When men assume great power, it is common in human history for the women behind them to assume a great rank or wield some slice of that power. But Adolf Hitler assumed chancellorship of Germany in its most dramatic hour, and the reflexive nature of the position the woman in his life held is food for thought. Hitler kept her out of sight, markedly inferior, and sought no equal in personal life. Hitler denounced the idea of having children and remarked to intimates that a “stupid” woman was the only fit companion for an intelligent man. Hitler knew Eva Braun was no “mother” to the homeland.
Was he fearful, even in his own mind, that a woman could upstage him and puncture his self-idolatry and hypocracy? The exposure, to someone even quasi=independent, to any of the ministers and counsels of the Final Solution would have laid bare the vulnerabilities, both philosophically and spiritual, inherent in Hitler’s regime. Even while parading publicity images of the Goebbels family, Hitler refused to share even power in a marriage with a fit person.
Male leaders throughout history have sought a queenly mate, both to assert their image and to support their right to lead. Hitler used Eva Braun as his personal companion, as though he already had a high born wife and aristocratic children from an arranged marriage. Certainly Hitler had his pick of German aristocracy and European royalty at the time to marry. Perhaps Hitler correctly perceived that marriage was the traditional route to a woman assuming any power, and purposely kept Eva Braun from attaining that position. Was this then love?
Hitler kept Eva Braun from holding an acknowledged place in his new German society, even kept her from public knowledge except from Third Reich officials and intimates. Was he ashamed of her? Or merely intimidated enough to prevent any mate from having a child that might supplant him? Quotes from Hitler suggest he harbored imperial misgivings about the German establishment using his offspring to replace him. How can this have been a fulfilling life for any woman, as the country was surrounded and invaded, due to the man she slept with?
Eva Braun remains a fascinating study of the subordination of personal power and identity, to a man who had destroyed half of Europe and still wasn’t self confident enough to marry her. She was not remarkable, she was not morally bent, she was not without friends and family to turn to. Eva Braun could have changed the course of history but chose to rest at its knees, taking crumbs from its table. The lesson to all women, and future leaders, is clear.