Geli Raubal
 and Adolf Hitler

dit is de bron

Very little has been written about Hitler’s private life, and yet it is important for one to understand "Hitler the private man" in relation to "Hitler the public man." One of Hitler’s most intimate private relationships was with his niece, Geli. It is in this relationship that we see the two sides to Hitler emerge: Hitler the masochist with women and the more notorious sadist with Jews. Few people know of the affair Adolf Hitler had with his niece, Geli Raubal. The couple shared a strange yet passionate relationship, which was always dogged by Hitler’s intolerance, his chauvinistic attitude towards women and his possessive jealousy. In 1931 Geli Raubal was found dead in the Munich flat she shared with Hitler, his revolver was found next to her bleeding body. Hitler was shattered by her death, afterwards he was never able to speak about her without becoming emotional. It is after Geli’s death that Hitler turned to mass slaughter. This research project will examine Hitler’s sado - masochistic relationship with his niece, and draw parallels between this relationship and the sadistic cruelty he inflicted upon others during the Third Reich.

On the 20th April, 1889 Adolf Hitler was born in Austria to Klara and Alois Hitler. As a young schoolboy he shrank away from physical contact when other Linz schoolboys were becoming interested in the female body. His youngest sister Paula never forgot his boyhood aversion to being kissed: "When mother wanted him to get up in the morning, she only had to say to me, ‘ Go and give him a kiss.’ She said it not very loud but enough for him to hear; as soon as he heard the word ‘kiss’ and that he was to get one from me, he was out of the bed in a flash because he just couldn’t stand that."
When a boy, Keplinger, who was friendly with the young Adolf at secondary school was asked if Hitler had done badly at school because he was distracted by girls, he answered: "Out of the question, Adolf was never interested in girls."
As an adult, Hitler never became particularly interested in women, not even Eva Braun, who became his wife, was of much interest to him. When Hitler did fall for a woman he became completely enslaved to her and this is where his masochism reveals itself most prominently. Hitler’s sado – masochistic relationship with his niece was the one relationship that Hitler cherised.

On 3rd January, 1903 Adolf’s father collapsed and died. Nine months after his father’s death, his older half sister, Angela, married Leo Raubal. In 1906 she gave birth to a son and in June 1908 she had a daughter named Angela Maria.
It was not until thirteen years later that Hitler, whom Angela called "Uncle Alf", started calling her "Geli". His niece seems to be the only woman who could make him relax. It was safe for him to reveal himself to her because she was warm, gentle, affectionate, direct, uninhibited, unpretentious, kind, lively, provocative and most importantly, a member of the family.
Geli was allowed to tease Hitler because she made him feel secure. He hated being laughed at, but when she laughed, she was laughing with him, not at him.

In March 1927 Hitler moved to Obersalzberg, where he offered his destitute sister, Angela, the job of housekeeper and cook. This meant that her two daughters, Geli and Elfriede, would both get off to a better start in life. It was in Obersalzberg that Geli and Hitler began to enjoy each other’s company. When Geli arrived there, she probably assumed that she was going to settle there with her mother and sister. However, in October Hitler moved her to Munich, where he found her a furnished room and enrolled her as a medical student at the university – her studies were only a pretext for settling her in Munich. Hitler may have moved her because he was expecting to spend more time in Munich than in Obersalzberg, or because he wanted to prevent Angela from interfering in their relationship.

Klik voor info over dit boek Hitler usually dominated conversations, but when Geli arrived he was happy to let her take over. Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s personal photographer, said that "Geli was a magician. In her natural way, which was devoid of any coquetry, she managed, just by her presence, to put everyone at the table into the best possible mood. We all loved her, and most of all her uncle, Adolf Hitler."
Geli transformed Hitler’s life. He happily took her out shopping or picnicking, and she became a regular companion on his visits to the opera, the theatre and the cinema. When they went shopping Hitler ‘Trotted after her . . . . like a patient lamb.’
Hitler’s driver, Emil Maurice, noticed how glad Hitler was when Geli was at his side: ‘He liked to show her off everywhere; he was proud of being seen in the company of such an attractive girl. He was convinced that in this way he impressed his comrades in the Party, whose wives or girlfriends nearly all looked like washerwomen.’

In the years that Geli spent with Hitler. She changed a great deal. When she arrived in Obersalzberg she was still a teenager, spirited and full of curiosity about life, but inexperienced and unsophisticated. One thing that had not changed was her lack of interest in politics. She rarely attended rallies or political meetings, and when she did she found herself in a ‘foreign and strange’ world.
On the morning of Saturday 19 September 1931 Geli’s body was found on the floor of her bedroom in the flat. She had been bleeding from a wound near the heart. The bullet had missed her heart but pierced her lung. A Walther 6.35 lay on the couch. An unfinished letter to a friend was found near her body, but this was not a suicide note.

Hitler’s sexual desires

Hitler’s sexual desires are described as being "largely voyeuristic, anal-sadistic with the inferior type of women, and masochistic with admired women." Even though Hitler’s realtionship with Geli should have fulfilled the first desire, it seems that it was a combination of both these sexual desires.
Everything Hitler said about women suggests a misogynistic refusal to recognise them as capable of partnership with men on an equal footing. Hitler often quoted a line of Nietzsche: " You are going to see a woman? Do not forget your whip." He also told the wife of an SA officer that " A woman must be a nice little cuddly thing, soft, sweet and stupid." Hitler’s misogyny conditioned his relationship with Geli . He was too narcissistic to look at the life of another human being in the same manner as his own.

With Geli living in the same flat as he did, Hitler could monitor her movements and deprive her of all freedom and privacy. Though there is no evidence to suggest that the two were lovers, it is unlikely that Hitler would have risked living with her if they were not. If she were to live elsewhere this would mean that she would no longer be under Hitler’s control.
Geli was in a weak position. She could not escape from Hitler as she had nowhere to go. She also had no way of making a living since she had dropped out of medical school. If she left Hitler it would also mean that her mother and sister would have to face a life of poverty.
An SA officer and former lover of Geli claimed that she told him how Hitler had forced her into doing things that sickened her. There is little doubt that he forced her into perverted sex. In the privacy of the flat, Hitler could involve her in any sexual games he chose. Sadists have more fun when their victims resist – there was no reason to assume that Geli was a masochist.

This sado – masochism persisted throughout Hitler’s life. He always carried a whip with him. When Putzi and Helene Hanfstaengl met Hitler and Geli after the theatre for supper, they noticed that as they walked towards the café how , "Hitler emphasised some threat against his opponents by cracking the heavy dog whip he still affected. I (Putzi) happened to catch a glimpse of Geli’s face as he did it, and there was on it such a look of fear and contempt that I almost caught my breath. Whips as well I thought, and really felt sorry for the girl."
Geli spent a night out with Gregor Strasser’s brother, Otto, who described how Geli began to weep and said that " She really loved Hitler, but she couldn’t bear it any longer. His jealousy wasn’t the worst thing. He demanded things from her that were simply disgusting. She had never dreamed that such things could happen. When I asked her to tell me, she described things that I had previously encountered in my reading of Krafft – Ebing’s "Psychopathia Sexualis" when I was a student."
In 1943 Strasser went into more detail when he was interviewed by the US Office of Strategic Studies: "Hitler made her undress . . . he would then lie down on the floor. Then she would have to squat over his face, where he could examine her at close range and this made him very excited. When the excitement reached its peak, he demanded that she urinate on him and this gave him sexual pleasure. Geli said that the whole performance was extremely disgusting to her and . . . it gave her no gratification."

Doubts about this statement are washed away when one compares it to film actress, Renate Muller’s testimony. One night after eating with Hitler at the Chancellery he began to describe in detail Gestapo methods of torture. Afterwards they both removed their clothes and Hitler lay on the floor and begged Muller to hit and kick him. When she refused Hitler said that he was her slave and was not worthy of being in the same room as her. She eventually gave in to his demands and began to kick him, verbally abuse him and hit him with his whip. Becoming increasingly excited he began to masturbate. When this game was over Hitler stood up, kissed Muller on the hand, thanked her for a pleasant evening and rang for a servant to see her out.

By 1931 Hitler was prepared to give Geli more freedom. Hitler, aware of the fact that he was on the "verge of a breakthrough" and that journalists would become more curious about his private life, could not risk someone finding out that he was living with his niece. Such a scandal would reduce his chances of victory in the upcoming elections. As a Party leader, he had to be a model of ethical behaviour.

Bullock, Alan. Hitler a Study in Tyranny. (New York: Harper & Row Publishers,1962)
Hayman, Ronald. Hitler + Geli. (Great Britain: Bloomsbury,1997).
Heiden, Konrad. Hitler. (Great Britain: Mackays Limited, 1936).
Langer, Walter. The Mind of Adolf Hitler. (Great Britain: Fletcher and Son, 1972).