When Hitler was Wolf and wrote pornographic letters to his favorite niece

• Berlin, 1919: Fear and Hope in Weimar Germany

The angel of Munich , by Fabiano Massimi (Alfaguara), includes among its pages a plan of the apartment at Prinzregentsplatz 16, in which Adolf Hitler settled when he began to do well and went to live in Munich in 1929. The apartment had an immense almost curved room that became a library at one end and a dining room at the other. On one side, it was all windows looking out on the Munich Opera, including two half-octagon shaped gazebos. "They seemed made to harangue the masses," says Massimi. On the other side was the hallway that led to Hitler's bedroom, the kitchen, the maid's room, and Geli, Hitler's niece who lived with him.

"Printzregentsplatz was an exquisitely decorated apartment, in a very elegant square, in a beautiful city, in a very wealthy neighborhood. When Hitler wanted to receive the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1938, the house lived up to it. visiting the place today is strange. There is a subway station at the door but there is no mark, no plaque to show the history of that floor. The building was converted into a police station to prevent the place from becoming a place pilgrimage. It is impossible to enter beyond the concierge. With a little skill, you can sneak into other portals, visit the apple courtyard and take some photos ", explains Massimi, Italian writer, debuted in Spanish with The Angel of Munich . For him, Prinzregentsplatz, 16 is not only of historical interest. His plan is the clue that allows him to decipher the mystery of his novel.

What a mistery? The Munich Angel is, in short, a crime novel that investigates the death of the young Angela, Geli , Raubal in the flat of her uncle Adolf Hitler. It happened on September 18, 1931, when her party was on the eve of her jump to power. SAs already intimidated citizens on the street, and the Führer had powerful protectors who were able to condition the investigation into Geli's confused suicide (shot in the head). In this context, Massimi invents a detective named Siegfried Sauer ( the name of the real police officer who took the case is also Sauer, although the name is unknown), who is ordered to close the case in the simplest and fastest way possible but that rebels. Although Sauer will not be able to come to any definitive conclusion rewriting History, he will look at the stormy personality of the Führer and outline some very plausible theory in which Hitler is wrong. Jealousy, humiliation, deception ... that kind of thing.

A little bit like Bernhard Günther in Philip Kerr's novels? A little, yes. "I like Kerr's novels a lot. I discovered them late and I am eagerly awaiting translations today that have not yet reached Italian. But most of those novels speak of the Reich years, when the horror was already decided. In 1931 , everything was still open. "

Return to Prinzregentsplatz. Doesn't that flat of delusions of grandeur say something about the character of your tenant? "Hitler, who had lived in a homeless shelter for some time, became the tenant of that luxury house that, by the way, someone paid for him," Massimi explains, referring to the editor of Mein Kampf . "The events that led to that move were incredible, even for Hitler, who saw in the apartment a fetish of his triumph. I think what he really liked about that house was the scenery in which he could free the great actor he was carrying inside".

Actor Hitler also needed an audience and an actress to give him the reply. And so Geli, the Viennese daughter of her stepsister, appeared, who settled in Printzregentsplatz to study Medicine but found another confusing and tragic fate in Munich. "It is impossible to apprehend Geli and that makes her fascinating. We have testimonies from people who met her who are totally opposite: some see her as a naive and others as a manipulator. For some she was a man-eater and for others, a pious virgin , a talented artist or a frivolous consumerist, a false innocent or a whore ... ", explains Massimi. "I see her today as a girl locked up by all those images that the others made of her. All those versions are exposed in the book, but I think Geli's truth is deeper."

What Geli was not was a depressed young woman with suicidal tendencies. Gli was young and pretty and had a beautiful voice and she was full of joy. "She was the center of all the parties she went to, she was a young woman with charisma. Compared to the wives of the other Nazi leaders, who were serious old women, exhausted by motherhood, Geli was a very attractive presence. Going out with for dinner or listening to opera, it was like showing off a hunting trophy to her uncle. He was very proud to be seen with her. "

Or something more than proud: "Hitler was obsessed by his family and his childhood.", Explains the author. "He was also thinking about the blood a lot. Incest had happened several times in his house , including his parents' marriage. He was also obsessed with young girls who were easier to dominate. So, when He found in his family a beautiful young girl, orphaned by his father, who admired him and was proud of him, wanted her by his side. He was able to declare him a legal guardian and wanted to model her. Later, he said several times that Geli was the only one woman he could have married. " Well. In the end, Hitler was married one day to Eva Braun.

So the legend of the asexual Führer ...? "Hitler, who wrote very little, sent pornographic letters to Geli with the nickname Wolf. Today they are lost, probably destroyed. Who knows what was the truth of Hitler's sex life? The myth that he only had a testicle comes from a doctor who recognized him during World War I and is confusing. He was also said to be homosexual because he surrounded himself with some notorious homosexuals and that Goebbels' six children were his own. Sexual caricatures of political leaders are always done. that, at the end of the war, Hitler told Eva Braun that he was old and tired and that he could no longer attend to her. "

The angel of Munich also has a part of sociological portrait . "The Germany that appears is taken from the eyes of the Germans of that time, who were unaware of what was coming their way. The same thing that could be said about us and our relationship with today. Living is like walking in the forest, it is difficult to find their way. For them, because they lacked information to know if that improbable Hitler was going to be a monster or was going to stay at nothing. Our problem is that we have too much information, but the effect may be very similar. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• culture
• history
• Germany

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