GRGR(13) - Geli (2)

[David Morris]

>From "Success and a Suicide" (see the photo of her)
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/success.htm

[snip]

It was in his personal life, however, that Adolf Hitler was about to face a 
crisis that would shake him to the core.

Back in the summer of 1928, Hitler had rented a small country house at 
Berchtesgaden which had a magnificent view of the Bavarian mountains and 
years later would be the site of his sprawling villa.

For Hitler, then aged 39, it was the first place he could truly call home. 
He settled into the little country house and invited his step sister, 
Angela, to leave Vienna and come to take over the daily household chores. 
Angela arrived along with her two daughters, Friedl and Geli.

Geli was a lively twenty year old with dark blond hair and Viennese charm, 
qualities that were hugely appealing to a man nearly twice her age. Hitler 
fell deeply in love with her. He fawned over her like a teenager in love for 
the first time. He went shopping with her and patiently stood by as she 
tried on clothes. He took her to theaters, cafés, concerts and even to party 
meetings.

This relationship between Hitler and his niece was for the most part 
socially acceptable according to local customs since she was the daughter of 
his half sister.

Young Geli enjoyed the attention of this man who was becoming famous. 
Strangers would come over and ask Hitler for a souvenir or an autograph 
while they were sitting in a café. There were also the trappings of power, 
SS body guards, a chauffeur, and obedient aides.

But young Geli had a tendency to flirt. Although she liked the attention of 
this older man, she yearned for the company of young people. She had a 
number of romances, including one with Hitler's chauffeur, who got fired as 
a result.

Though Hitler cast a jealous and disapproving eye on Geli's romances, he was 
flirting himself with a fair haired seventeen year old named Eva Braun, who 
worked in the photography shop run by his personal photographer, Heinrich 
Hoffmann.

Hitler's jealousy and possessiveness of his niece made her life increasingly 
claustrophobic, especially after she moved in with him to a fancy nine room 
apartment in Munich. Everywhere she went, she had two Nazi chaperons and had 
to be back home precisely at the time her uncle ordered. She couldn't do 
anything without his permission. And each time she tried to get free of her 
uncle's constraints, he tightened his grip.

Hitler's stormy relationship with Geli worsened. There were many loud 
arguments.

In September of 1931, Hitler ordered her to stay at his apartment and not go 
to Vienna while he was away. This made her furious. A huge argument 
followed. She desperately wanted to go. Hitler said no.

As Hitler headed outside to his car to leave for an SA meeting, Geli went to 
the window and yelled down to him asking one more time if she could go. 
Hitler yelled back a stern "No!"

He departed with an uneasy feeling about the whole situation.

The next morning, on the way to Hamburg, Hitler's car was flagged down by a 
taxi. Rudolph Hess was on the line back at the hotel Hitler had just left 
and wanted to speak to him immediately.

When Hitler picked up the phone there, he was told his niece had shot 
herself. In a frenzy, Hitler rushed back to Munich. But by the time he got 
back to his apartment, Geli's body had been already removed. She had shot 
herself through the heart with a pistol.

The love of his life was gone, and under horrible circumstances. To make 
matters worse, there were rumors in the press she might have been murdered, 
perhaps even on Hitler's orders. Hitler became deeply depressed and spent 
days pacing back and forth without stopping to eat or sleep.

Herman Göring would later say Adolf Hitler was never the same after the 
suicide of his beloved niece. Hitler later said Geli was the only woman he 
ever loved. He always kept portraits of her hung on the wall, decorated with 
flowers on the anniversaries of her birth and death. Whenever he spoke of 
her, it was often with teary eyed reverence.

Curiously, shortly after her death, Hitler looked with disdain on a piece of 
ham being served during breakfast and refused to eat it, saying it was like 
eating a corpse. From that moment on, he refused to eat meat.

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