For example, in September 1935, four months after her second suicide attempt and four weeks after moving into the apartment of her own that Hitler paid for, she attended an NSDAP convention for the first time, in Nuremberg.2 This annual event, with its marches, torchlight processions at night, parades, and roll calls, had no purpose other than propaganda and was centered from start to finish on Hitler, whom hundreds of thousands of supporters welcomed and celebrated like a messiah. In 1935, the convention lasted from September 10 to September 16 and had as its motto “Convention of Freedom,” in reference to Germany’s (at least partial) liberation from the Versailles Treaty and regaining of room to maneuver militarily.3 In addition, the session of Parliament that Hitler convened during the convention and summoned specially to Nuremberg passed, on September 15, the so-called Nuremberg Laws, hastily drawn up the previous day, which expelled Jewish citizens from the “Volksgemeinschaft” and robbed them of their civil rights.4
There is no authenticated information about the extent to which Eva Braun knew of these proceedings, or even when exactly she arrived in Nuremberg. There are, however, suggestions that she traveled to Nuremberg together with her boss, Heinrich Hoffmann, and Hoffmann’s wife and son, along with other employees of his firm, “Heinrich Hoffmann: Publisher of National Socialist Pictures.”5 Hoffmann’s business had turned into a major concern, with sales in the millions, and since he was obviously at the convention from the beginning, in his capacity as “Reich Photographic Correspondent of the NSDAP,” we can presume that Eva Braun was there on the first day as well, when Hitler was driven through the city in an open car and was welcomed in the Nuremberg Historical City Hall by the mayor.6 Ernst Hanfstaengl, who had the task of welcoming the international press in the great hall of the Cultural Union building on the afternoon of September 10, recalled that Braun had come to the convention “inconspicuously,” but in an “expensive fur.”7 She probably also saw the impressive propaganda spectacle staged by Albert Speer on the zeppelin field located five kilometers southeast of the city center, where, on September 12 at 10 a.m., a roll call of the Reich Labor Service took place with an accompanying march “past the Führer”; on the following day came the roll call of the political leaders; and on the last day, September 16, starting at 9 a.m., the presentation of the armed forces, ending that night with a ceremonial tattoo.8 In 1935, though, the zeppelin field was still bare—the well-known monumental stone architectural features, including the gigantic gilded swastika, were built only two years later. The tribunals, speaker’s platform, and colossal eagle lit with several spotlights were still made of wood in 1935; Speer’s idea of a “cathedral of light,” created from the beams of antiaircraft spotlights, was tested out for the first time this year, but not yet put into full effect.9
For Eva Braun, meanwhile, the convention meant a further development in her relationship to Hitler. For the first time, she was allowed to take part in an official NSDAP event along with the wives of leading Nazis—Ilse Hess, Margarete “Marga” Himmler, and Gerda Bormann, among others. Her presence apparently met with resistance from some of the women, though, especially Hitler’s energetic half-sister, Angela Raubal, who kept house for him in Berchtesgaden. Herbert Döhring, the later manager of the Berghof household, recalled after the war that “Frau Raubal and Frau Goebbels and all these ministers’ wives” were “completely shocked” that “this young, capricious, and dissatisfied-looking girl was sitting there on the VIP rostrum.”10 Döhring, twenty-two years old at the time and thus slightly younger than Braun, was a member of the “Führer protection command” stationed in the Deutscher Hof hotel and responsible for Hitler’s personal safety; he could hardly have learned anything of the conflicts among the women on the VIP stage from his own experience. He had possibly not even met Eva Braun by that point in time. His judgment must therefore have been based partly on rumors, partly on his later experiences at the Berghof.
Still, Julius Schaub, Hitler’s personal adjutant and close associate of many years, who followed the Nazi leader “like a shadow,” in Christa Schroeder’s words, also claimed that there was “a rather tense relationship” between Raubal and Braun at the convention.11 Schroeder herself, a secretary in the “Führer’s personal staff” in the Reich Chancellery since 1933, remarks that Angela Raubal could not stand Eva Braun from the beginning, and that Raubal expressed to her brother her disapproval of Braun’s, in her view, “very conspicuous” behavior in Nuremberg. Schroeder said that Raubal later had to “leave the mountain”[8] on Hitler’s wish, and “all the other ladies” who made themselves noticeable “with disparaging remarks” were not permitted “to enjoy” the “hospitality of the house” for long.12
Angela Raubal did in fact leave the Obersalzberg on February 18, 1936, after more than seven years there, but she returned, it seems, for occasional visits. In any case, on May 22, 1936, she wrote in a letter to Rudolf Hess from Dresden that she was planning to accompany her husband on a study trip at the end of June that would pass through Munich and Berchtesgaden. She added: “Especially since my brother was here in Dresden and I spoke to him again after such a long time and he promised to come over to see us for coffee soon, I have been so wildly happy, I am afraid the gods will envy me.”13 Apparently Hitler had reestablished contact with his half-sister after only a few months. It is no longer possible to ascertain whether Eva Braun was the only reason for Raubal’s departure.14 The recollections of the members of Hitler’s personal staff clearly show, however, how dramatic Eva Braun’s rise seemed from the point of view of the staff and the servants. The sudden departure of Hitler’s half-sister clearly showed them that anyone who dared to criticize Eva Braun or her relationship with Hitler would have to reckon with being laid off. As a result, the young woman’s position in the inner circle became practically untouchable.
The Unnoticed Climb
Nonetheless, even in Nuremberg, only a few initiates knew who Eva Braun actually was. On the record, she remained invisible, and she did not stay at Hotel Kaiserhof like the wives and other female guests, such as Hitler’s architect Gerdy Troost, Marga Himmler, and Gerda Bormann. (Like all lodgings in the city during the convention, Hotel Kaiserhof could be entered only with a “residence pass” given out by the management.) Instead, it is very probable that Braun, along with Marianne (Marion) Schönmann, a friend she had brought along from Munich, moved in Heinrich Hoffmann’s circle as his colleague.15 So it cannot be ruled out that she, like her boss, stayed with Hitler’s entourage in the Deutscher Hof on the Altstadtring, across from the Opera House, where Hitler occupied the second floor of the hotel, as per tradition, during his stay in this “most German of all cities.” Hitler had personally prohibited the wives of other Party members from being housed there, so he may well have presumed that Eva Braun, accompanied by Hoffmann, would arouse the least attention there.16
A photograph taken on the occasion of Hoffmann’s fiftieth birthday on September 12, 1935, in Nuremberg, shows that Hoffmann’s circle at the time included not only Braun and Schönmann, his family, and other colleagues, but also Max Schmeling and the photographer Atto Retti-Marsani.17 Presumably, Braun also received complimentary tickets to the various events at the convention through Hoffmann. In general, tickets for the convention, which were sent out from the Braune Haus (Brown House) in Munich in the “Führer’s” name and signed by Rudolf Hess, were extremely sought-after and hard to come by. Ilse Hess, loyal to the Party line as always, decisively rejected a relative’s request in the run-up to the convention as follows: “Unfortunately, the tickets are in such short supply that even many old comrades-in-arms in the movement are having to stay away. In these circumstances, it is even less possible for me to give preference to a relative who is not among the long-standing Party faithful.”18 Eva Braun, meanwhile, was able to remain discreet, with Hoffmann’s help, even though she became a fixture in Hitler’s innermost circle from then on. Within a year—with or without a suicide attempt—she had managed to decisively change the circumstances of her life with Hitler, entirely to her benefit.
8
Translator’s note: “Mountain” is