Eva Braun, born on February sixth, nineteen twelve, was a German photographer and model who became widely known as the longtime companion of Adolf Hitler. She first crossed paths with Hitler in Munich in nineteen twenty-nine, at the tender age of seventeen, while working as an assistant and model for his personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann. Their relationship blossomed about two years later, leading to a complex and tumultuous bond.
Throughout the years, Braun's life was marked by both devotion and despair. She attempted suicide twice during the early stages of their relationship, reflecting the emotional turmoil she experienced. By nineteen thirty-six, she had become an integral part of Hitler's household at the Berghof, located near Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, where she lived a sheltered existence throughout World War II.
Despite her significant presence in Hitler's inner circle, Braun remained largely out of the public eye until mid-nineteen forty-four, when she attended her sister Gretl's wedding to Hermann Fegelein, an SS officer on Hitler's staff. As the war drew to a close and Nazi Germany faced imminent collapse, Braun pledged her loyalty to Hitler and joined him in the Führerbunker in Berlin.
On April twenty-ninth, nineteen forty-five, amidst the chaos of the Red Army's advance, Braun married Hitler in a brief civil ceremony, making her thirty-three and him fifty-six at the time. Tragically, less than forty hours later, both took their own lives in the bunker: Braun by ingesting cyanide and Hitler by gunshot. Until their deaths, much of the German public remained unaware of their relationship, though Braun was responsible for many of the surviving color photographs and films of Hitler.