Archival documents may change perceptions of the circumstances surrounding the mysterious death in 1931 of Adolf Hitler’s niece, Geli Raubal, with whom he was likely connected by more than just blood ties. New facts indicate that her body was discovered a day earlier than stated in the police report. This casts doubt on Hitler’s former alibi. Der Spiegel reports this, writes UNN.
Details
The 23-year-old Angela Maria Raubal, known as Geli, was found shot dead in Hitler’s apartment at Prinzregentenplatz in Munich. It was previously believed that the body was discovered on September 19, 1931.
Geli was the daughter of Hitler’s half-sister, Angela Raubal. In 1927, Geli moved from Vienna to Munich and studied medicine for some time. In 1929, she moved into Hitler’s apartment, where he supported her financially.
The police concluded that the young woman had taken her own life with a pistol belonging to Hitler. The circumstances of Raubal’s death and her relationship with Hitler later became the subject of numerous theories and disputes.
Suspicions regarding Hitler’s involvement
On September 21, 1931, the social democratic newspaper Münchener Post, which sharply criticized the Nazis, published an article under the headline "The Mysterious Case." Its digital copy is kept at the Bavarian State Library. The publication claimed that on September 18, a heated argument had taken place between Hitler and his niece over her intention to go to Vienna and become engaged. According to the newspaper’s version, Hitler opposed the trip and left the apartment after the conflict.
The newspaper also reported, citing its own sources, that after the body was discovered, Raubal allegedly had a broken nose and other bodily injuries. In addition, Münchener Post claimed that after her death, representatives of the NSDAP leadership discussed at the party headquarters which version of events should be presented to the public and decided to explain the suicide as resulting from Raubal’s distress over her unsuccessful musical career.
Hitler demanded that the newspaper publish an official denial. In it, he denied both the argument and the claim that he had prevented Raubal from traveling to Vienna or from entering into her alleged engagement. He stated that his niece had been planning to go to Vienna to consult a specialist once again about her vocal abilities. The denial was published by Münchener Post on September 22.
Following the publications, the police demanded a second examination of the body, but the journalists’ suspicions regarding fractures and injuries to the deceased were not confirmed.
What the archival documents revealed
Historian Harald Sandner found new documents in the Munich State Archives and the Munich City Archives. According to the publication, the death register entry of the Munich registry office states that Raubal’s body was discovered in the apartment at Prinzregentenplatz on Friday, September 18, 1931, at 10:15 a.m. Two death records found by Sandner indicate the same date.
This contradicts the police report on which the generally accepted version of events was based. According to it, Hitler left Munich for Nuremberg in the afternoon of September 18. After his departure, Raubal allegedly shot herself, and the building manager, Georg Winter, discovered her body only on the morning of September 19.
If the register entry is accurate, Raubal’s body was discovered approximately a day earlier than stated in the police report. Therefore, the previous chronology of events, which provided Hitler with an alibi at the time the body was discovered, is now being called into question.
A full autopsy of Raubal’s body was not conducted. On September 21, the prosecutor’s office authorized the burial, after which the body was transported to Vienna. It has not yet been established why the information in the police report differs from that in the documents that were found. Sandner assumes that this may have been an attempt to conceal the actual circumstances of the incident, but there is no evidence of deliberate falsification of the documents. At the same time, the new documents in themselves do not indicate that Raubal was murdered or that Hitler had anything to do with her death.
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