Geli Raubal

Angela "Geli" Raubal (June 4, 1908 – September 18, 1931). Born in Linz, Austria, was the daughter of Adolf Hitler's half sister, Angela Raubal. She was rumored to be his lover.

As he rose to power as leader of the Nazi Party, Hitler kept a tight rein over his niece. He did not allow her to associate with friends freely and attempted to have himself or someone he trusted near her at all times. Despite Hitler's efforts to control Geli she was a free-spirited young woman who often did as she pleased whenever and wherever possible. She even had an affair with Emil Maurice, a founding member of the SS and at the time Hitler's chauffeur, who was dismissed as a result (but later rehired and promoted).

She was found dead from a gunshot wound to the heart in Hitler's Munich apartment on September 18, 1931, at the age of twenty-three. The official cause of death was listed as suicide but at the time Hitler already had considerable influence with the Munich police, so it cannot be known if they were being objective. There were many rumours, including one that Hitler shot her (or had her shot) for infidelity, since she was killed by a bullet fired from his gun. By all accounts, they argued intensely in the days leading to her death.

Nobody knows what really happened. After her death, Hitler threatened to commit suicide (he had made similar threats during past moments of personal crisis or defeat, most notably after the failed Beer Hall Putsch). Many historians believe that Hitler was deeply in love with her, that she was the love of his life and that after her death he was a changed man (for the worse). Hitler had early ambitions to become an artist and continued to draw sporadically after he entered politics. The many sketches of his which survived the war included some ordinary nudes and at least one of these depicted Raubal.

Even before Raubal's death, however, Hitler was also seeing nineteen-year-old Eva Braun, whom he had known for two years (and who would attempt suicide at least twice before marrying and committing suicide with him in the space of a day and a night fourteen years later). Most historians surmise that Raubal was distraught over her relationship with Hitler, could not escape it, and killed herself as a result.

Geli is buried in Vienna's Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof); this is also the final resting place of Ludwig van Beethoven.