1 00:00:00,091 --> 00:00:03,341 (light dramatic music) 2 00:00:05,140 --> 00:00:06,520 (ominous music) 3 00:00:06,518 --> 00:00:11,018 (people chanting in foreign language) 4 00:00:15,417 --> 00:00:19,247 (man speaks foreign language) 5 00:00:23,460 --> 00:00:26,370 - [Narrator] What sort of woman falls in love 6 00:00:26,370 --> 00:00:28,200 with a murderous dictator? 7 00:00:29,580 --> 00:00:33,210 Adolf Hitler's private relationships with women 8 00:00:33,210 --> 00:00:36,540 were a ferociously guarded secret. 9 00:00:36,540 --> 00:00:39,240 He wanted the world to see him as a man 10 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:43,620 of high moral character, a perfect gentleman. 11 00:00:43,620 --> 00:00:46,320 In reality, he was anything but. 12 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:48,840 - He doesn't want a woman who will threaten him, 13 00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:50,070 who will challenge him. 14 00:00:50,070 --> 00:00:52,890 A best woman for a man is a young woman 15 00:00:52,890 --> 00:00:55,510 that you can mold and shape. 16 00:00:55,506 --> 00:00:57,986 - [Narrator] The greatest loves of Hitler's life 17 00:00:57,990 --> 00:01:01,050 were so corroded and diminished by him 18 00:01:01,050 --> 00:01:03,510 that they saw only one way out. 19 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:07,620 - He patently had a very, very potent, 20 00:01:07,620 --> 00:01:10,890 traumatizing and almost desolating effect on 21 00:01:10,890 --> 00:01:13,740 women to cause them to try and kill himself. 22 00:01:13,740 --> 00:01:16,710 - [Narrator] His beloved niece turned lover, 23 00:01:16,710 --> 00:01:19,170 shot herself with his pistol. 24 00:01:19,170 --> 00:01:22,500 - He's controlling her as much as he controls anything else 25 00:01:22,500 --> 00:01:25,680 and she's starting to see aspects of him that are, 26 00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:27,840 to her, frankly horrifying. 27 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:30,480 - [Narrator] A German film star lover fell 28 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:32,460 from a hospital balcony. 29 00:01:32,460 --> 00:01:34,650 - It's my belief that she was pushed outta the window 30 00:01:34,650 --> 00:01:35,550 and didn't jump. 31 00:01:35,550 --> 00:01:39,660 - [Narrator] And Nazi insiders gave jaw dropping accounts 32 00:01:39,660 --> 00:01:42,660 of how and why these women died. 33 00:01:42,660 --> 00:01:47,130 Revealing Hitler as a controlling sexual psychopath. 34 00:01:47,130 --> 00:01:49,590 - Undoubtedly, something very, 35 00:01:49,590 --> 00:01:53,820 very traumatic was being done to her at that time. 36 00:01:53,820 --> 00:01:57,030 - [Narrator] Was suicide their only way out? 37 00:01:57,930 --> 00:02:02,550 - I think it's simply a case of the terrible power 38 00:02:02,550 --> 00:02:06,150 that he had over them and the realization 39 00:02:06,150 --> 00:02:08,070 that they could never escape it. 40 00:02:09,948 --> 00:02:11,328 (light dramatic music) 41 00:02:11,327 --> 00:02:15,827 (people chanting in foreign language) 42 00:02:17,356 --> 00:02:20,816 (ominous music) 43 00:02:20,820 --> 00:02:25,530 - [Narrator] In April, 1889 inside a tiny apartment 44 00:02:25,530 --> 00:02:28,560 above a brewery in a small Austrian village, 45 00:02:30,480 --> 00:02:34,680 Klara Hitler gave birth to Adolf Hitler. 46 00:02:37,680 --> 00:02:40,860 After bearing three children who died young, 47 00:02:40,860 --> 00:02:45,860 Klara poured all her affections into her young son. 48 00:02:45,870 --> 00:02:48,390 He was the light of her life. 49 00:02:52,740 --> 00:02:55,750 To young Adolf, his mother was a saint 50 00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,440 and his father, a monster 51 00:03:01,890 --> 00:03:06,890 Hitler's father, Alois, was a heavy drinker and violent. 52 00:03:07,830 --> 00:03:12,830 - His father was a pretty angry guy and would take 53 00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:18,780 that anger out on Adolf and on his brother, 54 00:03:18,780 --> 00:03:23,160 he would take that out physically by beating them with some 55 00:03:23,160 --> 00:03:26,610 kind of a whip or an object. 56 00:03:26,610 --> 00:03:30,030 And it apparently took place on a daily basis. 57 00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:35,250 - [Narrator] Klara would hear her boys' screams. 58 00:03:35,250 --> 00:03:37,320 And when the beatings were over, 59 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:39,630 Adolf would run to his mother 60 00:03:39,630 --> 00:03:41,790 and they formed a secret alliance. 61 00:03:43,260 --> 00:03:46,470 - Hitler's relationship with his mother was extremely close. 62 00:03:46,470 --> 00:03:48,810 It would seem that a mother who's lost three children 63 00:03:48,810 --> 00:03:51,480 and then has a child who survives is bound 64 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:55,500 to be extremely devoted to the child. 65 00:03:56,910 --> 00:04:00,570 His mother would line up to protect Adolf from his father. 66 00:04:02,550 --> 00:04:05,670 - [Narrator] For Klara, this extremely close bond 67 00:04:05,670 --> 00:04:08,460 with her son may have helped Adolf deal 68 00:04:08,460 --> 00:04:09,990 with his father's cruelty, 69 00:04:13,110 --> 00:04:15,660 but there are those that claim this attention 70 00:04:15,660 --> 00:04:19,050 by Adolf Hitler's mother would war his view 71 00:04:19,050 --> 00:04:22,530 of female intimacy and would play out 72 00:04:22,530 --> 00:04:25,800 in his distorted sexual relationships with women. 73 00:04:27,030 --> 00:04:28,800 - If you're virtually an only child 74 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,220 with a completely devoted mother, 75 00:04:32,220 --> 00:04:35,970 you really do believe you're the center of the universe. 76 00:04:35,970 --> 00:04:38,910 Hitler was the greatest narcissist in history. 77 00:04:38,909 --> 00:04:43,019 A narcissist is somebody totally self-obsessed. 78 00:04:43,020 --> 00:04:46,620 Everybody around them either has to make them feel better 79 00:04:46,620 --> 00:04:49,680 or be punished for not doing that. 80 00:04:50,909 --> 00:04:53,549 - [Narrator] The teenage Hitler was already showing 81 00:04:53,550 --> 00:04:55,980 the first signs of a dark and dangerous 82 00:04:55,980 --> 00:04:57,510 obsession with women. 83 00:05:01,841 --> 00:05:04,111 (light dramatic music) 84 00:05:04,110 --> 00:05:07,530 When he was 16 and living in Linz, 85 00:05:07,530 --> 00:05:10,290 Hitler was very taken with a well to do blonde 86 00:05:10,290 --> 00:05:12,420 music student, Stefanie Isak. 87 00:05:14,790 --> 00:05:17,160 She was a little older than Hitler, 88 00:05:17,160 --> 00:05:20,790 tall, elegant, and Jewish. 89 00:05:23,100 --> 00:05:26,310 Hitler's childhood friend, August Kubizek, 90 00:05:26,310 --> 00:05:30,150 claims he saw firsthand Hitler's infatuation. 91 00:05:31,590 --> 00:05:34,900 Stefanie would walk with her mother in the early evening 92 00:05:35,940 --> 00:05:39,270 and every day Hitler would wait on the street corner 93 00:05:39,270 --> 00:05:40,560 to watch her pass by. 94 00:05:43,560 --> 00:05:46,560 Because they hadn't been formally introduced, 95 00:05:46,560 --> 00:05:48,420 Hitler could only look. 96 00:05:49,530 --> 00:05:52,050 He would never actually speak to her. 97 00:05:54,570 --> 00:05:57,660 From the first time he saw her Hitler could 98 00:05:57,659 --> 00:06:00,119 not take his eyes off Stefanie. 99 00:06:01,260 --> 00:06:04,470 - The relationship with the woman that he did follow around 100 00:06:04,470 --> 00:06:08,130 for four years but as a very distant figure 101 00:06:08,130 --> 00:06:11,760 and never daring to make any contact with her 102 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:13,530 fits in with a number of features. 103 00:06:13,530 --> 00:06:18,240 Firstly, at that stage, he was completely socially inept. 104 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:23,130 He just didn't know how to deal with people at any stage. 105 00:06:23,130 --> 00:06:26,400 - [Narrator] He was deeply fixated on the young woman 106 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,730 and according to Kubizek, would become enraged 107 00:06:29,730 --> 00:06:32,430 at the male attention she attracted 108 00:06:32,430 --> 00:06:35,820 particularly from young Austrian army officers. 109 00:06:37,170 --> 00:06:39,330 - Hitler was a person of extremes, 110 00:06:39,330 --> 00:06:43,590 so he either loved totally or he hated totally. 111 00:06:43,590 --> 00:06:47,370 So you can see that this devotion from afar 112 00:06:47,370 --> 00:06:49,530 would drive him round following her, 113 00:06:49,530 --> 00:06:53,700 but never daring to break the spell by approaching her. 114 00:06:55,050 --> 00:06:57,060 - [Narrator] When Stefanie didn't respond 115 00:06:57,060 --> 00:07:00,240 to Hitler's brooding intense stares, 116 00:07:00,240 --> 00:07:03,390 his rage led him to hatch a deadly plan. 117 00:07:04,950 --> 00:07:09,180 He told his friend Kubizek that he wanted to kidnap Stefanie 118 00:07:09,180 --> 00:07:10,260 and marry her. 119 00:07:12,030 --> 00:07:14,940 After thinking it through and realizing 120 00:07:14,940 --> 00:07:16,530 he couldn't support her, 121 00:07:16,530 --> 00:07:19,920 he instead plotted to jump off a bridge into the Danube 122 00:07:19,920 --> 00:07:24,920 with Stefanie in a horrifying murder-suicide pact. 123 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:32,460 - His threat, if this relationship doesn't come to pass, 124 00:07:32,460 --> 00:07:34,200 had a couple of elements. 125 00:07:34,200 --> 00:07:38,760 The first one is of course it was very operatic, 126 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,520 and he was crazy about Wagner, 127 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,700 but I really think it's possibly the first indication 128 00:07:44,700 --> 00:07:49,700 we have of his deep and pervasive obsession with death, 129 00:07:50,730 --> 00:07:55,730 and death comes as a part of every act that he plans. 130 00:07:55,830 --> 00:07:59,310 And this is an absolute recurring theme his life, 131 00:07:59,310 --> 00:08:02,970 particularly the idea of if things don't work out, 132 00:08:02,970 --> 00:08:04,770 I will kill myself. 133 00:08:04,770 --> 00:08:08,760 The world must come to me, otherwise I go. 134 00:08:10,350 --> 00:08:12,360 - [Narrator] Although Hitler didn't go through 135 00:08:12,360 --> 00:08:16,590 with his evil plan, according to August Kubizek, 136 00:08:16,590 --> 00:08:20,130 in the four years Hitler stalked Stefanie Izak, 137 00:08:20,130 --> 00:08:22,410 they never spoke a single word. 138 00:08:29,370 --> 00:08:33,750 But this obsession with love and death gave a disturbing 139 00:08:33,750 --> 00:08:37,650 glimpse of the fate of other women who came into his life. 140 00:08:40,289 --> 00:08:45,289 His stalking of Stefanie Izak came to an end in 1907. 141 00:08:46,890 --> 00:08:50,850 In December, a few days before Christmas, 142 00:08:50,850 --> 00:08:54,360 his beloved mother Klara died of cancer. 143 00:08:56,850 --> 00:08:59,130 Hitler was bereft. 144 00:08:59,130 --> 00:09:02,520 He worshiped his mother and they were very close 145 00:09:02,520 --> 00:09:05,150 and now she had abandoned him. 146 00:09:05,152 --> 00:09:08,492 (light dramatic music) 147 00:09:10,620 --> 00:09:14,050 In 1908 he moved from Linz to Vienna 148 00:09:15,090 --> 00:09:16,770 and struggled to survive. 149 00:09:17,670 --> 00:09:20,460 At one point, living in a men's shelter. 150 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:24,510 He had ambitions to become an artist, 151 00:09:24,510 --> 00:09:27,390 but was rejected from art school twice. 152 00:09:29,310 --> 00:09:32,160 He scraped by selling postcards 153 00:09:32,160 --> 00:09:34,470 he'd painted of German landmarks. 154 00:09:37,020 --> 00:09:41,700 in 1915, having him been rejected by the Austrian army 155 00:09:41,700 --> 00:09:45,150 on health grounds, he joined the German army 156 00:09:45,150 --> 00:09:47,460 to fight against the western allies. 157 00:09:48,810 --> 00:09:52,950 At war's end lance corporal Adolf Hitler 158 00:09:52,950 --> 00:09:55,770 was devastated by Germany's loss. 159 00:09:57,540 --> 00:10:00,210 - There's no question there's bitterness and there's anger. 160 00:10:00,210 --> 00:10:04,410 And he comes up with this idea of the stab in the back. 161 00:10:04,410 --> 00:10:07,230 That is that Germany was not going to lose 162 00:10:07,230 --> 00:10:08,610 in the First World War, 163 00:10:08,610 --> 00:10:11,250 Germany was doing very well in the First World War 164 00:10:11,250 --> 00:10:15,120 but for the fact that we were stabbed in the back by Jews, 165 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:19,080 by socialists, by this undercurrent of people 166 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:21,450 who do not have German interests at heart, 167 00:10:21,450 --> 00:10:23,430 even if they are Germans. 168 00:10:24,510 --> 00:10:27,030 - [Narrator] Hitler's hatred found a cause 169 00:10:27,030 --> 00:10:31,590 in the vicious antisemitism of Germany's political right. 170 00:10:31,590 --> 00:10:35,670 He joined a small band of disaffected German nationalists 171 00:10:35,670 --> 00:10:40,670 known as the Workers Party, the future Nazi party. 172 00:10:41,220 --> 00:10:43,440 - I think there's a lot of delusion going on there. 173 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,850 And when you are working in those radical right circles, 174 00:10:47,850 --> 00:10:50,760 you can talk publicly in racist terms 175 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:53,640 and there's a lot of racist literature and there's a lot 176 00:10:53,640 --> 00:10:56,070 of pseudoscience about what the racists are. 177 00:10:56,070 --> 00:10:58,890 Hitler himself has consumed a lot of this. 178 00:10:58,890 --> 00:11:01,590 Among his earliest letters in 1919, 179 00:11:01,590 --> 00:11:05,280 he talks about the fact that the first point of agenda 180 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,130 for any German government needs to be 181 00:11:08,130 --> 00:11:09,920 get rid of the Jews altogether. 182 00:11:09,917 --> 00:11:11,757 (ominous music) 183 00:11:11,760 --> 00:11:14,250 - [Narrator] As Hitler solidified his position 184 00:11:14,250 --> 00:11:18,750 in the Nazi party, he sought out new maternal figures 185 00:11:18,750 --> 00:11:20,850 to replace his beloved mother. 186 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:24,540 Like Winifred Wagner, the daughter-in-law 187 00:11:24,540 --> 00:11:26,850 of the famous composer Richard Vagner. 188 00:11:28,260 --> 00:11:32,160 Another influential older woman in Hitler's life 189 00:11:32,160 --> 00:11:35,430 was the wealthy socialite Helene Bechstein. 190 00:11:36,810 --> 00:11:41,400 She lavished Hitler with love, attention and money. 191 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:45,780 And once again, he became the adored son. 192 00:11:45,780 --> 00:11:50,130 - These are people who are rich Munich society women, 193 00:11:50,130 --> 00:11:51,360 so they have two things. 194 00:11:51,360 --> 00:11:54,780 They had money and they had influence in society. 195 00:11:54,780 --> 00:11:57,300 He needed influence and he needed money 196 00:11:57,300 --> 00:12:00,030 and he found it very easy to charm them. 197 00:12:01,740 --> 00:12:05,670 - [Narrator] Otto Strasser, a former confidant of Hitler's, 198 00:12:05,670 --> 00:12:09,300 claimed Helene and Hitler where abnormally close. 199 00:12:10,470 --> 00:12:14,940 She called him her little wolf and stroked his head 200 00:12:14,940 --> 00:12:16,410 as he sat at her feet. 201 00:12:18,510 --> 00:12:23,510 Wolf was Hitler's pet name used only by those close to him. 202 00:12:24,469 --> 00:12:27,149 - Helene Bechstein referred to him as like a son, 203 00:12:27,147 --> 00:12:29,037 and he was frightfully good at playing on that. 204 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:30,240 I mean, that's what he'd been doing. 205 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:33,720 He'd spent a lot of his time being the beloved son 206 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:35,400 of an adoring mother. 207 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:38,400 And here he had this whole group of women who were adoring 208 00:12:38,400 --> 00:12:40,410 this young man and they flattered him. 209 00:12:41,550 --> 00:12:43,680 And it sort of worked on that level 210 00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:45,930 of people flattering a young man who was used 211 00:12:45,930 --> 00:12:48,570 to getting his way with his mother. 212 00:12:49,830 --> 00:12:52,800 - We can see a pattern in his life as he 213 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:55,830 was advancing towards his leadership. 214 00:12:55,830 --> 00:12:58,740 He developed strong relationships with older women 215 00:12:58,740 --> 00:13:01,290 like Bechstein and Wagner, 216 00:13:01,290 --> 00:13:04,830 and I think that fitted in with the underlying pathology 217 00:13:04,830 --> 00:13:09,270 of never being able to let go of his mother and needing 218 00:13:09,270 --> 00:13:12,540 maternal figures who weren't threatening, 219 00:13:12,540 --> 00:13:15,360 but we're cosseting and supporting him. 220 00:13:16,830 --> 00:13:18,420 - [Narrator] But there may also have been 221 00:13:18,420 --> 00:13:21,270 a more primal agenda at work. 222 00:13:22,110 --> 00:13:25,650 Hitler's bodyguard, Brunp Gesche, 223 00:13:25,650 --> 00:13:29,520 later claimed Helene Bechstein's relationship with Wolf 224 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:31,740 was more than maternal. 225 00:13:32,940 --> 00:13:37,940 In a 1974 interview, Gesche claimed that in return 226 00:13:37,980 --> 00:13:42,120 for their patronage Hitler poured on the charm 227 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:46,320 thick like glue and the rich ladies ate it all up. 228 00:13:47,670 --> 00:13:50,610 And that he may even have had sex with Helene 229 00:13:50,610 --> 00:13:53,520 occasionally to keep the cash flowing. 230 00:13:58,718 --> 00:14:01,168 (light dramatic music) 231 00:14:01,170 --> 00:14:04,260 While Hitler was courting mother figures, 232 00:14:04,260 --> 00:14:08,040 he was also gaining rockstar status with younger women. 233 00:14:08,910 --> 00:14:10,860 At Hitler's early rallies, 234 00:14:10,860 --> 00:14:14,760 female supporters were given front row seats. 235 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:18,480 Their adoration for Hitler was plain for all to see. 236 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:24,780 Hitler's love life was a hot topic of much speculation 237 00:14:24,780 --> 00:14:28,050 and people were curious why Hitler wasn't married. 238 00:14:29,250 --> 00:14:33,900 His answer was always "My bride is my motherland." 239 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:45,320 By 1923, Hitler was the undisputed leader to the Nazi party 240 00:14:47,160 --> 00:14:51,150 and its growing popularity gave Hitler confidence. 241 00:14:52,770 --> 00:14:56,190 Impatient with political posturing, 242 00:14:56,190 --> 00:15:00,330 he ordered his storm troopers to ferment armed insurrection 243 00:15:00,330 --> 00:15:05,040 from a beer hall in Munich and to seize power by force. 244 00:15:06,180 --> 00:15:09,900 - The Beer Hall Putsch was a statement of intent rather 245 00:15:09,900 --> 00:15:14,900 than a desire to really seize control in Southern Germany. 246 00:15:17,760 --> 00:15:22,320 It shows Hitler being the risk taker 247 00:15:22,320 --> 00:15:25,830 that he was always going to be. 248 00:15:26,910 --> 00:15:29,970 - [Narrator] His grand plan was to seize control 249 00:15:29,970 --> 00:15:32,370 of Munich's state government, 250 00:15:32,370 --> 00:15:36,030 then march on Berlin and overthrow the federal government. 251 00:15:36,900 --> 00:15:38,610 Hitlers plan failed. 252 00:15:42,173 --> 00:15:43,143 (light dramatic music) 253 00:15:43,140 --> 00:15:46,590 He was arrested and sentenced to nine months 254 00:15:46,590 --> 00:15:48,240 in jail for treason. 255 00:15:49,470 --> 00:15:53,340 - Going to jail was something that he was well aware 256 00:15:53,340 --> 00:15:57,090 could be the outcome of his endeavors 257 00:15:57,090 --> 00:15:58,950 to seize power locally. 258 00:15:58,950 --> 00:16:00,960 But he was willing to accept that. 259 00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:05,960 Time spent in prison would give oxygen to his ideology 260 00:16:07,530 --> 00:16:08,850 and indeed it would be in prison 261 00:16:08,850 --> 00:16:10,800 that he would write "Mein Kampf" 262 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,170 and further refine his political thinking. 263 00:16:15,780 --> 00:16:18,300 - [Narrator] After his release from prison, 264 00:16:18,300 --> 00:16:21,600 Hitler returned to his mountain top retreat, 265 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:23,940 the Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden. 266 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:25,780 It was here in this mountain village 267 00:16:25,782 --> 00:16:30,782 where he first saw Maria Reiter. 268 00:16:32,700 --> 00:16:36,510 Pretty blonde Maria was working at her family's clothing 269 00:16:36,510 --> 00:16:41,070 store in Berchtesgaden when she first met Adolf Hitler. 270 00:16:43,830 --> 00:16:47,190 She was a vulnerable young woman as her mother 271 00:16:47,190 --> 00:16:49,500 had died just two weeks earlier. 272 00:16:51,270 --> 00:16:53,730 - Maria Reiter, later known as Mimi Reiter, 273 00:16:53,730 --> 00:16:57,990 was a young woman who actually Hitler 274 00:16:57,990 --> 00:17:00,030 knew when she was about 16. 275 00:17:00,030 --> 00:17:02,400 He was obsessed with her. 276 00:17:02,400 --> 00:17:07,400 Hitler once wrote that the ideal woman would be young, 277 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:11,190 pretty and as pliable as wax. 278 00:17:12,905 --> 00:17:14,245 (light dramatic music) 279 00:17:14,250 --> 00:17:17,160 - [Narrator] After a chance meeting in a park, 280 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:21,030 Hitler was persistent in his attentions and visited her 281 00:17:21,030 --> 00:17:22,860 several times in the store. 282 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:28,230 Finally, against her older sister's wishes, 283 00:17:28,230 --> 00:17:33,030 Maria agreed to accompany him to a local Nazi party rally. 284 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:36,480 She was 16 years old. 285 00:17:37,380 --> 00:17:39,480 Hitler was 37. 286 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:43,680 - As a narcissist, he would've liked very attractive 287 00:17:43,680 --> 00:17:46,830 young women that made him look better. 288 00:17:46,830 --> 00:17:51,240 So you've got this older man who's becoming a high flyer. 289 00:17:51,240 --> 00:17:53,940 So he doesn't want a woman who will threaten him, 290 00:17:53,940 --> 00:17:55,230 who will challenge him. 291 00:17:57,481 --> 00:18:01,591 - [Narrator] Watching him speak, Mimi as Hitler called her, 292 00:18:01,590 --> 00:18:05,400 was captivated by his oratory and his hypnotic 293 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:07,170 effect on his audience. 294 00:18:08,970 --> 00:18:11,940 She felt he was speaking just to her. 295 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:15,690 He just kept fixing his eyes on her. 296 00:18:16,590 --> 00:18:18,570 His stare was intense. 297 00:18:21,060 --> 00:18:24,150 She said she would never forget how unsettled 298 00:18:24,150 --> 00:18:26,430 and exposed it made her feel. 299 00:18:31,260 --> 00:18:34,950 Afterwards, they shared an intimate dinner for two. 300 00:18:37,260 --> 00:18:40,890 For young Mimi Reiter, it was intoxicating. 301 00:18:43,980 --> 00:18:47,430 Hitler knew exactly what he was doing when he turned his 302 00:18:47,430 --> 00:18:50,880 attention to a girl young enough to be his own daughter. 303 00:18:53,340 --> 00:18:57,660 - Hitler didn't make firm relationships 304 00:18:57,660 --> 00:19:00,390 with the women at his own age, 305 00:19:00,390 --> 00:19:02,730 and I think that was for a number of reasons. 306 00:19:02,730 --> 00:19:07,080 Firstly, he was very socially inept. 307 00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:10,740 The second issue is he was threatened, 308 00:19:10,740 --> 00:19:15,060 and I think that this plays into deeper issues. 309 00:19:15,060 --> 00:19:17,310 If you have somebody your own age, 310 00:19:17,310 --> 00:19:20,010 you are supposed to have a relationship, 311 00:19:20,010 --> 00:19:23,700 you're supposed to expose yourself to them, 312 00:19:23,700 --> 00:19:25,410 and that really threatened him. 313 00:19:27,420 --> 00:19:30,240 - [Narrator] Over the course of 1926, 314 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:34,140 Hitler would often visit Mimi when he was at Berchtesgaden. 315 00:19:35,310 --> 00:19:39,540 On one visit, he picked her up in his car and insisted 316 00:19:39,540 --> 00:19:43,530 that she go for a walk with him alone in the nearby forest. 317 00:19:47,580 --> 00:19:51,810 According to Mimi, it was here they had their first kiss. 318 00:19:53,580 --> 00:19:57,270 She said Hitler was forceful and pressed her tightly. 319 00:19:59,130 --> 00:20:02,670 Three months after her 17th birthday, 320 00:20:02,670 --> 00:20:05,910 Hitler and Maria had sex for the first time 321 00:20:05,910 --> 00:20:07,530 in his Munich apartment. 322 00:20:10,140 --> 00:20:11,940 She was besotted. 323 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:18,390 In the coming days, Hitler returned to Munich. 324 00:20:19,230 --> 00:20:22,380 They wrote to each other and Mimi kept all 325 00:20:22,380 --> 00:20:25,410 their correspondence that detailed their affair. 326 00:20:26,970 --> 00:20:31,050 Hitler wrote how ardently he desired her 327 00:20:31,050 --> 00:20:32,880 as if it were the first time. 328 00:20:34,950 --> 00:20:37,350 But the letters stopped coming. 329 00:20:40,920 --> 00:20:44,910 Once he had shaped her into his devoted slave, 330 00:20:44,910 --> 00:20:49,200 Hitler had quickly tired of her and Maria was distraught. 331 00:20:50,430 --> 00:20:55,430 She couldn't bear the thought of life without him. 332 00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:58,080 She took a clothes line, 333 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:01,920 tied it around her neck and tried to hang herself. 334 00:21:04,350 --> 00:21:06,570 But her brother found her in time. 335 00:21:07,710 --> 00:21:11,280 Maria Reiter's suicide attempt had failed. 336 00:21:13,740 --> 00:21:18,090 - He patently had a very, very potent, traumatizing, 337 00:21:18,090 --> 00:21:20,670 and almost desolating effect on women 338 00:21:20,670 --> 00:21:22,920 to cause them to try and kill themselves. 339 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:26,160 And nothing we know about Maria Reiter suggests 340 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:30,750 that she had any kind of suicidal tendencies. 341 00:21:30,750 --> 00:21:34,350 - I think he was fundamentally a destructive character. 342 00:21:34,350 --> 00:21:37,290 I think at his core, there was an emptiness. 343 00:21:37,290 --> 00:21:38,880 He was not capable of loving. 344 00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:41,680 He was a man who needed to possess 345 00:21:43,020 --> 00:21:45,720 and a man who cared little about other people. 346 00:21:50,130 --> 00:21:51,900 - [Narrator] But one young woman, 347 00:21:51,900 --> 00:21:55,500 perhaps the only woman he really did care about, 348 00:21:57,060 --> 00:21:59,960 was his niece Geli Raubal. 349 00:22:01,590 --> 00:22:05,040 Like Maria Reiter, Geli was just 16 350 00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:09,090 when she came into contact with the rising political star. 351 00:22:10,770 --> 00:22:15,000 And like Maria, Geli would be at first flattered, 352 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,200 then utterly consumed by the suffocating attentions 353 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:21,030 of her uncle turned lover. 354 00:22:24,990 --> 00:22:29,250 Unlike Maria, for Geli there would be no escape. 355 00:22:31,170 --> 00:22:33,630 She was under Hitler's guardianship 356 00:22:33,630 --> 00:22:37,050 and completely controlled by his all seeing eye. 357 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,350 As infatuation turned to obsession and ultimately 358 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:46,620 to self destruction. 359 00:22:49,050 --> 00:22:53,940 Most historians believe Geli was the only deep love affair 360 00:22:53,940 --> 00:22:58,600 of Hitler's life, and that when she died, age just 23, 361 00:23:00,510 --> 00:23:02,730 something broke within him. 362 00:23:03,931 --> 00:23:06,181 - Geli Raubal was without any doubt, 363 00:23:06,180 --> 00:23:10,470 the most important woman in Hitler's life after his mother. 364 00:23:10,470 --> 00:23:14,910 She was his half niece, daughter of his half sister, 365 00:23:14,910 --> 00:23:19,910 and she came to Munich at the age of 17 to lodge with him. 366 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:23,250 She was, we know, extrovert. 367 00:23:23,250 --> 00:23:24,840 She wanted to be on stage. 368 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:26,310 She wanted to be an opera singer. 369 00:23:26,310 --> 00:23:29,970 So she was the kind of person that loved to perform. 370 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:34,560 She was in her element amongst young men. 371 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:36,840 She wanted a proper boyfriend. 372 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:37,860 She was fun. 373 00:23:37,860 --> 00:23:40,050 If you look at the photos of her 374 00:23:40,050 --> 00:23:42,600 she's got a laughter spilling out of her. 375 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:46,650 She must have thought I'm going to the big city 376 00:23:46,650 --> 00:23:48,780 and life is gonna be a ball. 377 00:23:49,752 --> 00:23:50,972 (light dramatic music) 378 00:23:50,970 --> 00:23:53,100 - [Narrator] But once Geli moved in, 379 00:23:53,100 --> 00:23:55,050 Hitler became obsessed with her. 380 00:23:58,350 --> 00:24:00,660 A former close friend of Hitler's, 381 00:24:00,660 --> 00:24:05,100 Ernst Hanfstaengl, claimed she cast a spell over Hitler. 382 00:24:07,860 --> 00:24:11,260 He called her an empty headed little slut 383 00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,540 with no brains or character. 384 00:24:15,540 --> 00:24:19,440 Saying she never gave any impression of reciprocating 385 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:21,810 Hitler's twisted tenderness. 386 00:24:23,490 --> 00:24:25,440 - What came into my mind was what's called 387 00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,050 the Lolita Syndrome, and you only have to look 388 00:24:28,050 --> 00:24:30,240 at the fictional character. 389 00:24:30,240 --> 00:24:33,840 Lolita was flirtatious, she was seductive, 390 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:38,550 she was not promiscuous, but she certainly 391 00:24:38,550 --> 00:24:40,770 had an awareness of her sexuality. 392 00:24:40,770 --> 00:24:45,770 Now we know Geli was promiscuous and she was not exactly 393 00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:50,070 a deep thinker, she just was a fun girl. 394 00:24:50,070 --> 00:24:53,370 So she slides into this relationship. 395 00:24:53,370 --> 00:24:57,240 Her Uncle Wolf, who's a big man in Germany, 396 00:24:57,240 --> 00:25:00,210 going places is very impressive. 397 00:25:01,500 --> 00:25:06,450 - [Narrator] Uncle Wolf and 17-year-old Geli rode horses 398 00:25:06,450 --> 00:25:10,470 through the mountains, visited cafes and cinemas. 399 00:25:11,730 --> 00:25:15,480 Wherever he went, she was always at his side. 400 00:25:16,350 --> 00:25:19,620 As a family member, it was the perfect cover 401 00:25:19,620 --> 00:25:22,170 for a more intimate relationship. 402 00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:29,130 In 1929, Hitler purchased a nine bedroom 403 00:25:29,130 --> 00:25:31,830 luxury apartment in Munich. 404 00:25:31,830 --> 00:25:36,210 He moved Geli into a separate bedroom adjoining his. 405 00:25:36,210 --> 00:25:41,210 - To begin with, presumably Geli saw Hitler as a benevolent 406 00:25:42,540 --> 00:25:45,540 patriarch of the family who was going to look after her 407 00:25:45,540 --> 00:25:47,220 and maybe enable her. 408 00:25:47,220 --> 00:25:52,220 But as she must rapidly have realized it was not gonna be 409 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:53,640 that kind of relationship. 410 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:56,310 It was going to be intensely controlling. 411 00:25:56,310 --> 00:25:59,220 And the rows about where she went, 412 00:25:59,220 --> 00:26:02,910 who she saw, were not what she dreamed of. 413 00:26:04,530 --> 00:26:06,930 - [Narrator] Hitler wanted to control Geli 414 00:26:06,930 --> 00:26:09,000 and was crazy with jealousy 415 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:10,920 when she went out with other men. 416 00:26:14,250 --> 00:26:16,560 As their relationship developed, 417 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:20,190 it seems there were echoes of his obsession with Stefanie 418 00:26:20,190 --> 00:26:22,140 all those years earlier. 419 00:26:24,360 --> 00:26:27,660 He wanted Geli all to himself and kept 420 00:26:27,660 --> 00:26:29,310 a very close eye on her. 421 00:26:30,270 --> 00:26:34,320 - We know that he became infatuated with her. 422 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:35,430 She was much younger than him, 423 00:26:35,430 --> 00:26:36,900 significantly younger than him, 424 00:26:36,900 --> 00:26:40,860 and she wanted to go out and she started an affair 425 00:26:40,860 --> 00:26:43,410 with his chauffeur, who was her boyfriend, 426 00:26:43,410 --> 00:26:47,490 and Hitler was outraged at this, furious, 427 00:26:47,490 --> 00:26:51,990 and balled her out with terrible argument. 428 00:26:53,940 --> 00:26:57,690 - And then slowly it starts sinking in. 429 00:26:57,690 --> 00:27:01,260 He's controlling her as much as he controls anything else. 430 00:27:01,260 --> 00:27:03,600 This is totally what she didn't want. 431 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,450 And she's starting to see aspects of him 432 00:27:06,450 --> 00:27:08,550 that are, to her, frankly horrifying. 433 00:27:10,920 --> 00:27:12,780 - [Narrator] The most disturbing account 434 00:27:12,780 --> 00:27:15,330 of Hitler's relationship with Geli 435 00:27:15,330 --> 00:27:17,550 came from his own inner circle. 436 00:27:18,630 --> 00:27:21,630 Geli confided in Otto Strasser, 437 00:27:21,630 --> 00:27:25,950 a one time Nazi insider who had been close to Hitler. 438 00:27:27,210 --> 00:27:31,770 Years later, under oath, Strasser was interrogated by 439 00:27:31,770 --> 00:27:34,830 the U.S. Office of Strategic Services 440 00:27:34,830 --> 00:27:37,980 where he revealed intimate details of Hitler 441 00:27:37,980 --> 00:27:40,290 and Geli's sexual relationship. 442 00:27:41,610 --> 00:27:46,020 Strasser said Geli revealed in a tearful conversation 443 00:27:46,020 --> 00:27:47,970 that Hitler loved her, 444 00:27:47,970 --> 00:27:50,340 but she couldn't stand it anymore. 445 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,500 She was repulsed by what he wanted her to do. 446 00:27:57,510 --> 00:28:01,560 Hitler made her undress and stand over him naked 447 00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:05,250 and then urinate on him to give him sexual pleasure. 448 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:10,080 She said everything about Hitler's demands 449 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:12,750 was extremely disgusting to her. 450 00:28:13,587 --> 00:28:17,417 (man speaks foreign language) 451 00:28:20,610 --> 00:28:24,270 If Uncle Alfie, as Geli called him, 452 00:28:24,270 --> 00:28:27,270 was debasing his young niece in such a way, 453 00:28:28,110 --> 00:28:30,540 then this had the potential to destroy 454 00:28:30,540 --> 00:28:33,150 Hitler's relentless rise to power. 455 00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:38,630 On the 19th of September, 1931, 456 00:28:40,503 --> 00:28:43,323 Geli Raubal was found dead in her bedroom 457 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:44,850 in Hitler's apartment. 458 00:28:46,140 --> 00:28:49,530 A lethal bullet lodged in her chest 459 00:28:49,530 --> 00:28:51,600 and Hitler's pistol by her side. 460 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:58,770 Hitler and Geli had been in a relationship for six years. 461 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:03,240 Why did Hitler's 23-year-old niece die? 462 00:29:04,530 --> 00:29:08,220 - Undoubtedly, something very, very traumatic 463 00:29:08,220 --> 00:29:12,630 was being done to her at that time 464 00:29:12,630 --> 00:29:16,150 and the enormous conflict that she must have felt between 465 00:29:17,250 --> 00:29:20,970 responding to Hitler as a dutiful niece 466 00:29:20,970 --> 00:29:24,060 and what he was asking her to do led her 467 00:29:24,060 --> 00:29:26,670 to this incredibly dark place. 468 00:29:28,050 --> 00:29:32,610 - If you took Geli as she was before Hitler, you'd say, 469 00:29:32,610 --> 00:29:34,890 this is not a person who commits suicide. 470 00:29:34,890 --> 00:29:38,490 She's a superficial, good time fun girl. 471 00:29:38,490 --> 00:29:41,250 She bounces around without any problem. 472 00:29:41,250 --> 00:29:43,470 And I think that tells you how desperate a state 473 00:29:43,470 --> 00:29:45,120 she'd got into then. 474 00:29:45,120 --> 00:29:47,820 The realization, at some level, 475 00:29:47,820 --> 00:29:50,610 he will not let me get away. 476 00:29:50,610 --> 00:29:54,210 - She was obviously at the vortex of terrible 477 00:29:54,210 --> 00:29:58,560 and conflicting emotions that made her feel 478 00:29:58,560 --> 00:30:00,180 there was no way out. 479 00:30:02,417 --> 00:30:04,287 - [Narrator] In the following days, 480 00:30:04,290 --> 00:30:08,430 questions and rumors swirled around the scandalous death 481 00:30:08,430 --> 00:30:09,960 over Hitler's niece. 482 00:30:11,460 --> 00:30:15,450 Newspapers reported that the day before Geli's death, 483 00:30:15,450 --> 00:30:17,280 she had argued with her uncle. 484 00:30:19,843 --> 00:30:21,933 Geli wanted to go to Vienna, 485 00:30:21,930 --> 00:30:24,960 where she intended to become engaged. 486 00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:28,200 A furious Hitler stormed out of his apartment. 487 00:30:30,060 --> 00:30:33,000 Journalists wrote that Geli's body 488 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,180 was only meters from Hitler's bedroom. 489 00:30:36,180 --> 00:30:38,370 Her nose bone was shattered, 490 00:30:38,370 --> 00:30:41,490 and there was evidence of other serious injuries. 491 00:30:44,790 --> 00:30:47,970 Speculation was rife that Hitler 492 00:30:47,970 --> 00:30:49,740 may have murdered his niece. 493 00:30:51,750 --> 00:30:54,570 He claimed it was all lies and attempted 494 00:30:54,570 --> 00:30:56,520 to refute all the claims. 495 00:30:59,160 --> 00:31:02,730 It seems astonishing that he felt he needed to go to those 496 00:31:02,730 --> 00:31:06,690 lengths to try and stop the rumors flying around. 497 00:31:08,580 --> 00:31:10,440 It begs the question: 498 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:12,930 Did Hitler have something to hide? 499 00:31:16,890 --> 00:31:19,350 Certainly, investigative journalist 500 00:31:19,350 --> 00:31:21,390 Fritz Gerlich thought so. 501 00:31:21,390 --> 00:31:23,820 He believed Hitler murdered Geli 502 00:31:23,820 --> 00:31:26,190 and continued to pursue the story. 503 00:31:27,450 --> 00:31:32,190 In March, 1933, just as Gerlich was about to publish 504 00:31:32,190 --> 00:31:37,190 an expose, he was beaten up, his manuscripts destroyed, 505 00:31:37,410 --> 00:31:38,730 and he was arrested. 506 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:43,470 Gerlich was executed at the Dachau concentration camp 507 00:31:43,470 --> 00:31:45,630 in July, 1934. 508 00:31:47,820 --> 00:31:51,720 The scandal that had the potential to ruin Hitler 509 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:56,720 was no more, but to those closest to the seat of Nazi power, 510 00:31:57,390 --> 00:32:01,950 Geli's death had exposed Hitler's disturbed sexual psyche. 511 00:32:02,880 --> 00:32:07,620 - I think it's simply a case of the terrible power 512 00:32:07,620 --> 00:32:11,220 that he had over them and the realization 513 00:32:11,220 --> 00:32:13,800 that they could never escape it. 514 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,530 And that's typified by the story of Geli. 515 00:32:16,530 --> 00:32:18,600 She started complaining to everybody. 516 00:32:18,600 --> 00:32:21,990 He won't let me do this, he won't let me do that. 517 00:32:21,990 --> 00:32:25,170 And I think she just saw no way out. 518 00:32:30,188 --> 00:32:32,218 (light dramatic music) 519 00:32:32,220 --> 00:32:35,190 - [Narrator] The year after Geli Raubal died, 520 00:32:35,190 --> 00:32:37,710 Hitler began courting a new lover, 521 00:32:38,820 --> 00:32:41,970 a woman who could match his powerful status. 522 00:32:43,980 --> 00:32:47,100 26-year-old Renate Muller was 523 00:32:47,100 --> 00:32:50,100 a much admired actress and singer, 524 00:32:50,100 --> 00:32:52,260 one of the most famous of her day. 525 00:32:55,170 --> 00:33:00,170 The Nazi party saw her as the embodiment of aryan ideals, 526 00:33:00,870 --> 00:33:03,270 and Goebbels was keen for her to appear 527 00:33:03,270 --> 00:33:05,070 in his propaganda films. 528 00:33:06,180 --> 00:33:08,820 - Renate Muller was one of many actresses actually, 529 00:33:08,820 --> 00:33:12,510 who were invited back to the Reich Chancellery 530 00:33:12,510 --> 00:33:15,720 for an intimate dinner with Hitler. 531 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,090 He did that a couple of times with other women 532 00:33:18,090 --> 00:33:22,980 and he loved actresses, he was interested in actresses. 533 00:33:22,980 --> 00:33:27,980 And she was a gossipy actress who regaled people 534 00:33:29,790 --> 00:33:32,640 after this particular dinner with 535 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:34,290 what had passed between them. 536 00:33:37,590 --> 00:33:40,860 - [Narrator] Her friend, producer Alfred Zeisler, 537 00:33:40,860 --> 00:33:44,280 claimed Renate told him an unsettling story of 538 00:33:44,280 --> 00:33:47,130 Hitler's behavior behind closed doors. 539 00:33:48,420 --> 00:33:53,420 And once again, they point to a man whose sexual preferences 540 00:33:53,490 --> 00:33:55,440 were way out of the ordinary. 541 00:33:57,420 --> 00:34:01,350 Muller related to Zeisler how on one particular night 542 00:34:01,350 --> 00:34:05,640 in Hitler's room, he demanded they both undress 543 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:06,930 and lie on the floor. 544 00:34:09,690 --> 00:34:13,800 Hitler then begged Muller to kick him, which she refused, 545 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:17,790 but he was so persistent that she eventually agreed. 546 00:34:19,500 --> 00:34:23,850 She kicked and beat him, verbally abusing him 547 00:34:23,850 --> 00:34:26,610 while he declared himself her slave. 548 00:34:27,510 --> 00:34:29,670 Hitler then masturbated. 549 00:34:33,179 --> 00:34:36,779 Muller told Zeisler that once this violent encounter 550 00:34:36,780 --> 00:34:40,230 with Hitler was over, they put on their clothes, 551 00:34:40,230 --> 00:34:41,760 sat down and chatted. 552 00:34:43,889 --> 00:34:47,699 At the end of the evening, Hitler stood up, 553 00:34:47,699 --> 00:34:52,319 kissed her hand and thanked Muller for a pleasant evening 554 00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,170 as though nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. 555 00:34:57,150 --> 00:34:59,550 - The rumors about Hitler engaging 556 00:34:59,550 --> 00:35:04,550 in extreme sadomasochistic practices fits perfectly 557 00:35:05,190 --> 00:35:06,810 in with his personality. 558 00:35:06,810 --> 00:35:10,260 He internalized everything that he didn't like, 559 00:35:10,260 --> 00:35:12,360 that the losses in his life. 560 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:16,830 And he sadistically projected his rage out on everybody. 561 00:35:16,830 --> 00:35:21,240 And it's quite feasible that somebody like that would have 562 00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:23,070 these kind of sexual practices. 563 00:35:24,177 --> 00:35:27,297 - She might just have been a chatty actress 564 00:35:27,300 --> 00:35:30,600 who liked to kind of play up the excitements 565 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:32,220 of an evening with Hitler, 566 00:35:32,220 --> 00:35:35,130 or she might have been telling the truth about these very 567 00:35:35,130 --> 00:35:38,760 unusual perversions that she suggested took place. 568 00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:43,760 The gossip that Renate Muller was alleged to have spread, 569 00:35:44,700 --> 00:35:49,560 it was that he was a coprophiliac and that 570 00:35:49,560 --> 00:35:54,560 he enjoyed other debasing sexual activities. 571 00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:02,160 - Inside the masochist, outside the sadist. 572 00:36:05,190 --> 00:36:07,980 - [Narrator] It appears it may not have been wise 573 00:36:07,980 --> 00:36:11,280 to talk about what went on behind closed doors. 574 00:36:12,810 --> 00:36:15,390 The Gestapo had Renate Muller 575 00:36:15,390 --> 00:36:17,760 under round the clock surveillance. 576 00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:25,040 In 1937, she sought treatments in a sanitarium 577 00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:29,790 and asked to see Hitler, but he refused. 578 00:36:29,790 --> 00:36:34,110 It seems this was to be one of her last requests. 579 00:36:37,380 --> 00:36:41,940 From an upstairs window, Renate Muller saw four SS officers 580 00:36:41,940 --> 00:36:43,560 approach the sanatorium. 581 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:49,560 Shortly after she fell her death. 582 00:36:52,350 --> 00:36:55,860 - Renate had a terrible end in that she was being treated 583 00:36:55,860 --> 00:37:00,390 as in a clinic for quotes, depression, 584 00:37:00,390 --> 00:37:02,490 and fell out of a window. 585 00:37:02,490 --> 00:37:07,110 But falling out of a window was a way that very many enemies 586 00:37:07,110 --> 00:37:08,820 of the regime met their end. 587 00:37:08,820 --> 00:37:12,450 It wasn't an unusual way actually, 588 00:37:12,450 --> 00:37:15,000 to be murdered in the Third Reich. 589 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:17,190 It's my belief that she was pushed outta the window 590 00:37:17,190 --> 00:37:18,060 and didn't jump. 591 00:37:18,060 --> 00:37:23,060 She had caused embarrassment and the things that 592 00:37:23,100 --> 00:37:25,620 she was alleged to have said 593 00:37:25,620 --> 00:37:28,320 she had embarrassing and scandalous. 594 00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:32,880 So I think that was why she met her end. 595 00:37:34,950 --> 00:37:38,730 - [Narrator] Renate Muller was just one more casualty 596 00:37:38,730 --> 00:37:41,460 in the intimate life of Adolf Hitler. 597 00:37:48,450 --> 00:37:53,250 Of all the tragic stories of the women in Hitler's life, 598 00:37:53,250 --> 00:37:56,310 the most enduring was that of Eva Braun. 599 00:38:00,060 --> 00:38:04,440 Hitler first met Eva in October, 1929, 600 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,620 when Geli Raubal was living in his Munich apartment. 601 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,780 Despite his relationship with Geli, 602 00:38:12,780 --> 00:38:16,260 Hitler became obsessed with another much younger woman. 603 00:38:18,270 --> 00:38:23,270 - Eva Braun was a young, pretty blonde assistant 604 00:38:24,810 --> 00:38:28,950 at the photographic studio of Heinrich Hoffman in Munich. 605 00:38:28,950 --> 00:38:33,150 And she was up a ladder at the back of his shop 606 00:38:33,150 --> 00:38:35,460 one day when Hitler came in. 607 00:38:35,460 --> 00:38:38,130 And he walked in and he saw this pair of legs, 608 00:38:38,130 --> 00:38:41,070 which belonged to a 17 year old girl, 609 00:38:41,070 --> 00:38:43,170 and he asked her to the opera. 610 00:38:44,674 --> 00:38:48,454 - [Narrator] Hitler introduced himself as Herr Wolf, 611 00:38:48,450 --> 00:38:50,700 not revealing his true identity. 612 00:38:52,800 --> 00:38:57,210 Like Renate Muller, Eva initially rejected Hitler. 613 00:38:59,490 --> 00:39:01,290 At their first meeting, 614 00:39:01,290 --> 00:39:04,860 she wasn't at all interested in the old man paying her 615 00:39:04,860 --> 00:39:08,220 compliments and devouring her with his eyes. 616 00:39:10,770 --> 00:39:14,310 She refused the offer of a lift in his Mercedes, 617 00:39:14,310 --> 00:39:17,070 worried what her father's reaction would be.. 618 00:39:19,500 --> 00:39:24,500 But Hitler persisted, and Eva, like those before her, 619 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:29,550 fell for Adolf Hitler and fell hard. 620 00:39:33,270 --> 00:39:37,590 In 1935, when she was just 23 years old, 621 00:39:37,590 --> 00:39:41,340 Eva wrote in her diary that she was the mistress 622 00:39:41,340 --> 00:39:44,460 of the greatest man in Germany and the world. 623 00:39:45,540 --> 00:39:49,050 But very few people knew she existed. 624 00:39:49,050 --> 00:39:50,940 Hitler kept their relationship 625 00:39:50,940 --> 00:39:54,960 a closely guarded secret from all but his inner circle. 626 00:39:55,980 --> 00:39:58,170 - Eva was the hidden girlfriend. 627 00:39:58,170 --> 00:40:01,110 It was important to Hitler that nobody knew 628 00:40:01,110 --> 00:40:05,470 that he had a relationship because he had always said, 629 00:40:05,467 --> 00:40:07,527 "I must be married to Germany." 630 00:40:07,530 --> 00:40:09,690 It would've been, he believed, 631 00:40:09,690 --> 00:40:12,990 kind of death to his public persona if he were to marry. 632 00:40:12,990 --> 00:40:16,020 And you have to remember, this was somebody who actually 633 00:40:16,020 --> 00:40:18,540 received more fan mail than all the Beatles 634 00:40:18,540 --> 00:40:20,250 and the Rolling Stone combined. 635 00:40:20,250 --> 00:40:23,550 Wherever Hitler went, he was surrounded by women 636 00:40:23,550 --> 00:40:25,260 like throwing themselves at him. 637 00:40:25,260 --> 00:40:28,110 You know, sometimes they'd jump in front of his car 638 00:40:28,110 --> 00:40:30,450 and take their blouses off and things. 639 00:40:30,450 --> 00:40:33,450 So he thought it would be a bad move 640 00:40:33,450 --> 00:40:36,360 should he be seen to be coupled up. 641 00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:38,850 So consequently, Eva was kept very, 642 00:40:38,850 --> 00:40:42,600 very much under wraps and this didn't accord with her view 643 00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:46,110 of what a normal relationship should be. 644 00:40:46,110 --> 00:40:50,280 - [Narrator] Like Geli, Eva Braun's diary entries indicate 645 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:52,650 the traumatic effect Hitler was having 646 00:40:52,650 --> 00:40:54,180 on her state of mind. 647 00:40:56,010 --> 00:40:58,590 She wrote she was miserable and wished 648 00:40:58,590 --> 00:41:00,360 she'd never set eyes on him. 649 00:41:01,597 --> 00:41:02,727 - A couple of times, apparently, 650 00:41:02,730 --> 00:41:04,950 that she was with other people in the inner circle 651 00:41:04,950 --> 00:41:06,660 and he would walk by, walk up to her, 652 00:41:06,660 --> 00:41:09,090 give her an envelope of money and then walk 653 00:41:09,090 --> 00:41:11,340 by without saying a word. 654 00:41:11,340 --> 00:41:12,540 And that happened more than once. 655 00:41:12,540 --> 00:41:16,050 And she cringed with humiliation at this. 656 00:41:17,580 --> 00:41:19,590 - Very early on in their relationship 657 00:41:19,590 --> 00:41:24,060 she would write that Hitler would take her out to dinner 658 00:41:24,060 --> 00:41:26,220 and he wouldn't talk to her all evening. 659 00:41:26,220 --> 00:41:27,570 And then at the end of the evening, 660 00:41:27,570 --> 00:41:30,240 he would slip her an envelope of money 661 00:41:30,240 --> 00:41:35,240 and she went away feeling dirty like prostitute. 662 00:41:35,460 --> 00:41:39,510 And she hated the way that he made her feel. 663 00:41:41,190 --> 00:41:43,950 - [Narrator] One shocking entry in her diary 664 00:41:43,950 --> 00:41:47,580 indicated how fragile was Eva's state of mind. 665 00:41:48,570 --> 00:41:51,840 She planned to take 35 pills, 666 00:41:51,840 --> 00:41:54,600 which she was sure would be enough to kill her. 667 00:41:55,860 --> 00:42:00,860 - Eva had attempted suicide twice in the early years. 668 00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:05,040 And in a sense, he was then trapped, 669 00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:08,310 because after Geli, if he had a partner 670 00:42:08,310 --> 00:42:13,080 who killed themselves again, his public image would be shot. 671 00:42:14,100 --> 00:42:17,910 - She first attempted suicide very early on 672 00:42:17,910 --> 00:42:19,230 in their relationship. 673 00:42:19,230 --> 00:42:22,410 She shot herself with a pistol, not very well, 674 00:42:22,410 --> 00:42:24,870 and it was a kind of cry for help. 675 00:42:24,870 --> 00:42:26,460 She tried to commit suicide again, 676 00:42:26,460 --> 00:42:29,610 this time with Phanodorm, the sleeping pills. 677 00:42:29,610 --> 00:42:34,610 Her suicide attempts did actually win her a bit of reprieve 678 00:42:34,830 --> 00:42:36,630 in that they took her closer to Hitler 679 00:42:36,630 --> 00:42:38,820 because of the potential scandal. 680 00:42:38,820 --> 00:42:42,360 But I think she must have realized as time went on that this 681 00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,090 happy idea that they were one day gonna live together and be 682 00:42:45,090 --> 00:42:48,630 a family was never going to never going to pan out. 683 00:42:51,005 --> 00:42:53,585 - [Narrator] Like Geli and Mimi before her, 684 00:42:53,593 --> 00:42:56,943 a young woman's relationship with Hitler 685 00:42:56,940 --> 00:43:00,120 led her to take desperate and tragic measures. 686 00:43:02,730 --> 00:43:05,880 There has been much speculation about Eva 687 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:08,610 and Hitler's sexual relationship, 688 00:43:08,610 --> 00:43:11,280 and it seems that things weren't satisfactory 689 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:12,810 in that department either. 690 00:43:14,220 --> 00:43:16,380 According to Hitler's physician, 691 00:43:16,380 --> 00:43:21,380 Dr. Theodor Morell, Braun became so sexually frustrated 692 00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:24,480 she asked him to give Hitler hormone injections 693 00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:26,280 to increase his libido. 694 00:43:28,830 --> 00:43:30,750 - Albert Speer was very fond of Eva, 695 00:43:30,750 --> 00:43:34,260 and one evening he came across her in tears 696 00:43:34,260 --> 00:43:35,640 and asked what was wrong. 697 00:43:35,640 --> 00:43:38,370 And she said, well, Hitler has told me to go 698 00:43:38,370 --> 00:43:41,490 and find someone else because he said 699 00:43:41,490 --> 00:43:43,620 that he could no longer fulfill me. 700 00:43:43,620 --> 00:43:45,990 Which Speer interpreted is that he was no longer 701 00:43:45,990 --> 00:43:48,270 able to fulfill her sexually. 702 00:43:50,615 --> 00:43:55,255 - [Narrator] In April, 1945, Eva Braun moved into 703 00:43:55,260 --> 00:43:58,380 the Fuhrerbunker under the Reich's Chancellory 704 00:43:58,380 --> 00:43:59,370 to be with Hitler. 705 00:44:01,080 --> 00:44:04,020 As the end neared, he told everyone 706 00:44:04,020 --> 00:44:06,810 they should leave, including Eva. 707 00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:11,850 - When the news came through that they had to surrender. 708 00:44:11,850 --> 00:44:14,080 Hitler said to the women around him, 709 00:44:14,077 --> 00:44:16,017 "You must leave, you must go." 710 00:44:16,020 --> 00:44:19,810 At which point Eva went up to him and she says, 711 00:44:19,807 --> 00:44:21,357 "You know I'm not going to leave you. 712 00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:23,010 Why do you ask me?" 713 00:44:23,010 --> 00:44:24,270 And at this point, 714 00:44:24,270 --> 00:44:27,240 Hitler went across to her and did something 715 00:44:27,240 --> 00:44:29,220 that nobody had ever seen before 716 00:44:29,220 --> 00:44:31,020 and he kissed her on the mouth. 717 00:44:33,660 --> 00:44:36,150 - [Narrator] In the dying days of the war, 718 00:44:36,150 --> 00:44:39,930 Eva Braun finally achieved her life's ambition; 719 00:44:40,860 --> 00:44:43,770 to become the wife of Germany's fuhrer. 720 00:44:46,140 --> 00:44:47,790 In the underground bunker, 721 00:44:49,020 --> 00:44:51,660 Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun married. 722 00:44:52,830 --> 00:44:57,150 - What Hitler did in marrying Eva right at the end, 723 00:44:57,150 --> 00:45:00,600 it's a way of saying you've served me loyally, 724 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:02,280 and here is your reward. 725 00:45:03,300 --> 00:45:07,830 So yet again, he's failed to see the person in front of them 726 00:45:07,830 --> 00:45:09,330 and to understand them. 727 00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:12,630 And of course it's what she had always craved. 728 00:45:12,630 --> 00:45:17,130 And she decided to tell herself that it was great. 729 00:45:17,130 --> 00:45:21,540 So it was a kind of death wish, but in a way, 730 00:45:21,540 --> 00:45:24,450 her entire relationship with Hitler had been a death wish. 731 00:45:26,580 --> 00:45:31,580 - [Narrator] 36 hours later, on April the 30th, 1945, 732 00:45:31,830 --> 00:45:35,010 the newly weds sat together on a small couch 733 00:45:35,010 --> 00:45:36,690 in the Fuhrerbunker, 734 00:45:36,690 --> 00:45:39,150 beneath the bombed out Reich's Chancellery. 735 00:45:41,490 --> 00:45:44,110 They both swallowed a capsule of cyanide 736 00:45:45,060 --> 00:45:48,540 and Hitler also shot himself in the head, 737 00:45:48,540 --> 00:45:50,070 just to be certain. 738 00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:57,600 Eva Braun became the last of Adolf Hitler's women to die. 739 00:45:59,940 --> 00:46:03,240 - What you make of the suicide of Eva Braun, 740 00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:07,590 I think it had a lot to do with her obsession 741 00:46:07,590 --> 00:46:12,180 about being recognized as the fuhrer's wife. 742 00:46:12,180 --> 00:46:14,850 Remember he said he was married to Germany 743 00:46:14,850 --> 00:46:16,890 and could never have a wife. 744 00:46:16,890 --> 00:46:20,490 And she was so determined to kind of trump that. 745 00:46:20,490 --> 00:46:23,220 She just couldn't see any life for herself 746 00:46:23,220 --> 00:46:24,780 away from Hitler. 747 00:46:24,780 --> 00:46:26,190 So what else do you do? 748 00:46:26,190 --> 00:46:28,050 You join him in the bunker, 749 00:46:28,050 --> 00:46:31,920 you have a marriage for one day, and you kill herself. 750 00:46:31,920 --> 00:46:33,720 (dramatic music) 751 00:46:33,720 --> 00:46:35,850 - [Narrator] It's hard to say what part 752 00:46:35,850 --> 00:46:40,170 Hitler's romantic attentions and sexual perversions played 753 00:46:40,170 --> 00:46:44,820 in compelling these young women to take their own lives. 754 00:46:44,820 --> 00:46:48,840 But we can say that Hitler's narcissistic controlling 755 00:46:48,840 --> 00:46:53,550 personality almost certainly played a significant part. 756 00:46:53,550 --> 00:46:58,550 - I think that any woman coming into the picture would start 757 00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:03,560 to pick up the sheer horror of what he represents. 758 00:47:03,630 --> 00:47:06,960 And I think that's what pushes them along that line. 759 00:47:06,960 --> 00:47:09,150 I mean, Hitler was not a guy that you could 760 00:47:09,150 --> 00:47:12,780 write a Dear John letter to and go on with your life. 761 00:47:12,780 --> 00:47:15,120 They simply could not escape. 762 00:47:15,120 --> 00:47:20,120 Every relationship with Hitler was characterized by despair, 763 00:47:21,030 --> 00:47:23,750 leading to attempted suicide. 764 00:47:23,746 --> 00:47:25,796 (Adolf speaking foreign language) 765 00:47:25,800 --> 00:47:29,160 - I would say that almost all the relationships 766 00:47:29,160 --> 00:47:32,550 that Hitler had with women were abusive and coercive ones. 767 00:47:32,550 --> 00:47:37,550 He had a very kind of potent depressing effect on people. 768 00:47:37,560 --> 00:47:41,910 When this big, powerful, destructive figure enters 769 00:47:41,910 --> 00:47:44,520 their universe and takes it over, 770 00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:46,560 there isn't any way out. 771 00:47:47,763 --> 00:47:51,013 (light dramatic music) 772 00:47:54,019 --> 00:47:56,599 (eerie music)