The Fegelein Wedding - Nazi Fairytale or Nazi Nightmare?

[Music] at hitler's mountaintop hideaway the oberzeldsberg in southern bavaria he maintained a private house the berkoff around it was arranged the private houses of some of his top ministers including martin bormann hermann goering and albert speer alongside special guest houses for visiting officers officials and vips a huge ss barracks complex for hitler's bodyguard unit as well as tea houses staff quarters a kindergarten and a post office hitler tried to spend as much time as he could at this heavily guarded nazi alpine village but was often at his eastern front headquarters the wolf's lair or in berlin or some other furore headquarters complex one person who was nearly always at the obersalzberg was his girlfriend ava brown who came to be called the lady of the obersaldsberg by staff and locals she lived in a suite of rooms at the berkhoff where hitler kept her isolated from the general public few germans knowing of her existence at ubersaltzberg brown created a sort of court with herself at the center of it she and her family and friends enjoyed the beautiful buildings and the servants swimming in the local lakes in the summer skiing in the winter and enjoying parties in hitler's many tea houses and guest houses including the famous eagles either brown had been with hitler since 1929 when she was working as an assistant for nazi photographer heinrich hofmann she was 23 years younger than hitler who had a pargeon for younger women and since 1929 had become closer and closer to the fuhrer particularly following the possible suicide of gayle rauble hitler's half-niece with whom it is supposed he was having a sexual relationship brown really caught hitler's attention by attempting suicide herself a year later shooting herself in the chest with her father's pistol it certainly got hitler's full attention and by the end of 1932 they were lovers she attempted suicide again in may 1935 overdosing on sleeping pills when she felt hitler wasn't paying her enough attention after this hitler gave ava an apartment in munich that she shared with her sister gretel and in 1936 gifted them a villa at borgenhausen she divided her time later between the berkoff and her munich apartment her parents were both alive during the war her father friedrich brown was a school teacher and reserve army officer and her mother francisca had been a seamstress before marriage her elder sister ilsa worked initially as an assistant for a jewish surgeon and later worked in albert spares architectural design office in berlin she kept out of politics and generally stayed away from the obersalzberg she died in munich in 1979 having had no children in contrast to ilsa ava brown's youngest sister gretel was right at the center of the nazi social scene she had also worked for heinrich hofmann and like ava was a keen photographer a flirtatious woman who enjoyed the luxury lifestyle her sister's relationship to hitler brought the family she enjoyed flirting with the military adjutants and partying she fell in love with hitler's ss adjutant fritz darges who had seen combat in france and russia though darkest had a relationship with gretel he refused to marry her despite pressure from hitler who was rather old-fashioned when it came to relationships and pressured some of his aides to marry after the relationship with darges ended the ss officer now a lieutenant colonel fell rather dramatically from grace he fell foul of hitler who apparently had not forgiven him for refusing to marry gretel during a military situation conference at the wolf's lair on the 18th of july 1944 two days before the famous bomb plot a flyer was buzzing around the conference hut and landed on hitler's shoulder irritated hitler asked darges to get rid of it perhaps as a joke darges replied that as it was a fly it was the responsibility of the air force and hitler's luftwaffe adjutant colonel nicolaus von balog should deal with it hitler dismissed dargez on the spot and he was transferred to a combat position on the eastern front the real reason for darger's fall from grace may have been his relationship with gretel brown and his refusal to marry her despite hitler's insistence darges survived the war and died in 2009 at the age of 96. after the relationship with darge is finished gretel brown next fell for valta huvel a much more senior nazi figure and a popular member of hitler's inner circle hivel was a diplomat on jorgen von ribentrop's staff and acted as ribbon trops liaison at fuhrer headquarters about 40 years old when they began their affair and single he was the life and soul of the party and hitler was keen that he settled down and marry hivel had initially wanted to marry zigrid von lafiert much to hitler's approval as hitler found her glamorous and enchanting company a feeling shared by his inner circle who wanted her to join the club but von lafiat eventually married a german aristocrat working at the embassy in madrid in spain hivo despite hitler's urgings was less keen on marrying gretel brown according to a contemporary report hitler told heuvel that if he married gretel he would appoint him ambassador to rome but hivo instead married somebody else leading to hitler banishing him from the inner circle later hitler forgave him and he returned hivville stayed with hitler to the bitter end in berlin after hitler's suicide hivo joined one of the breakout groups from the bunker but failed to escape from the shattered city he shot himself when red army troops arrived to take his group captive in a brewery on the 2nd of may 1945. gretel brown next became enamored of reichsfuhrer s heinrich himmler's liaison officer at fuhrer headquarters ss general hermann feigerline a cavalry officer he rose from a pre-war jockey to a high level in the nazi regime during the invasion of poland in 1939 feigline's regiment was involved in the mass shooting of 1700 civilians in the campinos forest fegaline was officially reprimanded for looting sending a variety of stolen items back from poland to the ss cavalry school including a truck a mercedes-benz car a skoda cabriolet food coffee clothes and valuable furs himmler protected fegaline from prosecution during the invasion of the soviet union in 1941 figure line's regiment saw plenty of action but it was also assigned the task of rounding up and shooting jews partisans and others deemed undesirable in belarus fegaline's unit killed seven hundred and eighty eight jews and a further three and a half thousand men deemed as partisans wounded by a sniper in action in december 1941 he then commanded the eighth ss cavalry division florian gaia on the eastern front wounded again in october 1943 he was assigned as himmler's ss liaison at hitler's inner court he was popular arrogant but dashing and good looking with the knights cross with oak leaves a frank and direct man he became close to the sinister martin bormann hitler's machiavellian personal secretary and minister without portfolio joining him at his frequent drinking parties afa brown noticed fegaline as well and she admitted to a friend that she had fallen in love with him but ava was sensible enough not to cross hitler and fegaline though he flirted with both brown sisters constantly was also very careful to maintain a correct relationship with the fuhrer before long however he was in a relationship with gretel a phalandra par excellence fegaline cheated on gretel both before and during their marriage including trying to seduce hitler's female secretaries many of the men and hitler's inner circle didn't like the arrogant ss general very much albert spare calling him one of the most disgusting people in hitler's circle fegaline did his duty well treated hitler with great respect but fegaline wasn't slow in telling others that he was too good for the job and evidently he was bored by his responsibilities despite these problems fegaline decided to marry gretel why probably because it would place him in an unassailable position of power and influence right next to the fuhrer fegaline was most definitely a pragmatist with a strong survival instinct the wedding on the 3rd of june 1944 was the high point of the inner circle's social calendar it was planned in great detail by ava brown the wedding ceremony itself took place in the marble hall at the mirabelle palace in salzburg the wedding ceremony instead of being a christian event was in fact a pagan style wedding much favored by senior ss officers in fact heinrich himmler himself officiated at the ceremony and the witness was martin bormann amongst others [Music] [Music] the bride and groom were next driven to the berkoff where they could pay their respects to the fuhrer there was a wedding reception of the berkoff that lasted until early evening it was held in the great hall the building's largest room that included the famous picture window with its panoramic views over the valley and mountains beyond [Music] [Music] [Music] following the wedding reception the fagalines and their guests except hitler were driven up to the eagle's nest elevator a happy couple being personally chauffeured up the mountain by martin bormann [Music] they then ascended the final part of the journey in hitler's plush elevator inside the mountain to the eagle's nest more formally the kellstein mountain diplomatic reception house where they parted on and off for three days the main hall at the eagle's nest where the wedding party occurred is little change today and functions now as a restaurant but the party was brought to an abrupt end on the 6th of june 1944 when news arrived that the allies had landed in normandy hitler left the beokov on the 14th of july 1944 to go to the wolf's lair in east prussia never to return with him went his liaison officers and staff including hermann feigerline six days later and count von stauffenberg planted a bomb in the conference hut at the wolf's lair narrowly missing killing hitler fagaline was present when the bomb detonated receiving a minor wound to his left thigh for the regime's final few months feigline remained on hitler's staff moving between different fury headquarters in seeing little of his wife who became pregnant by january 1945 hitler was at his final headquarters in berlin following the failure of the arden offensive in the west and the opening of a huge soviet winter offensive in the east on the 19th of january gretel arrived at the reich chancellery accompanied by ava brown hitler sent both women to bacter's garden on the 9th of february to escape the danger in the city but ava would return to be with hitler to the end with the soviet encirclement of the city by late april 1945 the situation looked grim for fagaline stuck down in the furore bunker with an increasingly deranged hitler he evidently decided to save himself as hitler had by now ruled out leaving the wreck capital on the 23rd of april gretel received a final letter from ava brown asking her to destroy all of her business correspondents her private letters from hitler and those she had sent to the fuhrer were to be sent to feigleine's brother valdemar an ss colonel in the eighth cavalry division and secreted probably on hermann feigerlein's instructions at fishhorn castle perhaps as a future bargaining chip with the allies hermann gouring would end up at fishhorn castle under us guard at war's end and ava brown's correspondence disappeared from the u.s occupation of the castle never to be seen again fegaline attempted to exit berlin without permission on the 27th of april 1945 three days before hitler's suicide when hitler demanded to see fager line during a conference he couldn't be found in the bunker or in the reich chancellery a unit of hitler's bodyguards went to fagerland's apartment in the city and found the general drunk and in bed with his mistress the young woman managed to escape out of a bathroom window but feigline was brought back to the bunker under arrest along with the evidence of his desertion suitcases packed with money and civilian clothes and fake identity documents ava brown interceded on his behalf pleading with hitler that feigiline be spared as he was the father of her sister's unborn child hitler relented for now at least but then in the evening of the 28th of april news arrived of heinrich himmler's secret peace negotiations with the western allies hitler hit the roof and he ordered that himmler be arrested in reality himmler remained at large in northern germany surrounded by loyal bodyguards and adjutants but hitler could at least strike at feyerline himmler's ss liaison who was supposed to have been in league with his boss fagerline was placed before a hasty court-martial convened in the bunker found guilty of desertion and sentenced to death his uniform was stripped of its many medals and decorations his epaulettes torn off and then thoroughly humiliated fagaline was frog marched topside by some of hitler's rsd bodyguards and in between soviet bombardments in the reich chancery garden an ss officer shot him in the neck his body was kicked into a shell hole and hastily covered over with soil and rubble then there followed a second nazi wedding on the 29th of april 1945 this time between hitler and ava brown a marriage that also ended in death the following afternoon in the bunker as for gretel fegaline she gave birth to a daughter on the 5th of may 1945 at the obersalzberg the girl being named ava in memory of her sister gretel remarried in 1954 to businessman kurt berlinghoff living quietly in munich her daughter ava committed suicide in 1975 following the death of her boyfriend in a car accident gretel berlinghoff passed away in steingarten bavaria in october 1987 at the age of 72. thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help to support both of my channels and paypal and patreon details in the description box below

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 1,528,917

Keywords: Mark Felton, Hermann Fegelein, Eva Braun, Greta Braun, Berlin bunker

Id: rC1frkwwfog

Length: 17min 32sec (1052 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 08 2021