Hitler ‘lied’ about alibi as new clues expose niece’s time of loss of life and ‘cowl up’
Newly unearthed documents reportedly show Hitler’s niece Geli Raubal was found dead in his locked Munich flat 24 hours earlier than the official 1931 timeline
Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945), leader of the Nazi Party with Angela Maria “Geli” Raubal (1908 – 1931), Adolf Hitler’s half-niece(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
New clues about Adolf Hitler’s half-niece’s mysterious death have emerged. A historian has uncovered papers that he says blow apart the Nazi leader’s long-accepted alibi – raising fresh questions over whether the case was covered up.
Geli Raubal, 23, the daughter of Hitler’s half-sister, was found shot dead in Hitler’s locked Munich apartment in September 1931, with police quickly ruling it a suicide.
For 95 years, the official timeline has protected Hitler from serious suspicion. Raubal’s body was initially said to have been discovered on Saturday, September 19, 1931, after Hitler had already left Munich for a political meeting in Nuremberg on the afternoon of Friday September 18.
For 95 years, the official timeline has protected Hitler (Image: ullstein bild via Getty Images)
But a report by German magazine Der Spiegel says newly discovered historical documents challenge that account. Historian Harald Sandner has unearthed archival records in Munich that appear to place the discovery of Raubal’s body a full 24 hours earlier.
This is a discrepancy that, if correct, would mean Hitler was still in the flat during the crucial window, the Telegraph reported. Sandner reportedly found an official entry in a local death registry, alongside two separate death notices, which log the discovery of Raubal’s body at 10:15am on Friday, September 18 – not Saturday.
But Mr Sandner told The Telegraph he had found a death certificate that placed the discovery of Raubal’s body 24 hours earlier than was previously known. He said: “Since the body was already indisputably in the flat at that point, the actual time of death must logically have been much earlier – either in the early hours of Sept 18 or even as early as the night before.”
Shot in the chest
The date and time on the death certificate “completely contradict the official, 95-year-old narrative put forward by the Bavarian judiciary and the NSDAP [the Nazi party]”, Mr Sandner argued. If Raubal was already dead in the flat by Friday morning, then her death could have occurred during the night of September 17 or the early hours of September 18 – when Hitler had not yet left for Nuremberg.
The grim case has long drawn attention because of what historians describe as Hitler’s obsessively controlling and potentially abusive relationship with Raubal, who lived in his Munich flat. On the day she died, neighbours reported hearing a violent, screaming argument.
Raubal had wanted to escape Hitler’s control to move to Vienna and study singing – something he allegedly forbade, Vanity Fair reported. Shortly afterwards, she was shot in the chest with Hitler’s personal Walther pistol.
Geli Raubal (indicated by arrow) and her mother Angela Hitler Raubal(Image: Corbis via Getty Images)
While the new papers do not prove Hitler pulled the trigger, they have fuelled claims of a police and political cover-up. At the time, left-wing newspapers including the Münchner Post alleged Raubal’s body had hidden bruises and injuries, and that senior Nazis held emergency meetings to manage the story.
Police never performed a post-mortem autopsy and closed the file quickly, with claims her body was hurried out of the country for burial. Mr Sandner said he would publish his “forensic process of elimination in relation to this historic cold case” in a book in November, which promises to show that Hitler was the “chief suspect” in Raubal’s death.
However, not everyone is convinced. Heike Görtemaker, a pre-eminent Hitler historian, told The Telegraph that she was not persuaded by the new evidence. “From what I’ve seen so far, I’m not convinced,” said Ms Görtemaker, the author of several books on Hitler, including a biography of Eva Braun.
She further stated: “It is strange that the time of death given on the death certificate is the same as the time when her body was found. He didn’t yet wield power.
“The police chief was an opponent of his and would have taken the opportunity to take him out.”
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