Saturday, September 27, 2014

Eva Braun, the Delusional Romantic




We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education- Jean Jacques Rousseau 


Hitler with a psycho expression on his face
accompanied by the lady he called his "Tschapperl"



Good girls who love mass murderers, I don't believe there's a syndrome for this. The good girl, bad boy syndrome sounds too weak to describe this highly weird phenomenon, it's too much off the scale-it deserves its own category.  I want to coin it, "The Eva Braun Syndrome," because by all accounts she was in love with Hister, one of Nostradamus' prophesied antichrists, not just one of your average whiskey drinking, verbally abusive jerks, who wears wife beater t-shirts...I mean, he was really crazy. This person killed millions, almost exterminating an entire race in Germany, and still she loved him. How can an apolitical woman who was neither a Nazi sympathizer nor a Jew supporter fall in love with and remain steadfastly committed to such a political monster? Talk about opposites attract! Perhaps it has something to do with her knowledge, because whether or not she knew what was really going on in the concentration camps is doubtful, since Hitler liked to keep her dumbed down and ignorant. I guess he had a thing for what he perceived to be the dumb, beautiful, buxom blond type. Or Tschapperl as he called her. Tschapperl, of course, being an Austrian term for a little girl of no significance.


 



Hitler was attracted to Eva Braun's legs and naivete.

Perhaps she can be excused for her ignorance in hooking up with a mass murderer, because she was so naive when she met him, as any seventeen year old would be. It all began when forty year old Hitler looked at her legs as she as was standing on a ladder in photographer Heinrich Hoffmann's photoshop where she was working. I guess you could say it was love at first calf.  When he introduced himself, he used the name "Wulf," a name she

used throughout their relationship even though it wasn't his own (but suited his predatory nature quite well).  Heinrich Hoffmann pulled her aside when he left and told her that he was Hitler, but it didn't matter to the seventeen year old apolitical Eva, because she didn't know anything about a "Hitler," warts and all. This may be the reason he showed up to the photo gallery on a frequent basis and wine and dined her. Perhaps he was charmed by her naivete, or the fact that he could get away with murder with such a trusting woman (and that he did).
                                                                                                                
All the power is within, therefore, under our control-Robert Collier 

He gradually won her over by the typical woe-is-me stories some men like to employ to attract a woman, and she bit the bait hook, line, and sinker, forgetting, of course, that she wasn't his mother. As a result, she hooked up with a dangerous criminal who made her his mistress, and had no intentions of marrying her.  As Hitler told the Nazi Party's official architect Albert Speer, "I will never marry. The women, they are just there for me to get along with. They are objects."  

Here it shows that he clearly wants women to take care of him, but doesn't want to take care of women. He is insensitive, dismissive, aside from being narcissistic, and clearly a man who needs to learn emotional self-empowerment. He doesn't need to assign his personal problems to women he objectifies.   As Robert Collier says, all the power is within, so he had the ability to heal himself from whatever childhood problems he had (with professional guidance of course). And until he took care of his emotional welfare, he didn't have it in him to take care of anyone else. Perhaps that's why he was dating someone so young-he was emotionally delayed.


True to Hitler's chauvinistic nature, he didn't just have Eva, he had a string of mistresses who were markedly, if not strangely, different from Eva (Hitler was quite the hypocrite). One of these mistresses was the Nazi propaganda film director Leni Riefenstahl who was strong, independent, and doing a man's job. However, the Triumph of the Wills director was also exploiting his popularity which was in fever pitch. Another lover was actress Renate Mueller who strangely committed suicide. Whether it was because she loved Hitler or whether the Nazi's killed her because she wouldn't support the Nazi cause and was dating a Jew, remains a mystery. Even his half niece who he had an incestuous affair with before Eva Braun came onto the scene, Geli Raubal, committed suicide after she found a love letter Eva Braun had written Hitler. So they say. Many people who posed some kind of threat to Hitler or his reputation suddenly committed suicide. It's also worth noting that she was killed with Hitler's gun.

Plants are fashioned by cultivation, man by education. If a man were born tall and strong, his size and strength would be of no good to him till he had learnt to use them...Jean -Jacques Rousseau
Hitler looking peeved while he examens 
Eva Braun's pictures




Of course you just know he had to be a control freak. Even if he didn't put Eva Braun on a pedestal, he still wanted to control her very existence, including what she learned. In fact, he kept her away from learning altogether, so the only education she received was at her stint at Heinrich Hoffman's photography gallery (God forbid she received one from Rousseau)-but even that was limited. Like the quote from Rousseau states, even if Eva Braun were extremely talented or intelligent, her capacity to develop her talents and intelligence was seriously stifled by Hitler, so she wasn't a fully developed person. Her ability to think critically about her situation with him and how to improve it (such recognizing her fundamental rights as a woman, and the pros of leaving him) was also stifled by her lack of education. Perhaps Hitler wanted to stifle her talent and critical thinking abilities, because he didn't want his lover to have the financial wherewithal to leave him or question his politics...in case she became a Jew sympathizer like her sister Ilse. Some say she was the perfect woman for him too, because she didn't care about developing her talents, nor what was going on at his political meetings at the Berghof, nor how Germany was being affected by the war, nor what was going on in the concentration camps. She just wanted to be with him and have fun.The bright side of it all, is that she was the only person allowed to take candid pictures of him, so he allowed her that measure responsibility- even if most of the world didn't know she existed until the end of the war. He kept his "Tschapperl" hidden away as if she were some doll who was too improper for polite company, but brought out to play with. A typical kept woman, I suppose, with absolutely zero influence, and a prisoner relying on his emotional and financial support.


Ilse Braun, the sister who couldn't stop saying bad things about Hitler. 

A psychologist might say she even had the Stockholm syndrome, because she bonded with her abuser. The syndrome was originally named after a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden where the hostages bonded with their captors, despite the abuse they suffered at their hands. It has since come to describe an umbrella of abusive relationships, where the abused partner is supportive, loving, and defensive of their abusive partners. And, yes, she defended Hitler, and went so far as to warn her sister Ilse, that if Hitler put her in a concentration camp because she was constantly saying bad things about him, that she wouldn't get her out. While this is in no way related to philosophy, it's a useful perspective when gauging why she chose to stay with him, when he treated her cruelly.

Another reason we can expect a person like Eva Braun to fall in love with Hitler, is that she wasn't living in reality. Her friends even described her as living in another world, where everything was pleasant and easy. As a result, she pushed any sort of negativity aside, whether it be politics, news, or anything remotely humanitarian.  As Voltaire explains: 

The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.


 Eva Braun swimming with a friend


....while Jews were being killed in the Salt Mines nearby.


I think she encapsulated that quote perfectly-she was filled with joie de vivre, and that's all she wanted. Her only concerns were her love for Hitler, her sports, her expensive dresses and cosmetics, and her Hollywood movies. She was certainly enjoying herself while Jews were being slaughtered, often not far away from where she was living, such as the salt mines near the Berghof. The only regret she mentions at the onset of the war, was that Germany wasn't making dresses and cosmetics anymore. And during Hitler's downfall, all she was concerned about was water ballet and diving with her friends. 

A deeper side of Eva once mentioned in a letter to Hitler that she promised herself when she first met him, that she would follow him everywhere...even to death.  And that she did depending, once again, on varying accounts (one account has them escaping to Argentina and her abandoning him there). But why? Why would someone follow Hitler to death, if, say, she did follow him to death? Everyone else had the right idea and abandoned him, including his generals who unsuccessfully plotted Hitler's death before the Allies invaded. Why would anyone in their right frame of mind even consider being romantically involved with him in the first place? Perhaps Voltaire explained it well:


Love is a canvas furnished by nature and embroidered by imagination.



Eva Braun wanted to be a Hollywood actress. 

Now while I believe in love, Eva Braun was particularly guided by her imagination. She once wrote in her diary that she relished being Hitler's forbidden love...as she saw people visiting the Berghof from her window. Yes, instead of being humiliated that he was too ashamed to present her to his guests, she thought she was in the thralls of a forbidden romance. Maybe she read one too many romance novels, or perhaps in her delusional and apolitical frame of mind, she could appreciate Hitler. That way he had no scars or pimples-he was just right. And perhaps her feelings for him were to the degree, that she had to erect a false image around him, turning him into a hero instead of a monster. That way she wouldn't lose any respect for him and could continue loving him. She certainly was an optimist, turning negative situations on their head into something fantastical. Another example, is when his neglect and anger upset her, and she attempted suicide because of it (Ilse rescued her). She inevitably reasoned that it ultimately didn't even matter, because she was Germany's mistress, and mistress of the world's greatest man (I'm sure six million people would beg to differ...if they were still alive). It helped, of course, that after the suicide attempt, Hitler moved her to his mansion Berhof, and showered her with expensive gifts such as a Mercedes and designer clothes. Plus she wanted to be a famous actress, so perhaps she thought it was impractical to leave him.


 Eva Braun idolizing Hitler who she still called  fuehrer
when they got married

In the end, the marriage Eva Braun longed for came to fruition. Her man who she still called fuehrer, asked her to marry him because she didn't desert him like everyone else, but joined him in the bunker to die with him rather than following his orders to stay away from Berlin instead (supposedly). Perhaps it was some kind of reward to an underling who was truly devoted to him. I simply can't imagine him being in love with anyone but himself.  And perhaps the reason she still called him "fuehrer," had to do with a professional divide and a lack of intimacy between them because he was always gone. Which begs the question, was Eva Braun truly in love with Hitler, or did she worship him as if he were some prophet, someone famous and special? Hitler had alters all around the Berghof of himself, so perhaps that left her with the impression that he was more of deity or dignitary rather than a lover. So much so, that when he stripped her of her dignity, she still considered herself a lucky girl to be with him.  But then perhaps the fact that she almost committed suicide and was willing to die for him, shows that, indeed, her passion was real.


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