The Battle Of Berlin: April 29th 1945 – The Assault On The Reichstag

In the early hours of April 29th, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler married his long-term mistress, Eva Braun, in a ceremony conducted in his underground Führerbunker.

The young photographer’s assistant from Bavaria had been by his side, but kept out of the public eye, since 1931 – and would remain with him in the bunker until the end.

The ceremony would only last around ten minutes, and be carried out in the presence of Propaganda Minister Goebbels and Head of the Nazi Party Chancellery Bormann.

Before the wedding, Hitler had already dictated his personal and political wills to his secretary, Traudl Junge, and would return to impatiently oversee Junge transcribing her shorthand notes immediately after the ceremony.

Describing his grim intentions for married life, Hitler would announce:

“I myself and my wife – in order to escape the disgrace of deposition or capitulation – choose death. It is our wish to be burnt immediately on the spot where I have carried out the greatest part of my daily work in the course of twelve years’ service to my people.”

According to Junge she was then asked by Hitler to take note of his final political testament. In it he would decry that he never intended to be faced with war in 1939, blaming instead Jewish interests for the subsequent carnage. Closing the first part of his political testament, Hitler again outlined his intention to end his life, saying: “I have therefore decided to stay in Berlin and there to choose death voluntarily when I determine that the position of the Führer and the Chancellery itself can no longer be maintained.”

Once typed out, Hitler’s political testament would be signed by four witnesses – Goebbels, Bormann, and Generals Burgdorf and Krebs – and distributed to three messengers. One copy to be sent to Admiral Dönitz, one to Marshal Schörner, head of Army Group Centre, and the other to the headquarters of the Nazi party in Munich.