Braun, Eva (redirected from Braun)

Braun, Eva (ā`vä broun), 1912–45, mistress and later wife of the German dictator Adolf Hitler. She was a shop assistant to a Nazi photographer, through whom she met Hitler. She entered his household in 1936, although their relationship was kept secret. She had no influence on the government. Hitler married her in the last days of his life, and she joined him in suicide.

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Braun, Eva

Eva Braun, 1944

(credit: Heinrich Hoffmann, Munich)

(born Feb. 6, 1912, Munich, Ger.—died April 30, 1945, Berlin) Mistress of Adolf Hitler. A saleswoman in the shop of Hitler's photographer, she became Hitler's mistress in the 1930s, living first in a house he provided in Munich, then at his chalet in Berchtesgaden. He never allowed her to be seen in public with him, and she had no influence on his political life. In April 1945 she joined him in Berlin, against his orders, as the Allied Powers were closing in on the capital. In recognition of her loyalty, he married her in a civil ceremony in the Chancellery bunker on April 29. The next day Eva Hitler ended her life by taking poison; her husband shot himself. In accordance with his instructions, their bodies were burned.