Death of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, committed suicide via a gunshot to the head on 30 April 1945 in the Führerbunker in Berlin[a] after it became clear that Germany would lose the Battle of Berlin, which led to the end of World War II in Europe. Eva Braun, his wife of one day, also committed suicide by cyanide poisoning.[b] In accordance with Hitler's prior written and verbal instructions, that afternoon their remains were carried up the stairs and through the bunker's emergency exit to the Reich Chancellery garden, where they were doused in petrol and burned.[1][2] The news of Hitler's death was announced on German radio the next day, 1 May.[3]
For the book, see The Death of Adolf Hitler. For the television episode, see The Death of Adolf Hitler (ITV Sunday Night Theatre).Date
30 April 1945
Eyewitnesses who saw Hitler's body immediately after his suicide testified that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot, which has been established to have been a shot to the temple.[c][d][e] Otto Günsche, Hitler's personal adjutant, who handled both bodies, testified that while Braun's smelled strongly of burnt almonds – an indication of cyanide poisoning – there was no such odour about Hitler's body, which smelled of gunpowder.[4] Dental remains extracted from the soil in the garden were matched with Hitler's dental records in May 1945.[5][6][f] The dental remains were later confirmed as being Hitler's.
The Soviet Union restricted the release of information and released many conflicting reports about Hitler's death. Historians have largely rejected these as part of a deliberate disinformation campaign by Joseph Stalin to sow confusion regarding Hitler's death,[7][g][h][i] or have attempted to reconcile them.[j] Soviet records allege that the burnt remains of Hitler and Braun were recovered,[k][l] despite eyewitness accounts that they were almost completely reduced to ashes. In June 1945, the Soviets began seeding two contradictory narratives: that Hitler died by taking cyanide[m] and that he had survived and fled to another country.[8][9][10] Following extensive review, West Germany issued a death certificate in 1956.[11] Conspiracy theories about Hitler's death continue to attract interest.
Legacy
After Hitler's death and the subsequent end of World War II in Europe, Germany was divided into four zones by the victorious Allies, who occupied the country.[117] This led to the start of the Cold War between the Western Bloc, supported by the US, and the Eastern Bloc, supported by the Soviet Union.[118] The divide was for a time physically represented by the Berlin Wall, and was eventually followed by Germany's reunification in 1990 and the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1991.
Following Hitler's death, war veteran and future US president John F. Kennedy wrote in his diary that the dictator "had a mystery about him in the way he lived and in the manner of his death that will live and grow after him".[119] Historian Joachim Fest opines that the almost "traceless" death of Hitler allowed him to stay in the public eye, granting him a "bizarre afterlife"; conspiracy theories – rooted in Soviet disinformation alleging his survival – bolstered continued doubts and speculation, including outlandish tabloid and journalistic reports published into the late 20th century.[120] Conspiracy theories about Hitler's death and about the Nazi era as a whole still attract interest, with books, TV shows, and films continuing to be produced on the topic.[121][122] Historian Luke Daly-Groves wrote that Hitler's death is not about the death of one man, but carries a greater significance as to the end of the regime and the ideological impact it left behind.[123]
Joseph Goebbels, his wife Magda, and their six children. Edited into the photo in the back is Goebbels' stepson, Harald Quandt, the sole family member to survive the war
Hitler (right) visiting Berlin defenders in early April 1945 with Hermann Göring (centre) and Chief of the OKW Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel (partially hidden)
