Braun, Friedrich “Fritz” and Franziska “Fanny” Kronberger-Braun.

Braun, Friedrich, born 17-09-1879 in Munich and Franziska “Fanny” Braun-Kronberger, born 12-12-1885, in Munich, are Eva’s parents.

Adolf Eichmann  discovered that the Braun’s were 1/32 Jews according the Nazi races laws, but Hitler never knew this. Braun was a quiet obstinate man, with a pipe, a glass of beer and the cat on his knees.

Franziska, Fanny, Kronburger, born 12-12-1885 in Munich and had three sisters and one brother. She was six years younger than Fritz and lived in Munich for much of her young life, where she was a seamstress. Fanny was a handsome lady and a ski champion in 1905, they married in 1909. Fritz Braun expected a healthy boy as his wife was pregnant of the second, after Ilse, born in 1909 and his name would be Rudolf, after the archduke Rudolf von Habsburg. Be alas for him it was a girl, born on 06-02-1912, at 02.30 in the morning and he had to find another name. They didn’t want a catholic name and so she became Eva Anna Paula Braun . They got a third child again a daughter named Margarete Bertha “Gretl”

  born 31-08-1915. The couple divorced in 1921. In 1922 she remarried because of financial problems, most likely due to hyperinflation. After leaving school Gretl joined her sister, Eva, as an assistant in the studio of Heinrich Hoffmann . Gretl was a very enthousiastic member of the inner social circle of Hitler at the Berghof. Hitler explained to her at length why he detested smoking, but she would not give up the habit. Gretl fell for Hitler’s SS Obersturmbannführer Fritz Darges,  but he was suddenly dismissed by Hitler and posted to command a unit on the Eastern Front following an insubordinate comment at a meeting in 1944. It is told that  on 18-07-1944, during a strategy conference in the Wolfsschanze, a fly began buzzing around the room, allegedly landing on Hitler’s shoulder and on the surface of a map several times. Irritated, Hitler ordered Darges to dispatch the nuisance. Darges suggested that, as it was an airborne pest, the job should go to the Luftwaffe adjutant, Nicolaas von Below . Hitler took Darges aside, dismissed him on the spot and had him transferred to the Eastern Front. Darges died old age 96 on 25-10-2000 in Celle and von Below died age 76 on 24-07-1983 in Detmold.. Gretl Braun married SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein (see Waldemar Fegelein)  who served as Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler’s   , liaison officer on Hitler’s staff, on 03-06-1944. Their wedding took place at the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg with Hitler, Himmler, and Martin Bormann  as witnesses. Traudl Junge

complained that even after marriage Fegelein continued to try to seduce the secretaries. Fegelein was popular socially, particularly with women. He could be funny, amusing, and charming. After his marriage to Gretl, Eva

was glad to have someone in the entourage with whom she could dance and flirt, as Hitler was distant in social situations and refrained from publicly showing affection for her. Thereafter, Fegelein worked hard to develop a friendship with Hitler’s powerful private secretary, Martin Bormann. Fegelein “never missed” Bormann’s drinking parties and told Junge that the only things that mattered were “his career and a life full of fun.” Fegelein was shot for desertion in the closing days of World War II, found with some mistress in bed. Gretl became the sister-in-law of the Nazi dictator following his marriage to Eva, less than 40 hours before they committed together. Gretl Braun married Kurt Berlinghoff, a textile distributor, on 06-02-1954 in Munich, They had one daughter named Eva Barbara

.     Gretl died on 10-10-1987 in Steingaden, Bavaria, aged 72. Kurt  Berlinghoff died on 04-01-1999, age 91 in Steingaden..

. Ilse Ruth Braun, born 1915 in Munich, had no involvement in politics. Unlike her sisters Eva and Gretl, she a very intelligent journalist, was friendly with Jewish employer Dr. Martin Levy Marx as a receptionist and was not a member of Hitler’s inner circle or a regular visitor to the Berghof in Bavaria, though she fled there at the end of the war. She loved to dance, and became a European amateur champion in ballroom dancing. Ilse Braun married Dr. Fucke-Michaels in 1942. The couple moved to Breslau, where she was employed by theSchlesische Zeitung, Paper. Ilse Braun lived with her mother in the family home in Rühpolding in Upper Bavaria after her father’s death in 1964. She died of cancer in Munich on 28-06-1979, and is buried in Rüpolding, next to her niece, Eva Barbara Fegelein, daughter of Gretl Braun. She had no children. Eva “Evi” Barbara Fegelein born 05-05-1945 after her father’s death committed suicide by E606, a toxic substance used in weedkiller and insecticide on 08-04-1971, age, 25,   after her boyfriend was killed in an automobile accident sometime in 1975.

 In 1939 Ilse Braun met Adolf Hitler for the first time: “Hitler came towards me, took my hand, and raised it to his lips. His eyes were sky-blue, intense in their gaze, striking but always fixed, immobile. I was slightly disappointed, for I had imagined a more imposing man, more like the portraits that were displayed everywhere. He was always gesticulating dramatically with his hand. I examined his hands. They were very white, sensitive like those of a musician, not very masculine, but attractive…. There was no dancing. Hitler detested and consequently banned this form of amusement.”  Ilse later wrote: “We Braun girls were not very communicative when it came to the details of our private lives. Even among ourselves, in the sanctum of our bedroom, we rarely spoke about our relations with men. There was a very strong barrier of puritanism, perhaps because of our convert education, perhaps because of the Victorian ideas of our parents. I knew that Eva sometimes went out with Hitler, but I knew nothing about the state of her feelings.”

Eva met Hitler, working in the photographer shop of Heinrich Hoffmann 

and was friends with his daughter Henriette Hoffmann, who later married Baldur von Schirach,

the Hitler youth leader,

Fritz was a catholic teacher and not at all charmed of the nationalism and was not happy in the beginning that his daughter saw Adolf Hitler. He was not a member of the Nazi party as he found that Hitler was not the right man for Germany. When Fritz Braun was considered for promotion to deputy director of the school where he taught, the director discovered that he was still not a member of the Nazi party. Since he was aware of Eva’s friendship with the Führer, he thought it was ridiculous that her father was not a party member. Fritz was still not convinced. That’s why he wasn’t promoted. Later, when Hitler’s policies reduced unemployment and seem to benefit ordinary German citizens, Fritz silently applied for party membership but did not spread the word. Eva found out when an attempt was made on Hitler’s life in the night of 08-11-1939 in the Bürgerbraukeller

 in Munich, by Johann Georg Elser, a German furniture maker. One of the injured, much to Eva’s surprise, was her father. Not only had he joined the Nazi party, but Hitler had granted him a green membership card, which gave him the right to attend the meeting of the veterans. Unfortunately, this favor had an unpleasant backlash and Fritz Braun was seriously injured by the explosion. Eva was very shocked when she heard the news, but later when her father had recovered, she was terribly proud that her father had also taken part in the meeting and had been injured for the sake of the Fuehrer. Fritz still got his promotion at school.  When Hitler became more famous and at last dictator, the advantages and benefits were too strong and they took the opportunity of pleasant life

.    

They became regular visitors on the Berghof and Fritz even joined the army, with a beautiful uniform. Eva committed suicide on 30-04-1945, together with her husband Adolf Hitler.

Eva Braun was very fond of her two Scottish Terrier dogs named Negus and Stasi and they feature in her home movies.  She usually kept them away from Hitler’s German  shepherd, Blondi.  Blondi was killed by one of the entourage on 29-04-1945 when Hitler ordered that one of the cyanide capsules obtained for Braun and Hitler’s suicide the next day be tested on the dog. Braun’s dogs  and Blondi’s puppies were shot by Hitler’s dog handler, Feldwebel Fritz Tornow on 30 April.

 On 02-05-1945 the Soviet Army took control of the bunker complex. Tornow was among only five living occupants

Death and burial ground of Braun, Friedrich “Fritz” and Franziska “Fanny” Kronberger.

The Braun’s  family survived the war. Her mother, Franziska, died at age 96 in 13-01-1976, having lived out her days in an old farmhouse in Rühpolding Bavaria. Her father Fritz died 12 years earlier at the age of 84, on 22-01-1964. They are buried on the village cemetery of Rühpolding and the opposite grave is of WWII Lieutenant General of the Infantry, Friedrich Fürst.

Gerrit Kempas from Germany reported me that the gravestone of the Braun couple meanwhile is removed and sent me a photo of the empty spot.

Message(s), tips or interesting graves for the webmaster:    robhopmans@outlook.com