Archival documents have revealed new details about the mysterious death of 23-year-old Geli Raubal, Adolf Hitler's niece. New facts indicate that her body was discovered a day earlier than stated in the police report, reports the German magazine "Spiegel". Thus, Hitler finds himself without an alibi for the day of her death in 1931.
The circumstances surrounding the death
23-year-old Angela Maria Raubal, known as Geli, was found shot in Hitler's apartment on Prinzregentenplatz in Munich. Until now, it was believed that the body was discovered on September 19, 1931.
Geli is the daughter of Hitler's half-sister, Angela Raubal. In 1927, Geli moved from Vienna to Munich and studied medicine for a while. In 1929, she moved into Hitler's apartment, who supported her financially. Historical sources and testimonies of contemporaries indicate that Hitler and his niece had a secret, obsessive and probably romantic relationship.
The police concluded that the young woman had committed suicide with a gun belonging to Hitler. The circumstances surrounding Raubal's death and her relationship with Hitler later became the subject of numerous versions and disputes.
What Hitler suspected
On September 21, 1931, the Münchener Post, a newspaper that was sharply critical of the Nazis, published an article entitled "A Mysterious Affair". A digital copy is kept in the Bavarian State Library. The publication claims that on September 18, Hitler and his niece had a heated argument over her intention to go to Vienna and get engaged. According to the newspaper's version, Hitler was against the trip and left the apartment after the conflict.
The newspaper also reports, citing its own sources, that after the discovery of Raubal's body, Raubal had a broken nose and other injuries. In addition, the Münchener Post claims that after her death, representatives of the National Socialist Workers' Party leadership discussed at the party headquarters what version of events to present to the public and decided to explain the suicide by Raubal's experiences related to her unsuccessful musical career.
At the time, Hitler asked the newspaper to publish an official refutation. In it, he denied both the quarrel and that he had prevented Raubal from traveling to Vienna or from her alleged engagement. He claims that his niece went to Vienna to consult a specialist again about her vocal abilities. The refutation was published in the Münchener Post newspaper on September 22.
After the publications, the police requested a re-examination of the body, but the journalists' suspicions of fractures and injuries to the victim were not confirmed.
What do the newly discovered documents say?
The magazine "Spiegel" reported that historian Harald Sandner had discovered new documents in the Munich State Archives, as well as in the city archives. Regarding the deaths, the Munich Civil Registry Office states that Raubal's body was found in an apartment on Prinzregentenplatz on Friday, September 18, 1931, at 10:15 a.m. The same date is also given in two death certificates found by Sandner.
This contradicts the police report on which the generally accepted version of events is based. According to it, Hitler left Munich for Nuremberg in the afternoon of September 18. This report claims that after his departure Raubal committed suicide, and her body was not discovered by the building manager, Georg Winter, until the morning of September 19.
If the newly discovered registry data is correct, then Raubal's body was discovered approximately one day earlier than the police report claims. Therefore, the previous chronology, which provided Hitler with an alibi at the time of the discovery of the body, is questionable.
A full autopsy was not performed on Raubal's body. On September 21, the prosecutor's office authorized his burial, after which the body was transported to Vienna. It is still not clear why the information in the police report and the documents found differ. Sandner suggests that this may be an attempt to conceal the real circumstances of the incident, but he points out that there is no evidence of deliberate falsification of documents. At the same time, the new documents themselves do not indicate that Raubal was murdered or that Hitler had anything to do with her death.