The Lost Life of Eva Braun: A Biography

by Angela Lambert

Overview

The inner lives of the top Nazis and their families, Hitler's famous mistress—-ultimately his wife—-comes to three-dimensional life in this penetrating and critically acclaimed biography.

She left her convent school at the age of seventeen and met Hitler a few months later. She became his mistress before age twenty. They remained in an exclusive sexual relationship from 1932 until their joint suicides at the end of the war. Hitler's chauffeur called her "the unhappiest woman in Germany." The Führer humiliated her in public while the top Nazis' wives despised her. Yet Albert Speer said: "She has been much maligned. She was very shy, modest. A man's woman: gay, gentle, and kind; incredibly undemanding . . . a restful sort of girl." This authoritative biography, only the second life of Eva Braun written in English, based on detailed new research, opens a new window on life at the cold heart of the Nazi leadership.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312378653
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/15/2008
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	544
Sales rank:	540,109
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.21(d)

About the Author

Angela Lambert was born to a German mother and an English father. She studied at Oxford and worked as a civil servant, journalist, and TV reporter. Her first book was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize.

Table of Contents

Introduction     ix
Never Such Innocence Again
The First Strange and Fatal Interview     3
Eva's Family     16
Eva, Goethe, Schubert and Bambi     26
Tedious Lessons and Rebellious Games     35
Hitler's Childhood     55
Adolf to Fuhrer, Schoolgirl to Mistress
Eva Becomes Fraulein Braun, Hitler Becomes Fuhrer     71
Bavaria, the German Idyll     91
Geli and Hitler and Eva     100
Dying to Be with Hitler     125
Diary of a Desperate Woman     148
The Photograph Albums and Home Movies     161
Mistress-in-Waiting
Eva Leaves Home     177
Mistress     191
1936 - Germany on Display: The Olympics     211
The Best Years: Idling at the Berghof
The Women on the Berg     225
Three, Three, the Rivals ...     235
1937-9 - Eva at the Berghof: 'A Golden Cage'     253
1938-9 - The Last Summers of Peace     271
The War Years
1939 - War Approaches     281
Waiting for Hitler to Win the War     298
Eva, Gretl and Fegelein     311
1941-3 - What Could Eva Have Known?     323
... What Could Eva Have Done?     340
What Hitler Did     358
Culmination
February 1944-January 1945 - Eva at the Berghof with Gertraud     371
The Stauffenberg Plot and its Consequences     390
In the Bunker     401
Hitler's Last Stand     433
Frau Hitler for Thirty-six Hours     451
Aftermath     460
Acknowledgements     467
Select Bibliography     470
Appendix A     476
Index     477

Editorial Reviews

[Lambert's] behind-the-scenes tale of an extraordinary man in love with a most ordinary woman is a revelation.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A fascinating read.” —Booklist

“This book offers new insight into the cold heart of Nazi leadership and presents a remarkable, fully developed portrait of a woman who happened to share her life with one of the most hated men in history.” —Tucson Citizen

From the Publisher

Lambert (whose novel, A Rather English Marriage was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize) cites the remarkable fact that while Hitler has over 700 biographies, his long-time mistress and wife (for 36 hours), Eva Braun, enjoys just two in English-the first long out of print and now this one. Since her death at age 33 in the bunker alongside her beloved Adolf, Braun has been dismissed as a vivacious but flighty and not overly intelligent companion with a perverse adoration of the fuehrer. In her magnificent, sensitive and finely written bio, Lambert does not wholly undermine this perception, but for the first time Braun emerges as a fully rounded, complex individual both liberated and imprisoned by her relationship with Hitler, a relationship assiduously dissected here and that exemplifies the meaning of "opposites attract." She was, for instance, the only person allowed to smoke in the abstemious fuehrer's presence, and she was as Catholic as Hitler was militantly self-worshiping. No one in Hitler's retinue ever understood their mutual attraction, though perhaps Albert Speer was closest when he said that for Hitler Braun was "incredibly undemanding"; as for Braun's infatuation, Lambert herself remains bemused, but her behind-the-scenes tale of an extraordinary man in love with a most ordinary woman is a revelation. 32 pages of b&w photos. (Jan.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

While hundreds of books have explored Hitler's life, only one in the English language-Nerin E. Gun's Eva Braun: Hitler's Mistress-has heretofore studied Eva Braun. Lambert (Unquiet Souls: The Indian Summer of the British Aristocracy, 1880-1918) attempts to delve into Braun's world, feeling that her own gender and background (her mother was German and a contemporary of Eva's) give her a unique perspective. Unfortunately, she relies heavily on Gun's work and doesn't give enough of her own mother's point of view to make a very meaningful comparative study. Eva is sympathetically portrayed as a typical German woman: loyal and kind, unconcerned with politics, and often suicidal because of her "secret life" with Hitler. While some parts attempt to dispel the myth of Eva's shallowness, other parts reinforce her vanity and lack of compassion for her countrypeople (e.g., excessive luxuries at the Berghof, Hitler's Bavarian home, during the lean years of the war). Lambert does utilize personal interviews with Braun's cousin, Gertraud Weisker, who spent time with Braun at the Berghof toward the end of the war. For this reason alone, libraries with Gun's work should purchase Lambert's as well. Recommended for academic libraries.-Maria C. Bagshaw, Lake Erie Coll. Lib., Painesville, OH Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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