10. Eva Hitler (née Braun) repeatedly attempted suicide to attract the attention of Adolf Hitler, before finally dying at each other’s side as husband and wife
Eva Braun (b. 1912) was Adolf Hitler’s longtime companion, and for less than forty hours his wife. The middle child from a broken home, albeit subsequently reunited under financial pressures, at age 17 Braun begun working as an assistant for Heinrich Hoffmann, the official photographer for the Nazi Party; Braun first met Hitler at Hoffmann’s Munich studio in October 1929. After the suicide of Hitler’s cohabiting half-niece in September 1931, Braun’s relationship with the future Führer grew closer.
Increasingly obsessed with Hitler, 23 years her senior, Braun’s first suicide attempt was in August 1932 by shooting herself in the chest, in what historians widely believe was a successful bid for Hitler’s attention and affection. After this event, Braun routinely stayed overnight at Hitler’s Munich apartment and often traveled with the Nazi entourage as a photographer. She attempted suicide for a second time in May 1935 by an overdose of sleeping pills, with her diary entries suggesting the effort was due to Hitler failing to make adequate time for her in his life.
Braun and Hitler grew increasingly close throughout the 1930s, becoming an integral and untouchable member of the inner circle, with the mother of Hitler’s deceased half-niece dismissed as housekeeper at his house in Berchtesgaden for criticizing the appropriateness of her presence at the Nuremberg Rally in 1938. However despite having her own room adjoining Hitler’s at the Berghof among other residences, their relationship was kept secret from the German people until after the war. They did not appear in public as a couple, with Hitler preferring to maintain an image of a chaste hero; he also believed his sexual attractiveness to women was a political advantage, one he could exploit only if known to be single.
In early April 1945 Braun relocated to the Führerbunker in Berlin to be with Hitler, refusing to depart as defeat to the Red Army became inevitable. On the night of April 28-29 Hitler and Braun were married in a private ceremony within the Führerbunker, witnessed by Goebbels and Bormann. During the afternoon of April 30 Braun and Hitler committed suicide together, with Braun biting into a cyanide capsule and Hitler shooting himself.