Gretl Braun

Gretl Braun was the youngest of the three sisters of Eva Braun, who was Adolf Hitler's wife. She was a member of the inner social circle of Hitler at the Berghof, his mountain retreat in the Bavarian Alps. She often enlivened the formal atmosphere by having fun, smoking, and flirting with the orderlies. She married SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein, who was Heinrich Himmler's liaison officer on Hitler's staff, on 3 June 1944. Their wedding was arranged by Eva Braun and witnessed by Hitler, Himmler, and Martin Bormann. The marriage provided Hitler with a formal link to Eva and a reason to include her at public functions. Fegelein was executed by Hitler's order on 28 April 1945 for desertion and treason. Gretl gave birth to their daughter, Eva Barbara, on 5 May 1945, a few days after Hitler and Eva Braun committed suicide. Eva Barbara later killed herself in 1971 because of an unhappy love affair. Gretl survived the war and changed her name to Margarete Berlinghoff after marrying Kurt Berlinghoff, a textile distributor, in 1954. She lived a quiet life in northern Germany until her death from cancer in 1987.