Early Childhood
Adolf Hitler was born in April 1889 in a small Austrian town. Born to a moderately prosperous family with a Roman Catholic background, Hitler received early education in Catholic elementary schools and briefly attended a Realschule in Linz before enrolling in a technical school in Vienna in 1907. Despite his mother’s insistence that he pursue a career in the Austrian civil service, Hitler dropped out of school in 1905 to pursue a life of painting and politics.
Rumors of a Love Child
The idea of Hitler fathering an illegitimate child began to spread almost immediately after his suicide in April 1945. At the time, stories circulated in Britain that a nun had been impregnated by Hitler and successfully delivered a healthy baby boy. These tales ultimately found their way through the Allied intelligence services and reached the public, though never could be substantiated.
Speculations of a Daughter
Rumors of a daughter of Hitler’s have been emanating for a long time. According to Albert Speer, Hitler’s architect and confidant, a French youth was detained and brought to Hitler’s office under suspicion of being the Fuhrer’s daughter. Speer continues by saying what happened to her afterwards is not known. In 1950, a woman named Gizele Freiin from Bavaria declared in a West German court that she was the daughter of Adolf Hitler and an unknown Frenchwoman. She further explained that this was a closely guarded fact among the Nazis. Gizele later appeared in the press and on television, insisting she was Hitler’s daughter. It is not known if there is any truth to this story.
Brunswick Family Members Speak Out
Otto Winter, one of Hitler’s closest friends, claimed in his 1986 memoirs that Hitler had a daughter out of wedlock with a woman named Henriette Hoffmann before he met Eva Braun. Photographs of a woman and an infant girl, identified as being Hitler’s daughter, circulated around Germany in 1925. However, both the woman and the child have since been identified as members of the Hoffmann family from Brunswick. The family members all declared that the infant was in fact, Angela, the daughter of Henriette Hoffmann and her husband, Hitler’s photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann.
Hitler’s Love Letters to Eva
In the estimated 3,500 letters in the Hitler family archives, researchers found two letters sent by Hitler to Eva Braun that make a few references to a daughter. In one of the letters, Hitler wrote to Eva, “all I can do here is think of my little sweetheart and hope that she remembers her daddy in the same affectionate way I cannot forget her.” While this could suggest that Hitler did in fact have a child, since Hitler was known to refer to Eva as “my little sweetheart,” it could also have been a term of endearment that he used to refer to his fiancée.
The Babies of Mauthausen
In the wake of the Nazi regime’s downfall in 1945, a shocking discovery was made at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. Approximately five hundred end-stage pregnant women and their newborn babies had been held prisoner in this camp. There were rumors that these women had been impregnated by Hitler himself, and that the babies were to become part of the “Aryan master race”. This has not been proven to be true, however, as the women and babies were deemed too sick to survive and were executed shortly before liberation.
Post War Covers-Ups
With the turbulent chaos of WWII coming to an end, various suspects were rounded up for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and extensive investigations were conducted. It is possible that Hitler’s attempts to cover up his potential paternity could have gone undetected because of this. Additionally, with the fall of the German Empire, everyone who might have been aware of Hitler’s supposed offspring would have had plenty of incentive to stay quiet.
Speculations of a Secret Son
Various theories have been discussed, claiming that Hitler had a son out of wedlock with a woman he met in Munich. In 1936, a Swiss historian by the name of Egon Elmer proposed that Hitler had a son named Jean-Marie, who was adopted by a couple in Zurich. There was never any proof of this, but Elmer believed his theory to be true. Additionally, the French intelligence services believed Hitler’s son was adopted by a family in Holland and named Wim Koppe. Police conducted extensive investigation into this theory in 1956 but could never confirm it.
Conclusion of Evidence and Records
Though there have been a countless number of rumors and myths surrounding the paternity of Hitler, there is no documented evidence that he had a child. There are no valid birth certificate records, nor is there proof that any woman became pregnant by Hitler or gave birth to his child. Additionally, the records in Hitler’s diary detailing his activities during his time in Vienna, Munich and Berlin between the 1920s and 1940s remain largely silent on the matter. With the absence of any supporting evidence, it can only be concluded that Hitler never fathered a child.
