Hitler was a master maker of myths, and one of his most lasting legacies is the legend of a 'Führer without a family'. It is a myth that persists to this day. To maintain a show of strength and invulnerability he kept his relatives hidden and even tried to destroy evidence of their existence. This documentary reveals who the Führer's family really were. There was Alois, the shady half-brother, a Berlin inn keeper who tried to profit from his name wherever he could. Then there was Angela, his half-sister, who was in charge of housekeeping at his Berghof retreat and had the neighbours at the Obersalzberg chased away. And there was his niece Geli, with whom he was obsessed, but she called her uncle a 'jailer' and committed suicide. Hitler's 'favourite nephew' was educated at an elite Nazi school and volunteered to fight on the Eastern front against the Soviet Union. Hitler's sister Paula wanted to marry a surgeon and mass murderer. But his most insolent relative was his English-born nephew William Patrick, who lived the life of a playboy in Berlin and extorted money from the Führer by threatening to expose family secrets. The Nazi regime was founded on a fanatical myth of racial purity. Every German had to provide a spotless lineage and the fate of those deemed 'racially inferior' is well known. But Hitler was obsessively secretive about his own less-than-flawless lineage. This documentary has tracked down some of Hitler's living relatives who speak of what it means to live in the shadow of a dictator. Adolf Hitler's family tree is complicated. Below, you will notice that the last name "Hitler" had many variations and were often used almost interchangeably. Some of the common variances were Hitler, Hiedler, Hüttler, Hytler, and Hittler. Alois Schicklgruber did change his name on January 7, 1877 to "Hitler," which was the only form of the last name that his son, Adolf, used. The family tree is filled with multiple marriages. Look carefully at the marriage dates and the birth dates of their children. Many children were born illegitimate or born only a couple months after marriage. Though the graph shows Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois Schicklgruber's father, this is a contested issue. Also, Alois Schicklgruber's first wife has not been included. He married Anna Glassl-Hörer (1823-1883) in October 1873. Anna became an invalid soon after the marriage, in 1880 she filed for a separation, and she died three years later. Alois and Anna had no children together. Note: I was surprised while researching for this information that many researchers do not agree on birth or death dates. I have done my best to include what seemed the most accurate dates. The following 17 pages are in this category, out of 17 total. This list may not reflect recent changes (learn more). This category contains only the following file. Adolf Hitler had an older half-brother, Alois, who was a bit of a ne'er do well and a wastrel and who had already been in prison twice for theft, before he went to Dublin, Ireland via Paris around 1909 where he worked in the Shelbourne Hotel as a waiter. There he met an Irish girl, Briget (or Brigid – the spelling varies!) Dowling and the two of them eloped to Liverpool, England where they married. Her family were most upset by this marriage and were not reconciled to her until, in 1911 William Dowling, Brigid's father, attended the christening of his grandson, William Patrick Hitler in Liverpool. At this time the Hitler family were living at 102 Upper Stanhope Street in Toxteth, a Liverpool suburb. In the 1930s young William Patrick Hitler became a socialite and decided to trade on the glamour of his surname. He moved to Germany in the hopes that his connection to Uncle Adolf would guarantee him an easy ride in the Third Reich. He bummed around Berlin and the Führer was not impressed. In early 1939 William Patrick and his mother, under the aegis of William Randolph Hearst left England and went to the United States on a lecture tour where he had audiences of up to 1,500 a night. After War between Germany and England broke out the two decided to remain in the United States. In 1944 American moviegoers were startled to see flash on the screen. "Hitler joins US Navy". It was true, but it was William Patrick they were talking about. Almost unbelievably, the man who signed William Patrick into the US navy carried the surname Hess. After the war, William, having become a phlebotomist moved to Long Island where he set up a blood analysis laboratory. In 1947 he married Phyllis whom he had first met in Germany before the war. The two had four sons. Howard, the most out going of them was killed in a car crash in the 1980s. The other three, who are in their late 30s to early 50s, are reported to have taken a pact that they will have no children so that the Hitler blood line will die with them. Two of them work in their own landscape gardening business in Long Island. The other brother, Alexander Adolf, is a social worker. On the Channel 5 TV program Hitler's living relatives Alex was reported as saying that his father was an Englishman, he is an American and that while he has been to Germany several times as a tourist but he has no real interest in that country. Also TV program: Channel 5's "Hitler's Living Relatives" (UK) See also Beaten by his father, the future dictator used to bully his sister Adolf Hitler (circled) with his fellow pupils at school in Lambach, Austria. Photograph: Three Lions/Getty Images Paula Hitler's journal, unearthed at an undisclosed location in Germany, reveals that her brother was a bully in his teens, and would beat her. Recounting the earliest memories of her childhood, when she was around eight and Adolf was 15, Paula wrote: "Once again I feel my brother's loose hand across my face." The typewritten journal is among an assortment of documents which have been disclosed by historians Timothy Ryback and Florian Beierl. Dr Ryback is the head of Germany's Obersalzberg Institute of Contemporary History, which is dedicated to research into Hitler, while Mr Beierl has written several books about the Nazi party leader and Third Reich chancellor. They said that scientific tests had verified the documents' authenticity. Other insights include the revelation that Paula, always thought of as the innocent bystander of the Hitler family, was engaged to one of the Holocaust's most notorious euthanasia doctors. Dr Ryback told the Guardian: "This is the first time that we have been able to get an insight into the Hitler family from a very young age. "Adolf was the older brother and father figure. He was very strict with Paula and slapped her around. But she justified it in a starry-eyed way, because she believed it was for the good of her education." The two historians have also located a joint memoir by Hitler's half-brother, Alois, and half-sister, Angela. One excerpt describes the violence exercised by Hitler's father, also called Alois, and how Adolf's mother tried to protect her son from regular beatings. "Fearing that the father could no longer control himself in his unbridled rage, she [Adolf's mother] decides to put an end to the beating. "She goes up to the attic, covers Adolf who is lying on the floor, but cannot deflect the father's final blow. Without a sound she absorbs it." Mr Beierl said: "This is a picture of a completely dysfunctional family that the public has never seen before. "The terror of the Third Reich was cultivated in Hitler's own home." Mr Beierl's research also led him to Russian interrogation papers, which exposed the fact that Paula Hitler was engaged to Erwin Jekelius, responsible for gassing 4,000 people during the war. Mr Beierl said: "Until this point, Paula Hitler had a clean slate. But the portrayal of her being a poor little creature has suddenly shifted. "In my opinion, the fact that she was due to marry one of Austria's worst criminals means that she was also connected with death, horror and gas chambers." And Dr Ryback added: "To me, discovering that Paula was going to marry Jekelius is one of the most astonishing revelations of my career. "She bought into the whole thing - hook, line and sinker." Paula, who later lived under the pseudonym Wolf, did not marry Jekelius, as the wedding was forbidden by her brother. Dr Ryback said: "It was like a scene from Monty Python. Jekelius goes to Berlin to ask Hitler for his sister's hand; he is met by the Gestapo, shipped off to the Eastern front, and snapped up by the Russians." Other eye-opening documents that shed light on the Hitler household include a family account book. One entry mentions a loan of 900 Austrian crowns given to Hitler in the spring of 1908, enough for the teenager to live on for one year, and dispels the myth that he existed as a "starving artist" when in Vienna. The historians were asked to carry out their extensive research almost six years ago for the German television station ZDF. Their findings, due to be broadcast in a 45-minute documentary in Germany next week, also include interviews with two of Hitler's relatives. Dr Ryback said: "This is the first time that these people have spoken publicly about living under the shadow of Hitler. They do not romanticise their past. They are very humble and have suffered their whole lives under the curse of Adolf. "It is an incredible closing of a loop: Hitler came from a family of poor farmers. After he rose and fell as a dictator, his family today is back where they started." Hitler's relatives requested to remain anonymous in the documentary and their faces are digitally altered.Series 1 | Episode 1 | The Hitler Family
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Hitler's Family Tree
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William Patrick Hitler, US Navy, (Retd)
Yes, Virginia, there are American members of the Hitler family.
The Last of the Hitlers book cover
Hitler's great nephews Journal reveals Hitler's dysfunctional family
Saturday, 30 May 2009
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