Eva Braun's new biography sheds light on her influence on Hitler

London, Feb 10 (ANI): A new biography of Hitler's wife Eva Braun gives an insight into the character of the woman who was largely unknown to the world until after the fall of the Third Reich.ccording to Germany's Spiegel magazine, Heike Gvrtemaker's book Eva Braun: Life With Hitler is "the first scientifically researched biography to correct the image of the dumb blonde at the side of the mass murderer".

Gvrtemaker has left the gamut of commonly held beliefs about Hitler and Braun aside and made a fine use of material and anecdotes supported by documentation or eyewitness accounts.

Her book portrays Braun as a fiercely loyal, independent thinker, an image quite different from Hitler's public proclamations about "the fairer sex".

Throughout his reign, Hitler maintained the only "bride" he could put up with was Germany. He married Braun the day before they committed suicide together in a Berlin bunker on 30 April 1945.

And Ms Gvrtemaker describes how the blue-eyed blonde captivated Hitler until the end.

"She was completely different from the standard portrait of her. She was capricious, but an uncompromising proponent of absolute loyalty to the dictator. She led a life of which was totally the opposite of the that of the propaganda films of the Third Reich," the Scotsman quoted her, as writing in the book.

She goes on: "Since Eva was neither housewife nor mother, and did not want in all probability to be, she corresponded to the needs of a man 23 years older than her, who was emotionally retarded with dubious habits. But she was far more than just an attractive young thing."

The sexual relationship between Braun and Hitler is brought in an account of when she saw a photo of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sitting on the sofa at Hitler's Munich flat in 1938. She told friends: "If only he knew the history of this sofa."

Not only does the book rubbish Braun's status as the "arm candy", but it also reveals that she shared Hitler's passions for architecture. According to Gvrtemaker she was deeply involved with his plans to turn his native Linz into the artistic capital of the Reich.

Gvrtemaker said: "She was never as banal as she was painted."

Braun attempted suicide in 1932 and then again in 1935. This incident brought her and Hitler closer together, believes Gvrtemaker. Soon after, he moved her into their mountain home - the Berghof - in the Bavarian Alps, where she became his full-time mistress.

Gvrtemaker writes: "She was loyal to him unto death...It was this unconditional loyalty that Hitler probably held in higher esteem than everything else."

Near end of the war Hitler said: "Only my shepherd dog and Miss Braun are faithful to me and belong to me."

Braun was to a schoolteacher father in 1912 and later became an assistant to Heinrich Hoffmann, the photographer who became rich as the F|hrer's personal cameraman. She first met Hitler in 1929. (ANI)