Sexuality of Adolf Hitler

Over the years the sexuality of Adolf Hitler has been the subject of historical and educational debate. Historians such as Lothar Machtan have come to argue that the dictator may have been homosexual or bisexual and that opposition and persecution of homosexuals by the NSDAP party may have been due to a reactive defense mechanism to expand their homophobia campaign . Several students reject such approaches and regard the Führer as having a heterosexual orientation since [he is believed] to have had six lovers throughout his life; Two of them committed suicide, another one died eight years later as a result of a failed attempt, and another one failed in its attempt. He is also believed to have had an illegitimate child , although the latter has been discarded by several historians.

In 1929 he met Eva Braun , whom he married on April 29, 1945, the day before he committed suicide .

Background

Hitler and the persecution of homosexuals during III Reich

Although inside his inner circle knew the sexual preferences of Hitler to date of today it is lacking evidence about his own sexuality. However there is irrefutable evidence that he has been with women throughout his life while showing his antipathy towards the gay community. ^{1 2 3}

A significant example was when he disowned his confidant and closest friend: Ernst Röhm for his “immoral sexual behavior,” however, the dictator never objected to his homosexual past. During the holocaust , he sent about 100,000 men to concentration camps accused of being homosexual. Most were sent to prison, between 5 and 15 thousand internees in camps where they were forced to wear prisoner clothes with a pink triangle as a symbol of identification for their “crimes.” ⁴ The prisoners were used as guinea pigs by medical personnel from the respective camps where they tried to find a “remedy” to “cure” future Aryan children at risk of being gay. In a study by Rüdiger Lautmann, 60% of gay prisoners died compared to 41% of political prisoners and 35% of Jehovah’s Witnesses . The study also reveals that the survival rate of concentration camp gais was slightly higher than upper-class citizens and bisexual marriages. ⁵

With the idea of ​​demonizing the image of the Third Reich , before World War II , both opponents of the regime and the Allies went on to cast baseless accusations that Hitler was gay and engaged in certain sexual acts, including Urolagnia . ⁶ However, only his private life was known among his associates like Albert Speer , his secretaries and others. As a young man he had some romance and even got a certain attraction for his second niece: Geli Raubal . ⁷

For several years he had a relationship in secret, only knowingly from his inner circle, with Eva Braun . ⁸ Most of his trusted men survived the war and Hitler moved with Braun to Berchtesgaden . The couple’s butler wrote in his memoirs that “Hitler and Braun shared two rooms and bathrooms, and that he preferred to end the evenings alone with his company in his study room before bed.” ⁹ The Führer’s letters showed that he was worried when Braun participated in sports or was late for tea. ¹⁰ In 1945 they were married in Berlin’s bunker before committing suicide together. ¹¹ Heike Görtemaker , who was a biographer of Braun claimed that both enjoyed a normal sex life. ¹² The woman’s friends and relatives described Eva as smiling when she saw a photograph of Neville Chamberlain sitting on the couch in Hitler’s apartment in Munich . “If I knew what was happening on the couch …”. ¹³

Ernst Hanfstaengl, uno de los miembros del círculo interno de Hitler en los primeros años antes de que se hiciera con el poder escribió sobre su sexualidad: “tuve la sensación de que Hitler era uno de esos que no era ni de carne ni de pescado, así como tampoco gay o hetero, llegué a la conclusión de que era impotente o de los que preferían masturbarse”.¹⁴ Aun así el Führer trató de convencerle de lo contrario al intentar filtrear con Martha Dodd, hija del embajador estadounidense (sin éxito).¹⁵

Several books show alternative lists about the alleged sexuality of the top Nazi leader such as The Pink Swastika by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams , who were criticized by historians for their inconsistencies and manipulation of the facts. ^{16 17} Bob Moser , who then worked at Southern Poverty Law Center that the book was a propaganda manually created by LGBT rights contrary to the people and seeking to introduce gay men as “violent and dangerous”. ¹⁸

Langer and Murray: psychoanalyzing Hitler

In 1943 the Office of Strategic Services (OSS in English ) of the United States received a report entitled A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler: His Life and Legend written by Walter C. Langer collaboration with other psychoanalysts with the purpose of understanding And study the dictator thus serving as useful to allies. ¹⁹ The book also serves as support for The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report in which the own Langer investigates in the chronology of the war next to its brother William L. Langer like introduction with also the psychologist and historian Robert GL White . ²⁰ In order to ascertain the Führer’s personality as well as his motivations, the investigators conducted an analysis to his person in which the OSS stated that Hitler was impotent and coprophilic without ruling out the possibility that he might be gay. ²⁰ As for this last theory, the reports state that the evidence of Hitler’s alleged homosexuality has no solidity to reach such a conclusion. Otto Strasser , one of Hitler’s opponents in the NSDAP claimed that he forced his niece Raubal to defecate and urinate over. ²¹ Langer wrote in Hanfstaengl’s words that: “Hitler intended to marry the daughter of Helena Bechstein: Lottie, whom he considered attractive, yet she rejected his proposition.” ²² The historian Ian Kershaw described Strasser’s accounts as a “string of sexual perversions to denigrate Hitler’s image as propaganda.” ^{2. 3}

Hermann Rausching commented that Hitler confessed to him that during his military service in World War I was accused in a martial court and convicted on charges of pederasty with an officer. He also stated that he was guilty of violating Article 175 dealing with the matter, but no evidence has been found of those two charges. ²⁴

Psychologist Henry Murray wrote two separate reports regarding the OSS that he named Personality of Adolph Hitler: With Predictions of His Future Behavior and Suggestions for Dealing with Him Now and After Germany’s Surrender in which, apart from the alleged coprophilia, he suffered from schizophrenia . ^{25 26}

After World War II

After the death of Hitler began to circulate speculations on his sexuality and even his supposed sexual relations with his second granddaughter. ⁷

Lothar Machtan, on the other hand, disagrees with the supposed homosexuality of the Führer in The Hidden Hitler . In the book he also talks about the supposed experiences in Vienna with his friends of youth and his relationship with several members of the inner circle. In 2004, HBO produced a documentary based on Machtan’s theory, entitled Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler’s Sexuality . This production was not freed of the criticisms of Ron Rosenbaum , critic with that theory and declared: “the evidences fall by its own weight”. ²⁷

Years ago, in 1995 the book The Pink Swastika , whose content was similiar “was also beaten by several historians because of the lack of rigor. ^{16 17}

Jack Nusan Porter of the University of Massachusetts Lowell wrote:

What if Hitler pissed off homosexuals? What if she was ashamed of her own sexual orientation? These themes of psychohistory go beyond the knowledge we know. My views on Hitler’s sexuality is that he was asexual in the traditional sense of the word with a rather bizarre sexual fetishism. ²⁸

Leni Riefenstahl was friend of Hitler during twelve years and there were even rumors about a possible intimate relationship with him. ²⁹ According to Hanfstaengl, who was an intimate friend of the Führer during the 1920s and 30s wanted to start a relationship with him, but rejected him. ³⁰

Bibliography

• Connolly, Kate (February 14, 2010). “Nazi loyalist and Adolf Hitler’s devoted aide: the true story of Eva Braun .” The Observer . Guardian News and Media . Retrieved on December 18, 2012 .
• Görtemaker, Heike B. (2011). Eva Braun: Life with Hitler . New York: Alfred A. Knopf . ISBN 978-0-307-59582-9 .
• Joachimsthaler, Anton (1999) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends - The Evidence - The Truth . London: Brockhampton Press. ISBN 978-1-86019-902-8 .
• Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography . New York: WW Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6 .
• Langer, Walter C. (1972). The Mind of Adolf Hitler . New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-04620-7 .
• Linge, Heinz (2009). With Hitler to the End . Frontline Books-Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1-60239-804-7 .
• Rosenbaum, Ron. Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil . New York: Harper Perennial, 1999. ISBN 0-06-095339-X .
• Entry for Dr. Henry A. Murray, Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler at Cornell University Law Library

References