Angela, Paula and Maria: What Happened to Hitler’s Sisters
Adolf Hitler promised his people greatness, which brought them to the brink of destruction. The Führer and his faithful Eva Braun ignominiously committed suicide in April 1945, leaving no descendants. But Hitler’s relatives survived, including his sisters Angela and Paula, as well as his cousin Maria. Their lives were inextricably linked with the life of the leader of the Third Reich and changed irrevocably after his death. Angela’s older sister was almost 6 years older than Adolf and was born in 1883 to Alois Hitler’s second wife, Franziska. The girl was barely a year old when her mother died at the age of 23 from tuberculosis. Soon the father got together with his great-niece Clara, who was much younger than her husband. The church had to apply for permission to marry in Rome – the local bishop refused to marry due to the close relationship of the bride and groom. Angela was raised together with their children Alois and Clara. Four of the six, including one-and-a-half-year-old Ida, died at an early age. In addition to Adolf, Angela’s older brother Alois Jr. and youngest sister Paula grew up in the family. Angela was the only one in the family for whom the future Führer had warm feelings and with whom he shared his childhood experiences. At the very beginning of 1903, their father died of a heart attack. Angela, who received a small inheritance, married Leo Raubal and lived separately. At first, the life of the young family was happy. Leo Raubal and Hitler’s older sister had three children: Leo, Angela and Elfriede. Unfortunately, 8 months after the birth of her youngest daughter, Angela was left a widow. Her husband died of tuberculosis, the same disease that once deprived one-year-old Angela of her mother. With three children and a younger sister in her arms The 27-year-old Angela is left with not only three young children, but also a younger sister, Paula, who is barely 14 years old. Paulina and Adolf’s mother passed away in 1907, having briefly outlived her elderly husband. The widow’s tiny child allowance and pension were barely enough to make ends meet and help her sister, who was studying at the lyceum. In the summer of 1911, things got a little easier when Adolf gave up his allowance in favor of Paula. Angela decides to move to Vienna, as it is easier to find a job in a big city. Historians have found information that from 1915 she worked in one of the women’s boarding schools of the Austrian capital, and by 1919 she became its head. An interesting fact: in 1920, Angela Raubal worked at the University of Vienna as the head of Jewish cuisine. Hitler lost contact with his sister for several years and managed to find her only in 1919.
Hitler’s Housekeeper In 1928, Angela abruptly relinquishes a leadership position and accepts Adolf’s offer to become his housekeeper. Together with her youngest daughter Elfriede, she moved to the Wachenfeld manor in the Obersalzberg. Hitler rented it and subsequently bought it, making it his main residence until 1945. After the reconstruction in the 30s, the estate received the name “Berghof” (“Mountain Yard”). Hitler’s staff remembered Angela as a respected, energetic and determined woman. She considered herself responsible for her brother’s well-being, strictly supervised the servants, was an excellent cook and an impeccable housewife. Angela had secured complete power in the house – any messages and notes for Hitler fell into her hands first of all. Life in my half-brother’s estate was not cloudless. Rumors persisted about Hitler’s affair with the “young charmer” Geli, the eldest daughter and namesake of Angela, which lasted until the death of the Führer’s niece. In September 1931, after a major quarrel with her uncle and probable lover, Angela Raubal’s eldest daughter committed suicide by shooting herself with Hitler’s pistol. According to some reports, she was pregnant at the time of her death. Angela was more devoted to her brother than anything else, and even the death of her daughter did not induce her to leave Hitler’s service. However, with the appearance of Eva Braun in the life of the Führer, whom Adolf’s sister categorically did not accept, Angela Raubal had to accept the loss. In 1935, she left the Führer’s estate and moved to Dresden, where a year later she married the architect Martin Hammitz for the second time. Paula Wolf As a child, Paula did not see affection from her brother. At the beginning of the 21st century, German historians found her diary, the authenticity of which was confirmed by examination. An eight-year-old girl writes about her 15-year-old brother: “I feel my brother’s heavy hand on my face again.” German scientist Timothy Ribach, head of the Institute for Contemporary History in the city of Obersalzberg, commented on the find: “Adolf replaced the girl’s father who died early. He was extremely harsh with his sister and beat her repeatedly. However, Paula justified it, thinking that such an approach was necessary for her upbringing.” Adolf’s younger sister worked as a secretary for a Viennese insurance company. In 1930 she lost her job, after which Hitler began to provide her with constant financial assistance, which ceased only with his death. Not needing for money, Paula limited herself to temporary part-time jobs. At her brother’s request, she changed her surname to Paula Wolff. Hitler advised her to make such a move “for her own safety.” After Angela left the Bernghof manor, the farm passed into the hands of her younger sister. For many years, it was believed that Hitler’s younger sister was only an innocent relative of the bloody Führer. However, German historians have found out that she was going to marry one of the most brutal organizers of the Holocaust, the doctor and euthanasia specialist Erwin Jekelius, who was responsible for the death of 4,000 Jews in gas chambers. The only thing that prevented this marriage was Hitler’s outright prohibition. During the Second World War, Angela lived in Dresden. She reconciled with her brother and even, at his request, passed on the necessary information to those relatives with whom he did not want to communicate. Paula worked as a secretary in a military hospital throughout the war. After the Allied bombing of Dresden in February 1945, the Führer persuaded the two sisters to move to Berchtesgaden, in western Germany, away from the advancing Red Army troops, and arranged for their relocation. Angela did not live long after the war. She died of a stroke in the fall of 1949. Paula was arrested by the Americans, interrogated, but soon released. She lived in the Austrian capital for several years, spending her savings little by little, then worked in an art store. In 1952, she moved back to Berchtesgaden under the name Paula Wolff, where she lived in seclusion in a small apartment until her death in 1960. Hitler’s sister in the Urals, Maria Koppensteiner (née Schmidt), was the daughter of Hitler’s maternal aunt Theresa. During interrogations after her arrest by the Counterintelligence Directorate of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, she said that the last time she communicated with Hitler was in 1906. Nevertheless, it was thanks to their kinship with the leader of the Third Reich that Maria and her husband became the owners of 19 hectares of fertile land. Ignaz Koppensteiner, Maria’s husband, joined the Nazi Party in 1932, and Marie followed suit six years later. During the war, their estate was occupied by farm labourers – Ukrainians who had been deported from their homes by the Nazis. Maria Koppensteiner was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the use of forced labor. For five of them, she was held in the Lefortovo prison, then she was transferred to a special prison of the Ministry of State Security, located in Verkhneuralsk. An elderly woman in prison learned to speak Russian. She read a lot until she lost her sight. Due to the disease of her legs, she could hardly go for a walk. Hitler’s sister was abused by her cellmates and prison staff. Overseer Vasily Selyavin recalled: “The poor woman spent seven winters in slippers with thin soles. The woman, who always had a cold, begged to be given felt boots, but the head of the colony replied: “You’ll get by!” In 1955, German Chancellor Adenauer secured the repatriation of German prisoners and internees from the USSR. Maria Koppensteiner did not live to see this day – she died, according to some sources, in the Verkhneuralsk prison on August 6, 1953 (according to other sources, on December 18, 1954).