. Grosset and Dunlap, New York 1974 (interviews with former SS officers who were close to Hitler and Braun).
  20. ^ Tom Mathews: Leni: The life and work of Leni Riefenstahl, by Steven Bach , The Independent . April 29, 2007, p. XX. Retrieved July 23, 2012. 
  21. TV interview with Sandra Maischberger: Leni Riefenstahl - The Immoderation of Me (2002), passage at 28:07, accessed online on December 22, 2015.
  22. Friedrich Koch : Sexual Denunciation . Sexuality in the political debate. 2nd edition, Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-434-46229-5 , p. 96 ff.
  23. ^ Peter Allen: Hitler had son with French teen. The Telegraph , February 17, 2012
  24. David Clay Large: Where Ghosts Walked: Munich's Road to the Third Reich . WW Norton & Company , 1997, ISBN 039303836X , p. 191.
  25. Guido Knopp: Hitler's Women.
  26. ^ Ron Rosenbaum: Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of his Evil. Macmillan, 1998, pp. 114-116.
  27. Foreign News: Uneven Romance Time , June 29, 1959
  28. Masochistic One-Night Stand. November 14, 2011
  29. Unity Mitford and “Hitler's Baby”. New Statesman , December 13, 2007