Geli Raubal

Angela Maria "Geli" Raubal was born in Linz, Austria-Hungary on 4 June 1908,{{sfn|Toland|1976|p=349}}{{sfn|Görtemaker|2011|p=43}} where she was raised with her brother Leo and sister Elfriede. Her father died at the age of 31 when Geli was two. She and Elfriede accompanied their mother when she became Hitler's housekeeper in 1925; Raubal was 17 at the time and spent the next six years in close contact with her half-uncle,{{sfn|Bullock|1999|p=393}} who was 19 years her senior. Her mother was given a position as housekeeper at the Berghof{{efn|The Berghof was called "Haus Wachenfeld" until Hitler purchased and expanded the property in 1933.{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|pp=282–284, 686}} }} near Berchtesgaden in 1928.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=177}} Raubal moved into Hitler's Munich apartment in 1929 when she enrolled in medicine at Ludwig Maximilian University but she did not complete her studies.{{sfn|Görtemaker|2011|p=43}}

As Hitler rose to power as leader of the Nazi Party, he was domineering and possessive of Raubal, keeping control of her.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=219}} When he discovered in December 1927 that she was having a relationship with his chauffeur, Emil Maurice, he forced her to end the affair and dismissed Maurice from his service.{{sfn|Görtemaker|2011|p=43}}{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=220}} After that he did not allow her to associate with friends and attempted to have himself or someone he trusted near her at all times, accompanying her on shopping trips, to the cinema and to the opera.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=219}}

Raubal was living in Hitler's Munich apartment, and he maintained strict control over her actions. She was in effect a prisoner, and planned to escape to Vienna to continue her singing lessons.{{sfn|Bullock|1999|p=393}} Her mother told interrogators after the war that Hitler had forbidden her daughter to continue her relationship with a man from Linz whom she was hoping to marry. Hitler and Raubal argued on 18 September 1931 when he refused to allow her to go to Vienna. He departed for a meeting in Nuremberg but was recalled to Munich the next day with the news that Raubal was dead from a gunshot wound to the lung;{{sfn|Görtemaker|2011|p=43}} she had apparently shot herself in Hitler's Munich apartment with Hitler's Walther pistol.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=220}} She was 23.

Rumours immediately began in the media about physical abuse, a possible sexual relationship, an infatuation by Raubal for her uncle, and even murder.{{sfn|Görtemaker|2011|p=43}}{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=221}}{{sfn|Gunther|1940|p=21}} The Münchener Post reported that the dead woman had a fractured nose.{{sfn|Rosenbaum|1992}} Otto Strasser, a political opponent of Hitler, was the source of some of the more sensational stories. The historian Ian Kershaw maintains that "whether actively sexual or not, Hitler's behaviour towards Geli has all the traits of a strong, latent at least, sexual dependence."{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=219}} The police ruled out foul play and the death was ruled a suicide.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=132}} Hitler was devastated and went into an intense depression. He moved to a house on the shores of the Tegernsee and did not attend the funeral in Vienna on 24 September. He visited her grave at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) two days later. Thereafter, he overcame his depression and refocused on politics.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=221}}

Hitler later declared that Raubal was the only woman he had ever loved, according to American historian William L. Shirer. Her room at Haus Wachenfeld was kept as she had left it, and he hung portraits of her in his room there and at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|pp=132–133}}

In a 1992 Vanity Fair article, Ron Rosenbaum examines several theories, including speculation that Hitler intentionally or accidentally shot and killed Raubal during an argument, or that she was killed on his orders.{{sfn|Rosenbaum|1992}} According to her cousin William Stuart-Houston, Hitler's nephew through his half-brother, Alois, "When I visited Berlin in 1931, the family was in trouble. ... Everyone knew that Hitler and she had long been intimate and that she had been expecting a child – a fact that enraged Hitler."{{sfn|Robinson|2017}}

• In the 1962 film Hitler, Geli Raubal was portrayed by Cordula Trantow.{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/26926/hitler#overview|title=Hitler (1962)|website=TCM.com|publisher=Turner Classic Movies|accessdate=August 14, 2024}}
• In the 2003 TV miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil, she was portrayed by Jena Malone.{{cite web|first=Michael|last=Speiers|url=https://variety.com/2003/tv/reviews/hitler-the-rise-of-evil-1200541775/|title=Hitler: The Rise of Evil|website=Variety|date=May 11, 2003|accessdate=August 14, 2024}}
• In the 2005 film Uncle Adolf, she was portrayed by Elaine Cassidy.{{cite web|first=Angela|last=Mullin|title=Elaine Cassidy on Her Role in 'Father' Feature | the Irish Film & Television Network |url=http://www.iftn.ie/news/?act1=record&only=1&aid=73&rid=4280705&tpl=archnews&force=1|website=IFTN|date=October 4, 2007|accessdate=August 15, 2024}}
• Geli Raubal is one of the characters in the 2003 novel Last Stop Vienna by Andrew Nagorski.

• Hitler family

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book

| last = Bullock

| first = Alan

| author-link = Alan Bullock

| title = Hitler: A Study in Tyranny

| year = 1999

| orig-year = 1952

| publisher = Konecky & Konecky

| location = New York

| isbn = 978-1-56852-036-0

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Görtemaker

| first = Heike B.

| year = 2011

| title = Eva Braun: Life with Hitler

| publisher = Alfred A. Knopf

| location = New York

| isbn = 978-0-307-59582-9

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Gunther

| first = John

| author-link = John Gunther

| title = Inside Europe

| year = 1940

| publisher = Harper & Brothers

| location = New York

| url = https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.149663/2015.149663.Inside-Europe#page/n1/mode/2up

| oclc = 836676034

}}

• {{cite book

| last=Kershaw

| first=Ian

| author-link = Ian Kershaw

| title=Hitler, 1889–1936: Hubris

| publisher = W. W. Norton & Company

| year=2000

| isbn=0-393-32035-9

| location = New York

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Kershaw

| first = Ian

| title = Hitler: A Biography

| publisher = W. W. Norton & Company

| location = New York

| year = 2008

| isbn = 978-0-393-06757-6

}}

• {{cite news

| last = Robinson

| first = Julian

| title = 'Why I hate my uncle' - Rare insight into Nazi leader's life by Adolf Hitler's nephew

| date = 5 May 2017

| work = New Zealand Herald

| url = https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11850617

}}

• {{cite magazine

| last = Rosenbaum

| first = Ron

| author-link = Ron Rosenbaum

| title = Hitler's Doomed Angel

| magazine = Vanity Fair

| date = April 1992

| url = https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1992/04/hitlers-doomed-angel

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Shirer

| first = William L.

| author-link = William L. Shirer

| title = The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

| publisher = Simon & Schuster

| location = New York

| year = 1960

| lccn = 60-6729

| title-link = The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Toland

| first = John

| author-link = John Toland (author)

| title = Adolf Hitler

| publisher = Ballantine Books

| location = New York; Toronto

| year = 1976

| isbn = 978-0-345-25899-1

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Alexander

| first = Alex

| title = In de ban van Hitler: Maria Reiter, Geli Raubal, Unity Mitford, Eva Braun

| language = nl

| year = 2005

| publisher = Elmar

| location = Rijswijk

| isbn = 978-90-389-1547-0

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Hayman

| first = Ronald

| author-link = Ronald Hayman

| title = Hitler & Geli

| orig-year = 1997

| year = 1998

| publisher = Bloomsbury

| location = New York

| isbn = 978-1-58234-008-1

| url = https://archive.org/details/hitlergeli00rona

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Rosenbaum

| first = Ron

| author-link = Ron Rosenbaum

| title = Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of his Evil

| year = 1998

| publisher = Random House

| location = New York

| isbn = 978-0-679-43151-0

| url = https://archive.org/details/explaininghitler00rose

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Strasser

| first = Otto

| author-link = Otto Strasser

| title = Hitler and I

| publisher = Houghton Mifflin

| location = Boston

| year = 1940

| oclc = 643266

}}

• {{cite book

| last = Vermeeren

| first = Marc

| title = De jeugd van Adolf Hitler 1889–1907 en zijn familie en voorouders

| publisher = Aspekt

| location = Soesterberg

| language = nl

| year = 2007

| isbn = 978-90-5911-606-1

}}

• {{IMDb name|7297671}}

{{Adolf Hitler|state=collapsed}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Raubal, Geli}}

Category:1908 births

Category:1931 suicides

Category:1931 deaths

Category:Austrian Roman Catholics

Category:Austrian expatriates in Germany

Category:Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery

Category:Death conspiracy theories

Category:Hitler family

Category:Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni

Category:People from Linz

Category:Suicides by firearm in Germany