TRUE CRIME FRIDAY: THE CASE OF GELI RAUBAL

True Crime Friday gets relative to the Fourth Reich—and a kissing cousins tale that will make you go EW!—with the Case of Geli Raubal

Hey there, true crime lovers! It is your favorite investigator, Ninetoes, coming to you from Ninetoes HQ, and I am on the beat with the Case of Geli Raubal. I have my notebook in hand and coffee in my system, so let’s get to it!

For this one, we are going back to 1931 and to Munich, Germany. Trust me, this is a good one. I will say I got this idea from an ad for a James Patterson book.

Angela Maria “Geli” Raubal was born on June 4, 1908 in Linz, Austria-Hungary. She was the second child of Leo Raubal Sr. and was raised with her older brother, Leo Jr., and her younger sister, Elfriede. Her father died when Geli was two-years old. In 1925, Geli’s mother got a job as her half-brother’s live in housekeeper. Geli was 17 years old at the time when she and her sister moved in with her mother. The relative they lived with was Adolf Hitler.

Geli moved into Hitler’s apartment in 1929 when she enrolled in Ludwig-Maximillians-Universität Munchen (LMU) to study medicine, but she never completed her studies. Hitler became domineering over Geli, especially as he rose to power in the Nazi party. He became increasingly possessive and restricted her social contacts and her movements. When he discovered she was having an affair with his chauffeur, Emil Maurice, he forced her to end the affair, fired the driver and forbade her from having any involvement with er friends and whenever she went anywhere, she was either accompanied by Hitler or one of his trusted staff. She was basically kept in close contact at all times.

On September 18, 1931, Geli and Hitler got into an argument about her wanting to go to Vienna to continue her singing lessons. After the argument, Hitler departed for Nuremberg to attend a meeting, but was called back to Munich the next day when he got news that Geli was dead from a bullet wound to her lung. She killed herself by shooting Hitler’s Walther into her lung, and the bullet lodged there.

Rumors started very soon afterwards about physical abuse and the possibility of a sexual relationship between Hitler and his half-niece. A local paper reported that she had also suffered a broken nose. The police ruled out foul play and her death was deemed a suicide. By all accounts, Hitler went into a severe depression, he moved out of the apartment and into a house on the Tegernsee (an Alpine lake in Bavaria, Germany), and did not attend her funeral on September 24, 1931. It is said that Hitler overcame his depression by refocusing his attention on politics.

Several theories came out of this incident, chief among them was that Hitler intentionally shot Geli. According to her cousin, William Stuart-Houston (Hitler’s nephew through his half-brother Alois) he knew the family was in trouble when he visited them in 1931. “Everyone knew that Hitler and she had been intimate and that she was expecting a child, a fact that enraged Hitler.” William Shirer has quoted Hitler as saying Geli Raubal was the only woman he ever loved.

Looking back, we know just how…villainous he was, so him actually killing his niece is not out of the realm of possibility. Unless some concrete evidence comes to light this many years later, all we can do is speculate.

Until the next time, I bid you successful investigations!

Darren “Ninetoes” Perdue is a book and media reviewer. When he is not reading, he is watching true crime shows, cooking for his family, or working on a plan for universal domination. If you see him on his porch, say hi. He does not bite…much.

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