The real death of Hitler. Without his sexual problems, Hitler would not have become the Fuhrer

Adolf Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin. Later, the remains of the dictator were discovered by the Soviet military and taken to Moscow.

But the very fact of Hitler’s death is still shrouded in all sorts of secrets and mysteries. There are many theories besides official version, according to which Hitler’s remains were not genuine, he did not commit suicide or remained alive at all.

26 April. Soviet troops occupied three quarters of Berlin. Hitler, who has not lost hope, is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery.

Together with him in the bunker are his mistress Eva Braun, Goebbels and his family, Chief of the General Staff Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, and guards.

According to an officer of the General Staff, on this day Hitler was scary picture: he moved with difficulty and awkwardly, throwing his upper body forward and dragging his legs... The Fuhrer had difficulty maintaining his balance. Left hand did not obey him, and the right one was constantly trembling... Hitler's eyes were bloodshot...

In the evening, one of the best pilots in Germany, Hanna Reitsch, fanatically devoted to Hitler, arrived at the bunker. She later recalled that the Fuhrer invited her to his place and said: “Hannah, you are one of those who will die with me. Each of us has an ampoule of poison.”

He handed the ampoule to Hannah with the words: “I don’t want any of us to fall into the hands of the Russians, and I don’t want the Russians to get our bodies. Eva’s body and mine will be burned.”

As Reich testified, during the conversation Hitler presented a terrible picture: almost blindly rushing from wall to wall with paper in trembling hands. “A completely disintegrated person,” the pilot stated.

April 29. The wedding of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun took place. The process took place in accordance with the law: a marriage contract was drawn up and the wedding ceremony was performed.

Witnesses, as well as Krebs, Goebbels's wife, Hitler's adjutants, General Burgdorf and Colonel Belov, secretaries and a cook were invited to the wedding celebration. And after a small feast, Hitler retired to draw up his will.

April 30. The Fuhrer's last day has arrived. After lunch, on Hitler's orders, his personal driver, SS Standartenführer Kempka, delivers canisters with 200 liters of gasoline to the garden of the Imperial Chancellery.

This is the last photograph of Hitler during his lifetime, taken on April 30. On the threshold of a bunker in the courtyard of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, the Fuhrer was captured by one of the officers of his personal security.

In the meeting room, Hitler and Brown say goodbye to Bormann, Goebbels, Burgdorf, Krebs, Axmann, and the Fuhrer's secretaries Junge and Weichelt who came here.

According to the first version, based on the testimony of Hitler's personal valet, Linge, the Fuhrer and Eva Braun shot themselves at 15.30. There is even a photo of Hitler's body with a bullet mark, the authenticity of which is in question.

When Linge and Bormann entered the room, Hitler was allegedly sitting on a sofa in the corner, a revolver lay on the table in front of him, and blood was flowing from his right temple. The dead Eva Braun, who was in another corner, dropped her revolver to the floor.

Another version (accepted by almost all historians) says: Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun poisoned themselves potassium cyanide. In addition, before his death, the Fuhrer also poisoned two beloved shepherd dogs.

By order of Bormann, the bodies of the deceased were wrapped in blankets, taken out into the yard, and then doused with gasoline and burned in a shell crater. Since they burned poorly, the SS men buried the half-burnt corpses in the ground.

The bodies of Hitler and Brown were discovered by Red Army soldier Churakov on May 4, but for some reason they lay for 4 whole days without examination: they were taken for examination and identification to one of the Berlin morgues on May 8.

An external examination gave reason to believe that the charred corpses of a man and a woman were the remains of the Fuhrer and his wife. But, as is known, Hitler and Braun had several doubles, so the Soviet military authorities intended to conduct a thorough investigation.

The question of whether the person taken to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers.

According to an eyewitness, the man's corpse was in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 and 53 cm wide and high, respectively. A burnt piece of yellowish knitted material, similar to a shirt, was found on the body.

During his lifetime, Hitler repeatedly visited his dentist, as evidenced by a large number of fillings and gold crowns on the remaining areas of the jaws. They were confiscated and transferred to the SMERSH-3 department of the Shock Army.

On May 11, 1945, dentist Gaisermann described in detail the anatomical data of Hitler's oral cavity, which coincided with the results of a study conducted on May 8.

There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or illnesses on the fire-damaged body. But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the mouth. A characteristic smell of bitter almonds emanated from the corpse.

The same ampoules were discovered during the autopsy of 10 more corpses of Hitler's associates. It was determined that death was caused by cyanide poisoning.

On the same day, an autopsy was performed on the corpse of a woman, presumably that of Eva Braun. Despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, traces of a shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found in the chest.

Military intelligence officers packed the remains in wooden boxes and buried them in the ground near Berlin. However, soon the headquarters of the security officers changed their location, and the boxes followed suit.

They were buried again in a new place, and then, during the next move, they were removed from the ground.

She found a permanent refuge at a military base near the city of Magdeburg. Here the boxes lay in the ground until 1970, when the territory of the base came under the jurisdiction of the GDR.

On March 13, 1970, KGB head Yuri Andropov gave the order to destroy the remains. They were cremated and the ashes were scattered by helicopter.

Only the dictator's jaws and a fragment of his skull with a bullet hole were left for history.

This material evidence of Adolf Hitler's death was sent to Moscow and placed in the KGB archives.

Rumors that Adolf Hitler was alive appeared almost immediately after his death. The British, French, and Americans doubted the death of the dictator. There was persistent talk about amazing rescue Fuhrer.

It was rumored that he fled from Berlin abroad along the so-called “rat trail”. It was a “window” on the border with Switzerland. Through it, high-ranking officials of the Third Reich with forged documents made their way to a neutral country, and from there they were sent to fascist Spain or Latin American countries.

Regarding the dictator's flight to South America There are even a number of FBI “documents” regarding the investigation of this fact.

However, most historians continue to argue that Hitler had no chance of escaping Berlin.

In response, they put forward a version that Hitler might not have been in the bunker under the Reich Chancellery at all. On this issue, there is a version that all tactical issues were decided by the Fuhrer’s double. It was he who was shot on April 30, 1945.

Eva Braun was also killed along with him, so that the death of the country's main Nazi would look more natural. Hitler himself, at this time, again sailed in a submarine towards South America, changing his appearance.

Similar versions are expressed today.

Newspapers wrote about them, publishing supposedly the surviving clothes of the Fuhrer, in which he arrived in Peru or Paraguay.

There were even photos of the surviving Hitler, calmly facing old age incognito.

But historians argue in response that the Fuhrer could not be called a coward. His courage is evidenced by the fact that he volunteered for the front in the First World War and was awarded several Iron Crosses for bravery, as well as having wounds received in battle.

After this, it is simply illogical to declare that at the most difficult moment for the nation the Fuhrer flees cowardly, leaving a double in his place.

The fact that Hitler was in the bunker is also supported by the fact that only after his death did the Germans put forward a proposal for a truce. Having been refused, Goebbels committed suicide, poisoning his entire family. Bormann did the same a few hours later.

In 2009, the head of the Department of Registration and Archival Funds of the FSB of Russia, Vasily Khristoforov, said that in 1946 a special commission carried out additional excavations at the site where the corpses of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered. At the same time, “the left parietal part of the skull with an exit bullet hole” was discovered.

In 1948, the “finds” from the Fuhrer’s bunker (several burnt objects, as well as fragments of jaws and teeth, which were used to identify the corpses of Hitler, Eva Braun and the Goebbels) were sent to Moscow, to the investigative department of the 2nd Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security.

Since 1954, by order of the Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Serov, all these items and materials were stored in a special order in a special room in the departmental archive.

Since 2009, Hitler’s jaws have been kept in the FSB archives, and skull fragments have been kept in the State Archives.

However, a DNA analysis conducted in 2009 by employees of an American university from Hartford (Connecticut) destroyed the entire evidence base regarding the death of the dictator. According to their version, the badly damaged skull bone did not belong to Adolf Hitler at all. She didn't belong to a man at all. It was a fragment of a woman's skull. Moreover, the woman at the time of her death was in the prime of her life - 35-40 years old.

This statement caused a big scandal. FSB officers completely refused to acknowledge its authenticity. And later they also expressed a version of the error Soviet soldiers who collected the remains.

It looks like this matter will never be resolved. Although, nowadays, most often, the “surviving” Hitler and his doubles become the heroes of memes rather than major scientific disputes.

HITLER Adolf (pseudonym, real name Schilkgruber (1889-1945) - leader of the German National Socialist Party, head of the German state in 1933-1945. In April 1945, Allied troops completed the defeat of Germany. Hitler's idea of ​​life collapsed - the idea of ​​world domination of the Aryan nation.

Albert Speer, head of war production in Nazi Germany, says that a few days before his death, Hitler shouted: “If the war is lost, the German people should not exist. There is no need to worry about this people surviving their defeat. Destroy all factories, bridges, food. This people turned out to be weak and that means the future belongs to the Eastern people, who showed themselves to be stronger.”

Here's a short chronicle last days Fuhrer.

26 April. Soviet troops occupied three quarters of Berlin, but Hitler still hopes for something... He is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery, anxiously awaiting news. By evening, however, it becomes clear that the 9th and 12th armies are not capable of liberating the capital. Together with Hitler in the bunker are his mistress Eva Braun, Goebbels and his family, Chief of the General Staff Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, guards... According to an officer of the General Staff, at that time “physically Hitler presented a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and clumsily, throwing his upper body forward, dragging his legs... He could hardly maintain his balance. His left hand did not obey him, and his right hand was constantly trembling... Hitler's eyes were bloodshot..."

In the evening, one of the best pilots in Germany, Hanna Reitsch, fanatically devoted to Hitler, arrived at the bunker. According to the pilot’s story, the Fuhrer invited her to his place and quietly said:

“Hannah, you are one of those who will die with me.” Each of us has an ampoule of poison. — He handed the ampoule to Hannah. “I don’t want any of us to fall into the hands of the Russians, and I don’t want the Russians to get our bodies.” Eve's body and mine will be burned.

Hanna Reitsch testifies that during the conversation Hitler presented a tragicomic picture: he rushed almost blindly from wall to wall with a paper in his trembling hands; then he suddenly stopped, sat down at the table, and moved flags around the map, indicating non-existent armies. “A completely disintegrated person,” stated Reich.

April 27. Personal disintegration and insanity did not prevent Hitler from ordering the opening of the floodgates on the Spree River and the flooding of the metro station when he learned that Soviet troops had penetrated the Berlin metro. Fulfillment of the order led to the death of thousands of people in the metro: wounded German soldiers, women and children.

April 29. Goebbels and Bormann attend the wedding of Hitler and Eva Braun as witnesses. The process takes place in accordance with the law: a marriage contract is drawn up and the wedding ceremony is performed. Witnesses, as well as Krebs, Goebbels' wife. Hitler's adjutants General Burgdorf and Colonel Belov, secretaries and cooks are invited to the wedding celebration. After a small feast, Hitler retires to draw up his will.

April 30. The last day of the Fuhrer is coming. After lunch, on Hitler's orders, his personal driver, SS Standartenführer Kempka, delivers canisters with 200 liters of gasoline to the garden of the Imperial Chancellery. In the meeting room, Hitler and Eva Braun say goodbye to Bormann, Goebbels, Burgdorf, Krebs, Axmann, and the Fuhrer's secretaries Junge and Weichelt who came here. Then everyone except Hitler and his wife goes out into the corridor.

Further events are presented in two main versions.

According to the first version, based on the testimony of Hitler's personal valet Linge, the Fuhrer and Eva Braun shot themselves at 15.30 minutes. When Linge and Bormann entered the room, Hitler was allegedly sitting on a sofa in the corner, a revolver lay on the table in front of him, and blood was flowing from his right temple. The dead Eva Braun, who was in another corner, dropped her revolver to the floor.

Another version (accepted by almost all historians) says: Hitler and Eva Braun were poisoned with potassium cyanide. Before his death, Hitler also poisoned two of his beloved shepherd dogs.

By order of Bormann, the bodies of the dead were wrapped in blankets, taken out into the yard, doused with gasoline and burned in a shell crater. True, they burned poorly, and, in the end, the SS men buried the half-burnt corpses in the ground.

The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered by Red Army soldier I.D. Churakov on May 4, but for some reason they lay for 4 whole days without examination. They were taken for examination and identification to one of the Berlin morgues on May 8, 1945. An external examination gave reason to believe that the charred corpses of a man and a woman were the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. But, as you know, the Fuhrer and his mistress had several doubles, and therefore the Soviet military authorities wanted to conduct a thorough investigation.

The question of whether the person taken to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers. Here is what one of them says about the circumstances of the case:

“The man’s corpse was in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 and 53 cm wide and high, respectively.

A piece of yellowish knitted material, similar to a shirt, was found on the corpse, burnt at the edges.

Due to the fact that the corpse was charred in to a large extent, one could only guess about age and height: about 50-60 years. Height - 165 cm.

During his lifetime, Hitler repeatedly visited his dentist, as evidenced by the large number of fillings and gold crowns on the remaining parts of his jaws.

They were confiscated and transferred to the SMERSH-Z department of the Shock Army. From the interrogation report of the dentist K. Gaiserman, it was clear that the jaws belonged specifically to the Fuhrer. On May 11, 1945, Geisermann described in detail the anatomical data of Hitler's oral cavity, which coincided with the results of the study conducted on May 8. But still, in our opinion, it is impossible to completely exclude a deliberate game on the part of those who could be behind it.

There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or illnesses on the body, which had been significantly altered by the fire.

But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the mouth. The smell of bitter almonds emanated from the corpse. The same ampoules were discovered during the autopsy of 10 more corpses of Hitler's associates.

It was determined that death was caused by cyanide poisoning.

On the same day, an autopsy was performed on the corpse of a woman, “presumably,” as stated in the acts, belonging to Hitler’s wife, Eva Braun.

It was also difficult to establish the age: between 30 and 40 years. Height is about 150 cm.

The corpse could also be identified only by the gold bridge of the lower jaw.

But, apparently, the causes of death were different: despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, traces of a shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found in the chest."

The remains of Hitler and Braun were examined by Soviet military forensic experts and pathologists; To date, they have all died, and therefore it is difficult (almost impossible) to know the fate of Hitler’s remains. The writer Elena Rzhevskaya, who during the war was a translator for the 1st Belorussian Front, writes in her book “There Was a War...” that these remains were sent to Moscow. However, no one has yet been able to find their traces in the USSR.

Faces of history

The establishment of the Nazi dictatorship was preceded by the short century of the Weimar Republic. This was the first German democratic republic, established after the defeat of Germany in the First World War. It would seem that there has been a rise and flowering of the democratic idea, democratic institutions and the spirit of democracy.

“After the end of the First World War, nothing seemed as indisputable as the victory of the democratic idea. The idea of ​​democracy rose above the peoples undeniably and irrefutably, as the unifying principle of the era,” wrote I. Fest, Hitler’s biographer.

However, not everything was as rosy as one might think. The point is that the transition to democratic rule was not an independent decision of German society, but a necessity imposed on it after the defeat in the First World War. One of the conditions set by the Entente upon the conclusion peace treaties, there was a demand for the introduction of democracy not only in Germany, but also in the countries that took part in the war.

The result of the forced introduction of democratic ideas was not long in coming. The short period of flourishing of democracy in many European countries was replaced by the establishment of fascist, military-monarchical, bureaucratic and authoritarian regimes. By the end of the 1930s. civil society survived only in 13 European countries, while in the rest of Europe, in 16 countries, autocratic regimes began to flourish.

Not only in Germany, but also in Austria, Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, state restructuring was carried out under pressure from the Entente. As a result, the initial triumph of liberal politics was soon replaced by its opposite, degenerating into authoritarian-nationalist and totalitarian regimes. The crisis of democracy that occurred after 1917 was widespread. And already in the 20s. T. Mann believed that the true development trend modern society is fascism. He spoke of fascism as a disease of the time, “which is everywhere at home and from which no country is free.” Even in the USA and England in those years it became good form to strive for anti-parliamentarism. W. Churchill, D. B. Shaw, I. Stravinsky, D. Lloyd George, M. Gandhi had sympathies for fascism.

So, the Weimar Republic, from the very beginning, at the stage of its formation, was based on unsteady, shaky ground. The inhabitants of this republic themselves called the existing system a “system”, since its political rules and customs were completely alien to the needs and interests of the German people. They talked about a “republic without republicans”, “improvised democracy”, “the system”. All this led to the great economic crisis of 1929, the resolution of which was simply necessary. Someone had to appear on the political arena who could neutralize the accumulated contradictions of the young democratic society. And this man was the Austrian Adolf Hitler.

As a child, the future fascist Fuhrer had to learn first-hand about the difficulties of a miserable existence. When Adolf was 14 years old, his father passed away. A sister and two brothers died early, and of the five children of Alois and Klara Hitler, only Adolf and his sister Paula remained. For some time they lived on a small pension received for the deceased breadwinner. And five years later, my mother also died of cancer. This event greatly influenced the young man, who saw his mother as the closest and dearest person.

Hitler's mother prophesied a spiritual education for her son, seeing him in his dreams as a priest. Adolf himself really wanted to become famous artist. After the death of his mother, he decided to study painting. Several times Adolf Hitler tried to enter the Vienna Academy fine arts, but fails every time. This seriously undermined his already meager financial resources. As a result, he sank to the very bottom of his life, ending up in a men's homeless shelter.

At that time, the ideas of the Viennese anti-Semitic agitators G. Schönerer and K. Lueger were fashionable. The first advocated such social changes as universal suffrage, higher wages, the right to strike, and an 8-hour working day. The second advocated an organic social structure, the elimination of interest-based slavery and capitalism. There was one big “but” in their ideas. They both considered Jews to be the culprits of all the ills of German society. The inquisitive young man could not ignore the two popular agitators of contemporary Vienna, having learned a lot from their speeches.

As soon as the First began World War, Hitler did not hesitate to volunteer for the German army. He served on the front line and managed to enjoy all the “delights” of trench life. He was a gallant soldier and earned the Order of the Iron Cross, 1st class, which was practically not awarded to privates. Among his fellow soldiers he was in good standing for his courage and composure, which manifested itself even in the most hopeless situations. True, Hitler only managed to rise to the rank of corporal, but only because his immediate superior believed that Hitler would never be able to create an atmosphere of respect and submission around himself - which, as it turned out later, he was deeply mistaken. Adolf fought in twelve battles of the First World War and was wounded three times. Out of 250 people original composition of the company in which Hitler served, only he lived to see the end of the war, which gave the already mature man a feeling of being chosen.

It was then, on the battlefields, that Hitler vowed to himself never to return to the slums. And he kept his promise. Subsequently, I. Fest wrote: “The history of Hitler’s career is a projection of the failure of the individual onto the entire people. For his misfortunes, deprivations, disappointments that accompanied Hitler’s life, he, before the German people, found a way to overcome them, and he imposed this formula, this method of overcoming all misfortunes and humiliations on the whole people.” Hitler really wanted a great future for Germany, he cherished dream was to see Germany again free, independent, focusing on national values country. He wanted her to get up from her knees, just as he wanted the same for himself. He found ways for his own imaginary rehabilitation and made every effort for a similar rehabilitation of his country. Hitler was so carried away by this idea that Lloyd George in 1936 in the Daily Telegraph called him the German George Washington, the greatest German of the 20th century, the most important person in Europe since Napoleon and the greatest ascetic since Attila and the Huns.

Almost everything was attributed to Hitler known to science mental disorders. Even those people who never met Hitler made conclusions about his mental health. There is nothing to say about the dubiousness of such diagnoses, but, of course, they were based on certain facts of the Fuhrer’s biography, which would be a mistake to omit.

There is some evidence that during the First World War, while at the front, Hitler suddenly became blind. True, the blindness turned out to be temporary, and vision was quickly restored. Some researchers suggest that temporary blindness arose during nervous soil. This gave rise to some psychiatrists in subsequent years viewing Hitler as a hysterical psychopath. Although few took into account that the psyche of any person who finds himself on the front line is subjected to a severe test.

Soviet researchers, as a rule, referred to the opinion of a famous doctor who lived in Germany, psychiatrist Arthur Kronfeld. Even during the times of “friendly” relations between the USSR and Germany, Kronfeld emigrated to our country. In the Soviet Union, he immediately announced his diagnosis of Hitler: an antisocial hysterical psychopath. At first, the harsh statements of the German psychiatrist were not taken into account by the Soviet press and were not published in Soviet Russia. But as soon as the war began, the German emigrant was immediately remembered and the brochure “Bloody Gang of Degenerates (Hitler and Company)” was published. For many years, Kronfeld’s opinion became fundamental for Soviet researchers.

Twice in his life Adolf Hitler underwent a serious medical examination. The first time was in 1914, when I decided to volunteer to go to the front as part of the Bavarian regiment. Then the commission was unable to detect any serious illnesses in young Hitler. A few years later, in 1923, after the war and the wounds received at the front, after the “beer hall putsch” he staged, Adolf Hitler came under the close attention of doctors for the second time. Now the examination was carried out more thoroughly. After the suppression of the putsch, by court decision, doctors repeatedly carefully examined Hitler and a number of his closest associates. And this time the future leader of Germany was recognized as fully sane and capable of answering for his actions. None mental illness was not found.

Forensic doctors only noted that the defiant behavior of defendants in the courtroom and in other public places may be due to their low level culture and the ideology that was developed by the National Socialist Party. Of the abnormal behavior, violations that were practically invisible to a non-specialist, located on the border of normality and pathology, and in no way related to schizophrenia or other pronounced deviations, were noted. This was expressed in the way of thinking, defiant behavior, the value system, the views they put forward and the ways of communicating these views to the general public.

In 1933, after the National Socialists came to power, Hitler, who had already become Chancellor of Germany, was examined by the prominent German psychiatrist Karl Wilmans. The new chancellor again experienced short-term, but rather severe blindness, which was the result of emotional and physical stress. What once happened at the front during the First World War was repeated. As soon as Adolf Hitler’s nerves calmed down a little, his blindness disappeared completely without a trace. Only later did it become clear that the Fuhrer began to see worse, but this could well be attributed to normal age-related changes. He never wore glasses, believing that wearing glasses would make him look like an extremely undignified leader of the chosen people. Therefore, all documentation intended for Hitler to read was printed on a special typewriter, whose font was larger than usual. Hitler made speeches without a piece of paper.

An attack of temporary blindness led to the fact that the Fuhrer was examined by another prominent German psychiatrist, Oswald Bumke. The fascists completely trusted him, he fully shared the views of the National Socialists, although at that time he was not a member of this party. Only after many years had passed did Buhmke make a statement: during that examination, he was still unable to decide what predominated more in the personality of the new chancellor - hysteria or paranoia? But both of these mental qualities are not a serious deviation from the norm and can be quite common among ordinary citizens.

Experts in the field of mental and psychological pathologies are inclined to believe that there is no difference between pathological power-hungers who came to unlimited power through force and those who were unable to do this and began an active struggle to overthrow the existing order. big difference. On the same level one can put such famous revolutionaries as Robespierre, Marat, Lenin and others, who fought the authorities for a long time and persistently for more or less noble reasons, and outright tyrants: Caligula, Mussolini, Hitler. Only socio-historical processes and individual characteristics differentiated them, placing them on different sides of the same phenomenon.

The Dutch psychiatrist R. Stolk found among the reasons for the psychopathy of the leader of the German people a huge number of harmful influences that Hitler had to endure throughout his life. This led to serious changes in the emotional-volitional sphere and the emergence of painful features of intellectual activity, causing increased self-hypnosis and a tendency towards various manifestations of mysticism.

There is another opinion that reveals the reasons for Hitler’s abnormal behavior. In 1918, after the defeat of Germany in the First World War, the future leader of the people fell ill with a severe form of epidemic encephalitis, characterized by inflammation of the brain. During Hitler's reign, this case was carefully hidden from the public and became known only in last years. In the middle of the 20th century. In medicine, the prevailing opinion was that the disease suffered by Hitler led to organic brain damage and sharply strengthened the antisocial complexes of the individual. Modern science is inclined to a different opinion: inflammation of the brain during infectious encephalitis leads to autonomic disorders, but not to brain damage.

Hitler was no accident for Germany (or even for Europe). His worldview absorbed all the nightmares of the bourgeois century, using cruel examples of personal tragedies that raised the future tyrant of the century. Hitler felt great fear of their people before the revolution, the “racial psychosis” of the Austrians before the dominance of others, the fears of their compatriots - that they will be defeated in the competition of nations, and the fear of the bourgeoisie - that they are fading into the background.

E. Fromm in his book “Flight from Freedom” wrote: “Nazism is psychological problem, but the psychological factors themselves can be understood only by taking into account their formation under the influence of socio-political factors. Nazism is an economic and political problem, but without taking into account psychological factors it is impossible to understand how he acquired power over an entire people.” And the main one of these psychological factors is the phenomenon of Adolf Hitler. Langer noted that long years Hitler, offended by fate, and defeated In World War I, the people of Germany were to some extent similar. After the end of the war and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the Germans began to perceive their state as a failed country. And the masses blamed the artificially planted and useless republic for all their troubles. That is why millions of Germans dreamed of finding their deliverance in the charismatic personality of the leader of the Social Democrats. Him too for a long time was a loser who wanted with all his might to break out of a series of failures for himself and his long-suffering country.

Perhaps, Nietzsche was able to most accurately sense the appearance on the arena of history of such a personality as Hitler when he wrote: “All great deceivers can notice one phenomenon to which they owe their power. During the very act of deception, under the impression of all kinds of preparations, the mystery of the voice, facial expression, gestures, the environment of the most spectacular scenery, they are overcome by faith in themselves and it is this faith that has such a wonderful and convincing effect on those around them.” In the bygone century, Hitler was undoubtedly the greatest deceiver, first of all of himself and only then of all his listeners.

How did Adolf Hitler die - did he shoot himself or was he poisoned?

HITLER Adolf (pseudonym, real name Schilkgruber) (1889-1945) - leader of the German National Socialist Party, head of the German state in 1933-1945. In April 1945, Allied troops completed the defeat of Germany. Hitler's idea of ​​life collapsed - the idea of ​​world domination of the Aryan nation.

Albert Speer, head of war production in Nazi Germany, says that a few days before his death, Hitler shouted: “If the war is lost, the German people should not exist. There is no need to worry about this people surviving their defeat. Destroy all factories, bridges, food. This people turned out to be weak and that means the future belongs to the Eastern people, who showed themselves to be stronger.”

Here is a brief chronicle of the Fuhrer's last days.

26 April. Soviet troops occupied three quarters of Berlin, but Hitler still hopes for something... He is in a two-story bunker at a depth of 8 meters under the courtyard of the Imperial Chancellery, anxiously awaiting news. By evening, however, it becomes clear that the 9th and 12th armies are not capable of liberating the capital. Together with Hitler in the bunker are his mistress Eva Braun, Goebbels and his family, Chief of the General Staff Krebs, secretaries, adjutants, guards... According to an officer of the General Staff, at that time “physically Hitler presented a terrible picture: he moved with difficulty and clumsily, throwing his upper body forward, dragging his legs... With difficulty he could maintain his balance. His left hand did not obey him, and his right was constantly trembling... Hitler's eyes were bloodshot...".

In the evening, one of the best pilots in Germany, Hanna Reitsch, fanatically devoted to Hitler, arrived at the bunker. According to the pilot’s story, the Fuhrer invited her to his place and quietly said:

“Hannah, you are one of those who will die with me.” Each of us has an ampoule of poison. — He handed the ampoule to Hannah. “I don’t want any of us to fall into the hands of the Russians, and I don’t want the Russians to get our bodies.” Eve's body and mine will be burned.

Hanna Reitsch testifies that during the conversation Hitler presented a tragicomic picture: he rushed almost blindly from wall to wall with a paper in his trembling hands; then he suddenly stopped, sat down at the table, and moved flags around the map, indicating non-existent armies. “A completely disintegrated person,” stated Reich.

April 27. Personal disintegration and insanity did not prevent Hitler from ordering the opening of the floodgates on the Spree River and the flooding of the metro station when he learned that Soviet troops had penetrated the Berlin metro. Fulfillment of the order led to the death of thousands of people in the metro: wounded German soldiers, women and children.

April 29. Goebbels and Bormann attend the wedding of Hitler and Eva Braun as witnesses. The process takes place in accordance with the law: a marriage contract is drawn up and the wedding ceremony is performed. Witnesses, as well as Krebs, Goebbels' wife, Hitler's adjutants General Burgdorf and Colonel Belov, secretaries and cooks are invited to the wedding celebration. After a small feast, Hitler retires to draw up his will.

April 30. The last day of the Fuhrer is coming. After lunch, on Hitler's orders, his personal driver, SS Standartenführer Kempka, delivers canisters with 200 liters of gasoline to the garden of the Imperial Chancellery. In the meeting room, Hitler and Eva Braun say goodbye to Bormann, Goebbels, Burgdorf, Krebs, Axmann, and the Fuhrer's secretaries Junge and Weichelt who came here. Then everyone except Hitler and his wife goes out into the corridor.

Further events are presented in two main versions.

According to the first version, based on the testimony of Hitler's personal valet Linge, the Fuhrer and Eva Braun shot themselves at 15.30 minutes. When Linge and Bormann entered the room, Hitler was allegedly sitting on a sofa in the corner, a revolver lay on the table in front of him, and blood was flowing from his right temple. The dead Eva Braun, who was in another corner, dropped her revolver to the floor.

Another version (accepted by almost all historians) says: Hitler and Eva Braun were poisoned with potassium cyanide. Before his death, Hitler also poisoned two of his beloved shepherd dogs.

By order of Bormann, the bodies of the dead were wrapped in blankets, taken out into the yard, doused with gasoline and burned in a shell crater. True, they burned poorly, and, in the end, the SS men buried the half-burnt corpses in the ground.

The bodies of Hitler and Eva Braun were discovered by Red Army soldier I. D. Churakov on May 4, but for some reason they lay for 4 whole days without examination. They were taken for examination and identification to one of the Berlin morgues on May 8, 1945. An external examination gave reason to believe that the charred corpses of a man and a woman were the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. But, as you know, the Fuhrer and his mistress had several doubles, and therefore the Soviet military authorities wanted to conduct a thorough investigation.

The question of whether the person taken to the morgue was really Hitler still worries researchers. Here is what one of them says about the circumstances of the case:

“The man’s corpse was in a wooden box 163 cm long, 55 and 53 cm wide and high, respectively.

A piece of yellowish knitted material, similar to a shirt, was found on the corpse, burnt at the edges.

Due to the fact that the corpse was largely charred, it was only possible to judge its age and height: about 50-60 years. Height - 165 cm.

During his lifetime, Hitler repeatedly visited his dentist, as evidenced by the large number of fillings and gold crowns on the remaining parts of his jaws.

They were confiscated and transferred to the SMERSH-Z department of the Shock Army. From the interrogation report of the dentist K. Gaiserman, it was clear that the jaws belonged specifically to the Fuhrer. On May 11, 1945, Geisermann described in detail the anatomical data of Hitler's oral cavity, which coincided with the results of the study conducted on May 8. But still, in our opinion, it is impossible to completely exclude a deliberate game on the part of those who could be behind it.

There were no visible signs of severe fatal injuries or illnesses on the body, which had been significantly altered by the fire.

But a crushed glass ampoule was found in the mouth. The smell of bitter almonds emanated from the corpse. The same ampoules were discovered during the autopsy of 10 more corpses of Hitler's associates.

It was determined that death was caused by cyanide poisoning.

On the same day, an autopsy was performed on the corpse of a woman, “presumably,” as stated in the acts, belonging to Hitler’s wife, Eva Braun.

It was also difficult to determine the age: between 30 and 40 years. Height is about 150 cm.

The corpse could also be identified only by the gold bridge of the lower jaw.

But, apparently, the causes of death were different: despite the fact that there was a broken glass ampoule in the mouth and the smell of bitter almonds also emanated from the corpse, traces of a shrapnel wound and 6 small metal fragments were found in the chest."

The remains of Hitler and Braun were examined by Soviet military forensic experts and pathologists; To date, they have all died, and therefore it is difficult (almost impossible) to know the fate of Hitler’s remains. The writer Elena Rzhevskaya, who during the war was a translator for the 1st Belorussian Front, writes in her book “There Was a War...” that these remains were sent to Moscow. However, no one has yet been able to find their traces in the USSR.

During which, by February 3, it crossed the Oder and captured the famous Kyustrinsky bridgehead. The front line in the east then began to pass only 62 kilometers from Berlin. In addition, Budapest fell on February 13, 1945 - last hope Hitler to pull significant forces of the Red Army away from the Berlin direction. In a hurry, the Germans tried to carry out the East Pomeranian operation, which also ended in defeat by April 4, 1945.

Hitler in the Fuhrerbunker

According to eyewitnesses, Hitler looked terrible (see Hitler's illnesses). Initially, he located his headquarters in the center of Berlin, in the Reich Chancellery building at Wilhelmstrasse 77.

Until mid-March 1945, Hitler periodically left his headquarters, going upstairs to the Reich Chancellery building. However last time Hitler visits her on March 15, 1945, then, due to the start of the Allied air raid, Hitler barely has time to go back to the bunker, and from that day, according to eyewitnesses, he decides not to leave the bunker anymore.

According to eyewitnesses, when on February 13, 1945, Hitler was informed in the Führerbunker about the fall of Budapest, he flew into a rage, accusing his military of treason. According to eyewitnesses, Hitler still has not lost hope for “ miraculous salvation", however, sometimes phrases about his end soon. According to eyewitnesses, Hitler begins to compare himself with Frederick II, saying that he, like Frederick, will no doubt be able to defeat the enemy, first in the East and then in the West. On these same days, he orders a large portrait of Frederick, as well as the work of the 19th century British historian Thomas Carlyle, “The History of Frederick the Great,” to be delivered to his room in the bunker.

Last days and death

At 14:00, a major meeting began in the conference room in the Führerbunker with the participation of Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Karl Dönitz, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Albert Speer, Wilhelm Keitel and Hans Krebs. At the meeting, after discussing the current situation, Hitler vehemently rejects all proposals to hide in Bavaria or northern Germany under the protection of the SS, saying that he will fight “until last breath in Berlin,” and will go to northern Germany only after the defeat of the Red Army at its walls. After which, Hitler orders Dönitz to organize resistance in northern Germany, and he sends Goering to organize defense in Bavaria.

Kaltenbrunner, Goering and Ribbentrop, under various pretexts, leave the meeting room ahead of time. According to the latter: “By this time it became clear to us that Hitler had practically lost all understanding of reality and was already living only in his fantasies.”

The last order given at the meeting was the order to Krebs to oversee the preparation of the offensive of the 4th Tank Army with the support of the 3rd Tank Army on the positions of the Red Army, for its “complete and final rout and defeat.” Everyone present understood that the order was impossible to fulfill, since both armies were barely holding the line, but they did not object to Hitler.

At approximately 16:30, Hitler is informed that Army Group B, under the command of Walter Model, is in in full force(375,000 people) stopped resisting the Allies and laid down their arms in the Ruhr region. Hitler, enraged, announces to all soldiers and officers “ Cowards and traitors to the Motherland!", and Walter Model is sentenced to death in absentia. The next day, having learned about this, Model shot himself.

At about 5:00 p.m., Hitler retired to his chambers, where he went to bed at about 6:00 p.m. Eva Brown arranged in banquet hall The Reich Chancellery celebrated a festive evening on the occasion of the “Führer’s Birthday,” which lasted until late at night, periodically interrupted by Soviet artillery shelling of Berlin. [ ]

April 21, 1945

At 9:30 am, Soviet artillery again strikes Berlin with a powerful blow. Explosions of shells wake up Hitler, and he learns from General Karl Koller on the government telephone that Soviet artillery is hitting the city center with direct fire from a distance of 15 km from the Führerbunker. Hitler again becomes enraged, shouting that “he is surrounded by incompetent traitors who should have been hanged long ago!” At the afternoon meeting, he orders contact with SS General Felix Steiner, who, according to Hitler’s plan, must “immediately launch an energetic and unabating offensive on the positions of the Red Army, with the aim of breaking through its defenses and saving Berlin!” According to Hitler, if the order is not followed, “Steiner should be executed as a traitor!”

April 22, 1945

Hitler got up around 9:00 am. Having heard the report on the situation, he, to the surprise of the meeting participants, remains absolutely calm, saying that “Steiner’s offensive will be able to stabilize the front!”. However, after a long pause, General Krebs hesitantly takes the floor, who informs him that “Steiner refuses to go on the offensive, citing the fact that his troops can barely hold the line!” After a few seconds' pause, Hitler literally explodes in a burst of anger. According to eyewitnesses, he screamed "Steiner's offensive was an order!" throws the pointer that he usually used to guide operational map, on the table so hard that it breaks. After which Hitler falls into uncontrollable anger, shouting until his voice is hoarse that he “surrounded by a bunch of despicable liars and traitors!”, who, in addition, also “dare to violate his orders!” At the end of his speech, having calmed down a little, Hitler for the first time, according to eyewitnesses, said that the war was lost, since “It’s impossible to command in such an environment!”, after which he declares that from now on everyone can do “what they want,” and he “would rather stay in Berlin and shoot himself than run away!”

Almost immediately after the end of the meeting, around 15:00, Joseph and Magda Goebbels arrive at the bunker with their six children. Having learned about Hitler's outburst of anger, Goebbels once again weakly tries to persuade him to hide in his residence in Berchtesgaden. Having received a categorical refusal from the Fuhrer, he announces to everyone present that “for a while” he and his family will settle in the Fuhrerbunker at Hitler’s request.

Soon Hitler again, thanks to Dr. Morel, comes to his senses and orders Field Marshal Keitel to personally arrive at the headquarters of the 12th Army and hand over to its commander Walter Wenck a plan for a counter-offensive against Soviet troops, which was to be carried out with the support of Steiner's 9th Army . He also orders Colonel-General Jodl to move the headquarters of the Supreme High Command 20 kilometers northwest of Berlin to Potsdam, citing the proximity of the front line.

At about 17:00, Hitler retires to his chambers, accompanied by Eva Braun, his personal cook Constance Manziarly, Martin Bormann, and secretaries Traudel Junge and Gerda Christian, to whom, during a private conversation, he proposes to immediately (within an hour) leave Berlin on the remaining plane, referring to the imminent encirclement of the city Soviet troops. However, everyone refuses, and Eva Braun declares in the presence of everyone that she will remain with Hitler to the end and, if necessary, will die with him, after which, to the surprise of everyone present, Hitler publicly hugs her for the first time and kisses her on the lips. After which he opens the table drawer and takes out several ampoules of potassium cyanide and, with their consent, distributes the poison to those present.

Around 18:00, Hitler gives his last order of the day, appointing Erich Bärenfanger as commander of the defense of Berlin.

April 23, 1945

Between 1.00 and 1:30 o'clock in the morning, Hitler received a telegram from Hermann Goering, who was in Berchtesgaden, where he had previously sent it:

My Fuehrer

General Koller gave me today brief instructions on the basis of messages provided to him by Colonel General Jodl and General Christian, according to which you referred to certain decisions regarding me, and emphasized that if negotiations became necessary, it would be easier for me to conduct them from here than for you from Berlin . These data were so unexpected and serious for me that I assumed that if there was no response from you by 22:00, I would be obliged to assume that you had lost the ability to make decisions. I will review the terms of your decree and take measures for the well-being of the people and the Fatherland. You know how I feel towards you in this most difficult hour of my life. I don't have words to express my feelings. May God protect you, and may, no matter what, help you come here as soon as possible.

Your faithful Hermann Goering

After Martin Bormann, in the presence of Joseph Goebbels and Walter Heuvel, finished reading the telegram, Hitler was silent for some time, peering with glazed eyes at the wall, and then burst into an angry tirade: “Goering is a fat, corrupt lazy man! This upstart left the Luftwaffe to its fate! His example allowed corruption to spread throughout the country! I always knew everything about him! This morphine addict dares to say that I am incapable of making decisions?! And tomorrow he will declare me dead?! How dare he betray me?!. Then, having calmed down a little, Hitler ordered Martin Bormann to “deprive Goering of all powers, ranks and awards and place him under arrest, and in case of resistance, execute him on the spot as a traitor!” Goebbes fully supported Hitler, calling Goering’s proposals “an attempt at a putsch,” Bormann suggested “immediately shooting Goering without trial,” Hevel remained silent.

Around 9:00, Hitler received a false denunciation against the commander of the 56th Panzer Corps, Artillery General Helmut Weidling, that he had allegedly moved his defense line several kilometers west of the Soviet positions. Hitler, enraged, orders Weidling to be taken to the bunker and shot." like a coward and a traitor!" However, the general, already warned of the impending arrest, personally arrives at the Fuhrerbunker with a report and seeks an audience with Hitler. After two hours of deliberation, around 11:30, Hitler approves Weidling's report, cancels the order for his execution and appoints the general commander of the defense of Berlin, removing Lieutenant Colonel Erich Behrenfeger from this post.

Hitler then hosts Albert Speer, who, unlike other members of Hitler's inner circle, advises him to stay in Berlin, saying that " The Fuhrer must remain on stage when the curtain falls" According to Speer's recollections, by that time discipline in the bunker had practically ceased to exist; the corridors were full of drunken officers who, despite the ban, smoke even when Hitler entered the room.

In 2009, the head of the Department of Registration and Archive Funds of the FSB of Russia, Vasily Khristoforov, said that in 1946, a special commission created on the initiative of the GUPVI with the goal of “a thorough and tough double-check of the entire group of facts” carried out additional excavations at the site where the corpses of Hitler and Eva Braun were found. At the same time, “the left parietal part of the skull with an exit bullet hole” was found. In 1948, the “finds” from Hitler’s bunker (several burnt objects, as well as fragments of jaws and teeth, which were used to identify the corpses of Hitler, Eva Braun and the Goebbels) were sent to Moscow, to the investigative department of the 2nd Main Directorate of the USSR Ministry of State Security. Since 1954, by order of the Chairman of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR Serov, all these items and materials were stored in a special order in a special room in the departmental archive. As of 2009, Hitler's jaws are stored in the archives of the FSB, and fragments of Hitler's skull are stored in the State Archive.

Sources give different information about the cause of death: some claim that Hitler died from poison, others claim that death occurred from a shot fired by Hitler while biting into an ampoule of cyanide. A number of modern historians reject this information as “ Soviet propaganda”, or they are trying to find a compromise to reconcile different conclusions. One eyewitness testified that Hitler's corpse showed signs of suicide by shooting himself in the mouth, but it was later concluded that this was unlikely. There are also contradictions regarding the authenticity of the found fragments of the jaw and skull, allegedly belonging to Hitler.

Reburials

Then, in connection with the relocation of the SMERSH counterintelligence department, the corpses were seized and transported first to the mountain area. Finov, and then - mountains. Rathenov, where they were finally buried. “The corpses are in wooden boxes in a pit at a depth of 1.7 meters and are placed in the following order (from east to west) Hitler, Eva Brain, Goebbels, Magda Goebbels, Krebs, Goebbels’ children... The buried pit with corpses is leveled to the ground, on the surface the number of small trees planted is 111,”- as stated in the report.

Notes

1. Fischer (2008) p. 47. “...Günsche stated that he entered the office to examine the consequences, and noted that Hitler was dripping blood from his right temple. He shot himself with his pistol, PPK 7.65.”
2. Kershaw (2008) p. 955. “...Blood was dripping from a bullet hole in the right temple...”
3. The last days of Hitler: “Preparations for death” “... April 30... In the afternoon Hitler shot himself...”

How did Hitler die? It would seem that everything has long been clear - according to the official version, it happened on April 30, 1945 in an underground bunker in Berlin. There they found the bodies of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun, his new wife. This version was confirmed by many people from the dictator’s inner circle, as well as by specialists who identified and examined the corpses. However, is this really so? There are several other versions according to which the true answer to the question of how Hitler died sounds completely different. Already interested?

"South American" version

Argentine documentary historian and writer Abel Basti, who published his book “Hitler in Argentina” in 2006, was the first to express the opinion that the suicide and subsequent burning of the corpses of Hitler and Braun were falsified. After conducting a global study of the fate of the dictator, Basti came to the conclusion that Adolf Hitler, along with his wife and closest associates, fled to South America from besieged Berlin. According to the scientist, the leader died there at the age of 75 in 1964.

This version has several confirmations. First, according to Hans Bauer, a German aircraft engineer, on April 30 at 16:30 (an hour after the proclaimed suicide), he saw Hitler dressed in a light gray suit in the center of Berlin, near the Junkers 52 aircraft. Other documents indicate that on April 25, a secret meeting on the evacuation of Hitler took place in the bunker. The plan was called “Operation Seraglio”, and Hans-Ulrich Rudel (ace pilot), “pilotess” Hanna Reitsch and Hitler’s personal pilot participated in its development. 5 days earlier, a list of passengers flying to Barcelona from Berlin was approved, including Adolf Hitler, himself and the Fuhrer’s inner circle. Remarkably, the names of Goebbels and his family were crossed out from the list.

According to this version, at the end of summer the Fuhrer and his retinue arrived on the Argentine coast in submarines, which were immediately sunk for the purpose of conspiracy. This fact is confirmed by the fact that large objects buried at the bottom, also visible from space, were discovered near the shore (at a depth of approximately 30 m). The archives still contain testimonies of witnesses who spoke about the arrival of 3 submarines with a swastika in the Caleta de los Loros bay in the summer of 1945.

Even further south?

Another alternative version of how Hitler died states that the Fuhrer did not go to Argentina, but to a secret refuge in Antarctica. What speaks in favor of this opinion?

Already in 1948, intercepted US intelligence data appeared on Stalin’s desk, stating that Hitler was alive and in New Swabeland, built by the Nazis in Antarctica at the beginning of the war. Why wasn't this discovered earlier? Against the backdrop of America and mass repressions in the USSR, intelligence capabilities deteriorated, which means global construction work and regular supplies of goods to the white continent could go unnoticed.

The secret archives of the SS contain information about a system of warm air caves that exists off the coast of the southern continent. 13 American ships under the command of Richard Byrd, the most famous rear admiral at that time, while exploring the shores of Antarctica in January 1947, encountered unusual disc-shaped objects marked with Nazi symbols.

Adherents of this version are inclined to believe that the Fuhrer died in 1971 (and according to some sources, in 1982).

How did Hitler really die? History holds many secrets, but that is what makes it so interesting. What do you think about this?