Eva Braun's House

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kenbac
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Eva Braun's House

#1

Post by kenbac » 05 Dec 2008, 15:22

I have only ever seen one or two photos of Eva Braun's House in Bogenhausen.

Has anyone got photos of this house, especially the inside.

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Grünherz
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#2

Post by Grünherz » 12 Dec 2008, 07:56

I have no photos but you might want to look for the "Hitler's Home Movies" (!) videos on eBay or such. Videos that Eva took that include her Munich home and family films.


kenbac
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#3

Post by kenbac » 12 Dec 2008, 10:15

I have no photos but you might want to look for the "Hitler's Home Movies" (!) videos on eBay or such. Videos that Eva took that include her Munich home and family films.
Thanks for that Grünherz.
I have seen those (I have the full set of her home movies on DVD)
I was hoping for some photos.
As she was a keen photographer and had accumulated 26 photo albums (in US National Archives), I was hoping there might have been some from there that someone had copies of or that some had even been published.

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Geoff Walden
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#4

Post by Geoff Walden » 13 Dec 2008, 00:49

Here is a view of the back of the house from EB's photo albums in the National Archives (RG 242EB, Album 2, Nr. 11A), a similar view from Life Magazine of 28 May 1945, and a view of the front of the house today (it's hard to photograph due to all the vegetation that has grown up in front).

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Geoff Walden
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#5

Post by Geoff Walden » 13 Dec 2008, 00:54

Two 1945 photos from Life Magazine showing the interior of EB's house at Wasserburgerstrasse 12 (now Delpstrasse).

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Grünherz
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#6

Post by Grünherz » 13 Dec 2008, 05:42

Mr. Walden...you are amazing.

kenbac
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#7

Post by kenbac » 13 Dec 2008, 10:01

Fantastic,
Thank you Geoff.

Maybe I'm being greedy but I have to ask.
Any more?

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Geoff Walden
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#8

Post by Geoff Walden » 13 Dec 2008, 16:26

Hi kenbac,

Those are the only interior views I have seen, and these were all that were in that Life Magazine (all that I copied anyway). I don't remember if there were any others in EB's albums - that was the only one I copied.

Here are a couple more views of the house today. I don't know how to get around to the back side to see the part that shows up in period photos and EB's films - that was a little more trespassing than I wanted to attempt. 8-)

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Cor
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#9

Post by Cor » 13 Dec 2008, 21:05

great pictures Geoff especially from the interior.

kenbac
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#10

Post by kenbac » 14 Dec 2008, 19:37

Nice close ups of the outside, Geoff.
Fair play to you for "trespassing".
I didn't have the guts to try.

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Re: Eva Braun's House

#11

Post by palaisfan » 28 Mar 2021, 07:28

Geoff Walden wrote:
13 Dec 2008, 00:54
Two 1945 photos from Life Magazine showing the interior of EB's house at Wasserburgerstrasse 12 (now Delpstrasse).

Geoff
Bumping this thread so as to have the information in one place and avoid the redundant thread risk. In going through various items for clues about Prinzegentenplatz flat there were some items regarding Eva Braun's house that seem good to share.

Readers will want to visit the Lee Miller site for some more interior views, including a matching picture to the one above, more framed to the left, that shows a fireplace and wall. (Just type in `Eva Braun's house' in the search and it brings them up.)

https://www.leemiller.co.uk/

Notice that shuttered doorway on the left back of the house from the LIFE picture? That's the same doorway you are seeing in the interior view, which is the Living Room. You even see the horizontal shutters. What happened is the french glass doors there that opened onto the small rear terrace got sealed off at some point--probably for purposes of being light-tight in wartime. A description indicated that the Living Room with the fireplace was at back of house and actually was part of a long room running the whole length on the south side (if simplifying to say the house faced west) I will post the description next. Incredibly enough, she had one of the first television sets. It may even be in that photograph somewhere as it was probably in the Living Room. The bedrooms for Eva and Gretl are upstairs--the Lee Miller site shows parts of both.

Turns out there is a handful of other pictures. Alamy has one that seems a period one and is one of the best for being clear of obscuring trees. It is miscaptioned as Eva's parent's house.

Eva-House-wrong-caption-at-Alamy2A2B099.jpg
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This pair of thumbnails is from "Mrs Adolph Hitler" by Blaine Taylor which very usefully attempts to put the various Eva album photographs in context and with their original captions not omitted. Its available on kindle and not out of print so in fairness just using thumbnails for discussion purposes. Notice how they agree with the LIFE picture Geoff posted. You clearly see the french doors to the terrace, and how little gatherings were held at back of house. Its kind of ironic that period views of the back seem to outnumber the front, but in modern times it was the back that was no longer seen.

EvaHouse-backside.jpg
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Last edited by palaisfan on 28 Mar 2021, 08:39, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Eva Braun's House

#12

Post by palaisfan » 28 Mar 2021, 08:11

Now on the interior layout:
Nerin E. Gun's book "Hitler's Mistress: Eva Braun" gives some important text descriptions to align with the pictures.

Eva and Gretl moved into the house on March 30, 1936. The house had been built in 1925, so it was just over a decade old. It was a half-hour's walk to the north from Hitler's apartment so was in the general vicinity and also in Bogenhaüsen, if not especially close.

Nerin quoted the official description
"The one family house...is in the center of a garden of 798 square meters, with 20 meters on the street; the dimensions of the building are 8 meters by 20 by 10, and its capacity is 697 cubic meters."
That is an exact quote, and it may be that it suffered in translation, for that passage is a little unclear. But the house appears to have been almost square. It had just six rooms, apparently three on the bottom level, and three on the upper floor, with a small attic above. (You can see this somewhat in the tearing down pictures)

He claims to have been able to visit it a number of times (this would be prior to 1968 when published) and been inside. He described it as
"The entrance is on the [left] side and leads into a simple hall with a coat closet, then a lounge connecting with a kitchen on the left, with a door opening into the garden [backyard]. The kitchen is minute, with barely room for two people to turn around, and the gas stove has only two burners. To the right of the staircase there are two rooms, the first a sitting room with a fireplace and a door[way] leading onto a little terrace. It was curtained off from the second room, which served as a dining room provided the number of guests was strictly limited."

"On the first floor, at the top of the stairs, there was Eva's room, with Gretl's opposite and a blue-tiled bathroom between the two. There is a little maid's room off the kitchen and slitlike attic which could barely accommodate a bed."
Again translation may have somewhat blurred some points. Apparently the Germain original included an extra detail that the Living Room/ Dining Room ran the length of the house from front to back with two French door panels opening onto the patio terrace at the back. (seen clearly in prior post) The Living Room could be separated from the Dining Room by a big curtain drawn across it's width --- making the otherwise single long space into two rooms. Gun adds the amusing detail that the tiny attic in addition to being used as a guest room at times was the only room where the women could all go up and sneak a smoke as Hitler came there enough to make it an issue anywhere inside. There was a balcony on the left side on the first floor, on the southeast corner end of the house. A door opened onto it.

To the above, would just add from looking at the pictures that it appears on the west face the left part appears to have had some kind of trellis for vines to grow up. There is no window here. The Dining Room would have been behind this part of the wall. On the north side, you see the left hand entrance, but there appears to be not many windows on that side. There is no indication just where the staircase to upstairs was--whether it ran north-south or along the length of the house.

If you look at Geoff Walden's page on Munich sites linked below, the photos of the house being torn down in November 2015 can reveal a little of the layout. There does indeed seem to be a large space on the south side about 2/3rds of the width of the house, matching what seen at the back. If the description above is true, we are looking at the Dining Room area. If there are more photos of it being torn down, they would give more clues. There is not much to it, but the picture revealed by the combination of these sources hopefully are useful for researchers.

- palaisfan

http://www.thirdreichruins.com/munich.htm

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Helly Angel
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Re: Eva Braun's House

#13

Post by Helly Angel » 29 Mar 2021, 00:07

I have a question. In the photo in answer # 11, a German Shepherd dog appears ... Is this dog, btw Blondi? Or Eva had a german shepherd as a pet in those days?

TIA,

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Re: Eva Braun's House

#14

Post by palaisfan » 31 Mar 2021, 03:52

Helly Angel,

Will have to check again. That's probably a german shepherd given to Eva, but it could very well be Blondi during one of Hitler's visits.

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Re: Eva Braun's House

#15

Post by Helly Angel » 03 Apr 2021, 15:46

Thank you Palaisfan. In the NARA archives exist a picture of Eva with a dog sheperd in that house, I´m trying to know if it is Blondi (I don´t think) or is another pet.

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