PAULA HITLER'S MEMOIR OF HER BROTHER, ADOLF HITLER

PAULA HITLER'S MEMOIR OF HER BROTHER, ADOLF HITLER
PAULA HITLER-WOLF (1896 - 1960) Younger sister of Adolf Hitler, his only sibling to survive into adulthood. She never joined the Nazi Party and largely remained on the sidelines, though after the war she accepted the charity of ex-SS officers and survivors of Hitler's inner circle. An incredible memoir of a life with Adolf Hitler, a typed manuscript signed at conclusion 'Paula Hitler-Wolf' with a few emendations, 15pp. large 4to., [n.p., but apparently Berchtesgaden, ca. 1953], in German with partial English translation. This is the text of a solicited magazine article sought by an American journalist for publication in 'The American Weekly', though we cannot find any evidence of it having been put into print. Written in a stream-of-thought manner, Paula Hitler is alternately protective of her brother, indignant, and fawning, while at the same time revealing a good deal about Hitler hitherto unknown. The self-typed text reads, in small part: '…four children [my siblings] died early in life, and this fact caused my mother to be extremely careful whenever Adolf and I showed any sign of illness…she also tried to balance the strictness of our father with her own love…When our 65-year-old father died in January, 1903, my brother Adolf was 13 years old…Four years later…mother, who was 23 years younger than father, died…Adolf joined his parents on April 30, 1945…[Adolf] had grown up between two extremes…our father's attitude through life was uncompromising…yield or break…our mother…tried to save the domestic peace…Just like Napoleon in his youth, my brother also was a small gang leader – freedom-loving, impulsive, comradely – never inclined to submit…I have often wondered what would have happened…if his mother hadn't left us so early…whether he would have refrained from his…intention to become an artist…he did not have the strength to detach himself from his mother…their deaths…cleared the way for him to run as a politician….jealousy between Adolf and me played an increasing role…my brother got a lung hemorrhage…he noted our mother's indulgence towards me…Adolf proved himself the most loving, patient and attentive son…My brother Adolf gave me my first piano lessons…listening to melodies from Wagner operas…he himself learned [piano] on his own…he preferred to talk about what moved him to the core: history – music – architecture…he also checked my homework and did arithmetic…his enthusiasm for the Bayreuth master [Richard Wagner]…The outstanding leadership that Richard Wagner assumed as the poet in my brother's soul was not equaled by anyone in other areas…For Adolf it was incomprehensible that a human child could ever confuse the Baroque with the Renaissance!...The greatest disappointment…was probably that moment when, on entering the art academy, he immediately ran into the tried and tested and splendidly established bureaucratism …laden with prejudices…this disappointment was followed by a series of discoveries that he had not expected…he was left to his own devices…the academy and theater-goer Adolf Hitler became a worker…and used every free hour to draw and paint, and in standing-room in the evening at the opera…father wished him to become a state official…the connection between my brother and me was interrupted for 13 years…the move to Munich, the First World War, and the end of the war…[our mother] would have followed the ascent of her son with a fearful heart…she would only have visited Berlin on very special occasions, but she would only have been at home in the familiar rooms, far from all the trinkets and glitter…Worrying about her son's luck and misfortune would have been second nature to her, like Napoleon's mother…Only when my brother was in Vienna did he make it a point to greet me at the Hotel Imperial and this journey was of course carried out in the car. My brother didn't have much time, a stay in Vienna was always short and on the one…he did not even realize how difficult it was to get to the…Hotel Imperial…When I received the invitation to his 50th birthday in Berlin shortly afterwards and we were facing each other in the Reich Chancellery, one of the first questions was: 'Why didn't you come to the Imperial…nobody knew where you were!'…in the summer of 1940 and the last one - a surprise visit to Berlin – I saw him on March 5, 1941 in Vienna, where the harvest of the war was already evident…my brother, whose existence from now on consisted only of responsibility…When I am asked about the death of my brother…I can only say one thing that is clear and unequivocal: Yes! The fact that my brother is dead was out of the question for me from the very beginning after the war was over…The war was lost for Germany, so was his life's work. Too many incomprehensibilities had accumulated to find out from this sum for himself or for any purpose in life. Neither in the present nor in the future. Moreover, he had spent the past lifetime in tireless concern for the German people and the maintenance of European culture, twice and three times... for him all life possibilities except for the last ones were exhausted when he saw his beloved capital Berlin in enemy hands. It wasn't my brother's intention to go out of Berlin to defend himself somewhere. …Where could he flee with his deeply disappointed, heavy heart without carrying the unbearable burden of thoughts with him everywhere… it no longer mattered whether the remains of the corpse were found, because the people asked about them much later only at a time when the horrific experiences around the destroyed Reichskanzlei and within it in the last days of the war lost their immediate horror…My brother's long-time driver, Erich Kempka, not only provided the fuel - 200 liters of gasoline - and was not only present at the site of the incineration when his 'boss' was looking for the peace he would otherwise… everything that was mortal about my brother , doused with gasoline and burned. The end of Mussolini [shot and publicly hanged] is said to have been the immediate cause of this burned death. My little brother did not want to give anyone the opportunity to make a horrible joke with his found corpse…We sat across from each other in the Munich apartment and we both became quiet when I visited my brother in his private apartment on Pringregenzplatz in Munich, I understood very well that he was 'at home' in this apartment. The apartment consisted of a large living room with an attached library and a large dining room for celebratory…my brother's bedroom with bathroom, guest room and from a large hallway in which the gentlemen would smoke their cigars...There were very valuable paintings among them, some of which he had bought himself from his private income for his private apartment and some of them were gifts…In the large living room, a Breughel…when he did give himself a short break in a deep armchair… masters from the same century, like Grützner, Kaulbach…the older ones were intended exclusively as wall decorations for the dining room…when the war began, the magic was over, the pictures were all stored in a bombproof manner and when I entered this apartment for the last time in the summer of 1941, there were empty walls everywhere…My brother's estate also includes watercolors, drawings and sketches from his own past, some of which were bought back because they were created at the time when he still viewed watercolor painting as a stepping stone towards his goal: to become a master builder…he was particularly pleased about a portfolio with of Rudolf v. Alt pictures, because Adolf's preference for architecture found the best breeding ground in him…the gifts for Christmas and birthdays… which both the artist and the little man Adolf Hitler, particularly enjoyed, piled up with him…[an artist] at my brother's wish, painted a portrait of [our mother] in her youth from an old, small photograph…after the end of the war, someone said to me, I should get it…Also, the income from the book 'Mein Kampf'…is still under trust management….Of course, the furnishings in his Munich apartment and the library would also be bequests that for me as a sister first…my niece Geli [Raubal, Hitler's niece and alleged mistress] once complained to me in 1930 - Uncle Adolf had nothing to read at home and she would be half desperate about it. At first I was surprised: 'Don't you read anything…he has such tons of books!' But then we both laughed when she answered with a pitiful look: 'Yes...that's it - but nothing clever! ... There is not a single romance novel among them!' At the same time and in the same way as his mother, my brother also had his favorite niece Geli painted…as a reminder ... the list of the pictures does not, of course, include those valuable paintings that my brother had acquired for the installation of a picture gallery in Linz…When he thought about his future plans as a boy, then he tried first and foremost to give Linz some relief, because his hometown seemed neglected to him…there were not enough years of peace available to start everything in good time…I probably went with them [NSDAP] to a large extent, but I was not influenced by any propaganda speculating on the herd instinct of the masses…all political propaganda is a double-edged sword and a risk…And now the beginning of the war has been repeated - but this time her own brother stood by at the top of Germany and in the persistent search for the meaning of my own life, each one closes the circle as if by itself when I see his fate-related task, his loneliness, his vain struggle for recognition of Germany as an equal guard, his resignation in the end…' Hitler has signed in full at the bottom of the last page. A few of the pages bear marginal tears, one tear extending an inch or two into the typed text, but with no loss, otherwise overall very good. This manuscript is accompanied by a one-page set of questions sent to Paula concerning claims she was making on the estate of Adolf Hitler at the same time. She answers these questions in a 6pp. typed manuscript (unsigned). It reads in part: 'I also have the right to claim the same inheritance laws as heir of Adolf Hitler as are generally used…I am the only one of my family to share the name Hitler…I never denied the relationship with my brother…when recently said by American newspapers that I only adopted this name after the end of the war, I preferred this name Wolf even when my brother was still alive…my brother, as a Party Leader in the early years, traveled through Obersalzberg on the name 'Wolf' – and when I visited in the summer of 1923, I chose the same in order to not be bothered… he should always remain my little brother…when I saw him on the newsreel, it seldom happened that my eyes remain dry, because I suddenly realized how small I remained relative to him…the housekeeper in my brother's private apartment claimed his personal estate for herself…I myself lost everything… unfortunately, the gentlemen who dealt with the judicial proceedings against my brother did not take the trouble to see whether I met the prerequisites for neediness…since I was unknown in Germany from the beginning, I had no right to be known after my brother's death…with this verdict, as I became more hopeless, I applied for welfare from 1948 onwards…it only paid the rent for one small, poorly-furnished room…at the impossibility of an apartment rental…I gave up assistance in September of last year, and have since been keeping my head above water by working on magazines and other written works...' Ultimately, Paula received nothing from her brother's estate, which he had bequeathed to the German State in his final hours before committing suicide with Eva Braun in the Fuhrerbunker. The German courts upheld his will, thus gaining for Germany Hitler's remaining personal and real property, as well as the rights to 'Mein Kampf', his speeches, and his other writings. Also present are about 20+ letters, copies of letters, etc. (none originally signed by Paula Hitler) negotiating the sale of her memoir of her infamous brother. A 6 x 8 press photo of the two Hitlers, a small postwar photo of Paula, her obituary from American sources, news articles concerning other Hitler relatives, etc. A most important, historic, and enlightening account!