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Hitler's Niece
Hitler's Niece tells the story of the intense and disturbing relationship between Adolf Hitler and the daughter of his only half-sister, Angela, a drama that evolves against the backdrop of Hitler's rise to prominence and power from particularly inauspicious beginnings. The story follows Geli from her birth in Linz, Austria, through the years in Berchtesgaden and Munich, to her tragic death in 1932 in Hitler's apartment in Munich. Through the eyes of a favorite niece who has been all but lost to history, we see the frightening rise in prestige and political power of a vain, vulgar, sinister man who thrived on cruelty and hate and would stop at nothing to keep the horror of his inner life hidden from the world.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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1212 people want to read
About the author
Ron Hansen
63 books267 followersRon Hansen is the author of two story collections, two volumes of essays, and nine novels, including most recently The Kid, as well as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film. His novel Atticus was a finalist for the National Book Award. He teaches at Santa Clara University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
October 14, 2013
“Oh Hitler!”
“Oh Geli – meine kleine gehaltenmitgemütlichemkirchenkunsterschwartzeweldekirschtorte, is that a hard or a soft G?”
“It’s hard. But the rest of me is soft, so soft, mein Fuhrer. You know my name rhymes with gaily, which is an English word meaning happily.”
“Mine rhymes with whittler which is an English word meaning one who complains a great deal. But you can call me Uncle Adolph.”
No, it’s not like that at all. That’s what it would have been like if I’d written it. Not so good. Hitler’s Niece is a novel that makes you feel queasy and not a little disgusted it’s also impossible to review without spoilers of one magnitude or another, so let me say straight away – this thing between Geli and Hitler? It comes to a bad end. And this guy Hitler, he comes to a bad end too. But not in this book.
One of the thrilling qualities of the novel is its ability to peer into any corner, and to choose any distance from which to view its subject, and to switch these points of view around like a cardsharp producing a fifth ace. One moment Hitler is haranguing 7000 people in a tent, and then he’s suddenly snuffling in our ear, his silly moustache tickling our lobe. Ach! Horrible. Ron is writing a meticulous historical novel here, and it's got plenty of good stuff in it, but alas, he goes awry in so many ways. He gets himself completely drunk on detail. He piles it on with a spade. In Ron’s world, more is better. There’s lashings of period detail smothered all over the pages like chocolate in that revolting gateau called Death By Chocolate. It’s like Ron has bought a box full of cans marked Spray-On Historical Details (Germany 1920s) from History-R-Us, that well-known superstore chain.
“At noon she took the green trolley to Odeonsplatz and bought a hair waver, two pairs of silk stockings, patent leather heels by Ferragamo, a yellow satin housecoat with pajama trousers, a Vionnet tweed coat cuffed and bordered in nutria, a Lanvin evening gown in black faille and strass, and a Lanvin silver coat with a white fox collar."
“Geli strolled by a fair illustration in oil paints of the Sixteenth Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment on its first attack in Flanders in 1914, and then walked to one of Hitler’s many eighteenth-century paintings of Frederick the Great. She realised for the first time that the king of Prussia’s left hand was effeminately posed on his hip, just as her uncle’s often was.”
And there’s also great wodges of unfictionalised historical exposition straight out of a boring history book :
“An American businessman named Owen Young chaired an international commission that sought to give Germany economic relief by amending many punitive conditions of the Treaty of versailles. Agreeing with Gustav Stresemann, Germany’s foreign minister, the commission established a ceiling of 121 billion reichsmarks in war reparations, to be paid off in fifty-nine yearly installments”
Hello? are you asleep yet? I nearly was. As you see, this stuff could have been cut and pasted from some really dull textbook. And there’s much more… but I’ll spare you. It’s not like this is stuff you need to know to understand what’s going off in the life of Adolph, it’s all just noises off, and anyone with the merest grasp of German inter-war history can do without Ron’s history lectures.
Well, the main event in this novel is the grisly pas-de-deux of young Geli and the not-quite-fuhrer-yet. There’s a strong and profoundly unhealthy titillation of the reader going on here, of dripping prurience, a literary leer in lederhosen.
Roll up, ladeezngentlemen, don’t be shy. Let Ron take you by the hand and lead you step by step closer to Hitler’s very bedroom. Yes! You will see with your own eyes the gorgeous unclothed form of 19 year old Geli – it rhymes with gaily! - in all it's slurplable loveliness; yes! you will see what romping with the future fuhrer is all about. Yes! You will see with your very own eyes - only one dollar one average sized dollar, thankyew - you will see the PENIS of the FUTURE FUHRER! Nobody does it like Hitler! Roll up!
Another Ron, Ron Rosenbaum, wrote a great book called Explaining Hitler which includes an extraordinary interview with Claude Lanzmann, director of Shoah. The irascible Frenchman launches into an apoplectic tirade about Hitler’s baby photos. These photos are an obscenity, he says. They should never have been published. All this analysis of Hitler’s life, his mind, his soul, it’s an abomination. Because psychohistory is a figleaf for revisionism. To explain is to understand is to justify. All right, so, don’t be giving Claude a copy of Hitler’s Niece for his birthday present. Because all the gruesome human Hitlers you’ve been previously spared are here! Look - jolly Hitler, jumping Hitler, jesting Hitler, joyful Hitler, happy Hitler, playful Hitler, cringing Hitler, oh no, surely not, no, he wouldn’t, yes yes it’s true - masturbating Hitler. They’re all here. Roll up.
I dunno. Ron does do a very good job in painting stroke by stroke Geli’s awful entrapment and predicament. This was not a situation she was going to be allowed to leave and she knew it. That part of this book grabbed me and convinced me (in one of those “yes! it must have been just like that!” moments). But, I dunno. The situation between them was one thing. But Ron goes farther and shows us what he imagines Hitler was “really like”, what he “really wanted” – the truth about Hitler. Which turns out to be fairly pervy S&M sex-game stuff. And even Ron ends up by hinting darkly at stuff he doesn’t wish to describe. “The things he makes me do!” wails Geli, without elaboration. But really, is it not facile – is it not the most lazy form of moral stereotyping, to imagine that because Adolf Hitler was a moral monster , was evil personified, his sexual life must therefore also have been depraved and horrible? Because that's what he was "really like" ? People are funny, you know. Sometimes, even, they’re complex.
Not to say, as I say, that Ron Hansen can't write well, he can :
p153 :
He flinched at hearing the world "love" and his hooded stare fled to four parts of the room.
That's good stuff. But the Fuhrer's penis - not so much.
August 25, 2021
A fictional book based on truth about Hitler and his intimate relationship with his niece, Geli.
My thoughts: I don’t have to believe everything I read.
POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2021: #43 - The book on your TBR list with the ugliest cover
My thoughts: I don’t have to believe everything I read.
POPSUGAR Reading Challenge 2021: #43 - The book on your TBR list with the ugliest cover
October 11, 2010
this is a well written, interesting novel about the relationship between hitler and his niece who was found shot to death in a flat owned by hitler, and with his gun by her side, in 1931.amazingly enough, this event has been largely forgotten.i wasn't even aware that he had a niece, never mind one who died under mysterious circumstanes.of course hitler and the nazi party had it pretty well hushed up at the time, so it's great that hansen has used a lot of resource material to come up with his version of the events culminating in her death.needless to say, without giving away any of the plot, hitler comes across as a very nasty character indeed.but then we all knew that already.anyway, anybody who is interested in hitler should definitely read this book, and anybody just looking for a good,entertaining read should check it out as well.
November 21, 2025
Geli Raubal, Hitler's niece through his half-sister Angelika, was the love of his life. (Eva Braun? Nah, she was option B.) Ron Hansen has decided that Hitler's evil cannot be conveyed through biography, only fiction, and that his twisted (in every way) love affair with a girl who was both a close relative and a decade younger can give us valuable clues on how a mediocre painter turned into a genocidal maniac. Though this novel asks the reader to embrace a conspiracy theory concerning Geli's demise it ends with a terrifying closing line: Hitler stares out a window and says to himself, "Six million Jews!"
July 10, 2008
Basically this is a fictional novel based on true facts about Hitler, his niece and the Nazi party. I read it so quickly only to be done with it! The two stars represent the fact that at least it was a noteworthy idea - basing fiction on fact. I usually go for that sort of thing. But, the book was just horrible. Hilter's niece, Geli, was portrayed as a complete idiot and although she supposedly disagreed with Hitler's ideals, she "went along for the ride" and didn't realize her uncle was a creep until it was too late. I don't care what decade it is, I don't think a somewhat intelligent girl/woman would have put herself in that sort of situation. I mean, I know Hitler was supposed to be very controlling and those surrounding him were unable to escape his throes but, I would believe this girl or her mother or brother or someone would have "seen the light" and helped her "escape." The text was very perverse and I had to keep myself from throwing up at the scenes where Hitler "molested" his niece. Only worth the read if you are interested in the details of Hitler's family background and/or the characters in the Nazi party.
September 28, 2009
My impression of Hitler and his close-knit circle had always been based on the impression that they were a cool, impervious, testerone-injected group of well-discplined fanatics. What I failed to realize is that they were a collection of fussy, effiminate, unathletic (although always touting the aryan, athletic ideal) sniveling, whiny, self-absorbed, sexually confused pychopathological misfits.
The book made it very clear that they were intellectually not just incorrect, but stunted, unable to understand the inconsistencies in their beliefs, and their inability to live up to their own ideals. They hated communists: yet their socialistic beliefs and antagonism of organized religion showed how much they were similar. They denounced Jews: yet many claimed Jewish ancestry. They railed against homosexuals, yet many were. They lauded the ideal Aryan physique, yet were grossly obese, infirm, weak, and dark-haired - nothing wrong with these attributes, yet ironic.
I rarely give a book 5 stars. This one deserves every one. Brilliantly written, you end the book feeling like you have an intimate understanding of Hitler and are also thoroughly engrossed in the story line. You don't hear much about Hitler's niece, and it is a shame, because through her story, you see truly the perverse nature of the world's most evil man.
The book made it very clear that they were intellectually not just incorrect, but stunted, unable to understand the inconsistencies in their beliefs, and their inability to live up to their own ideals. They hated communists: yet their socialistic beliefs and antagonism of organized religion showed how much they were similar. They denounced Jews: yet many claimed Jewish ancestry. They railed against homosexuals, yet many were. They lauded the ideal Aryan physique, yet were grossly obese, infirm, weak, and dark-haired - nothing wrong with these attributes, yet ironic.
I rarely give a book 5 stars. This one deserves every one. Brilliantly written, you end the book feeling like you have an intimate understanding of Hitler and are also thoroughly engrossed in the story line. You don't hear much about Hitler's niece, and it is a shame, because through her story, you see truly the perverse nature of the world's most evil man.
April 4, 2025
It is incumbent on us to know all there is to know about Germans of the 1920's, 30's and 40's. This book delves into Hitler's secret life authentically. It is an excellent study of a most evil man. Extremely well written based on superb research.
****April 2, 2025. I just finished watching the Netflix series "Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial", I highly recommend it to everyone, especially the young who probably feel so distant from WWII.
****April 2, 2025. I just finished watching the Netflix series "Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial", I highly recommend it to everyone, especially the young who probably feel so distant from WWII.
July 21, 2014
Hitler's Niece is a well written book about Adolf Hitler "relationship" with his niece Geli Raubal. It's a entertaining book nonetheless, if your interested in learning about how Adolf Hitler was before he started his Nazi Rise to power. Hitler once said that "Geli was the only woman I've ever loved" and you can see how that statement is true in the book. However his actions clearly show that he doesn't know what love is, he wanted a very controlling relationship where literally Geli couldn't do anything without his premission.
This book also shares light into other head Nazis who at the time were not of any importance besides working for the Nazi Party. If you know your Nazi history and are familiar with some of the head Nazi's you will also see in the book of how they were before the Nazi Rise. Nazi's such as Hess, Himmler, Goring, Goebells, and others.
In the end though Geli at the young age of twenty three commits suicide however the author gives a very graphic view that it was Hitler who had killed her and not Geli herself. We then get to read just how far the Nazis are willing to go to cover up this scandal and protect there Fuhur and the Nazi Party. The book also gives a very good insight into the mantipilative, hard boiled mind of Adolf Hitler.
In the end though Geli's death is not the only tragedy at the end of the book. We read how a grief stricken Hitler griefs for three day straight then goes to say goodbye to his niece by planting twenty three of her favorite flowers at her gravesite. Then decides to start planning his Nazi Rise to power and the upcoming elections and as the author wrote it best "He held his state on the wall beside Hess's head as if on the doorway with a loved one behind it and just about to enter, or as if he were imagining a history still to be written, imaging six million Jews. With a firm and confident voice he said, "And now let the struggle begin." The final tragedy is that of Geli Raubal herself who in the end had had enough of the good spoiled life her Uncle Alof was providing for her because of the terrible costs it was coming at. She just wanted to go home to Wein but of course never made it and the tragedy of the love she could have had with Emil Maurice if it wasn't for Hitler keeping that apart, who knows maybe they could have been happy together, far away from Germany and Hitler. However like history goes "it's one of those things we will never know."
This book also shares light into other head Nazis who at the time were not of any importance besides working for the Nazi Party. If you know your Nazi history and are familiar with some of the head Nazi's you will also see in the book of how they were before the Nazi Rise. Nazi's such as Hess, Himmler, Goring, Goebells, and others.
In the end though Geli at the young age of twenty three commits suicide however the author gives a very graphic view that it was Hitler who had killed her and not Geli herself. We then get to read just how far the Nazis are willing to go to cover up this scandal and protect there Fuhur and the Nazi Party. The book also gives a very good insight into the mantipilative, hard boiled mind of Adolf Hitler.
In the end though Geli's death is not the only tragedy at the end of the book. We read how a grief stricken Hitler griefs for three day straight then goes to say goodbye to his niece by planting twenty three of her favorite flowers at her gravesite. Then decides to start planning his Nazi Rise to power and the upcoming elections and as the author wrote it best "He held his state on the wall beside Hess's head as if on the doorway with a loved one behind it and just about to enter, or as if he were imagining a history still to be written, imaging six million Jews. With a firm and confident voice he said, "And now let the struggle begin." The final tragedy is that of Geli Raubal herself who in the end had had enough of the good spoiled life her Uncle Alof was providing for her because of the terrible costs it was coming at. She just wanted to go home to Wein but of course never made it and the tragedy of the love she could have had with Emil Maurice if it wasn't for Hitler keeping that apart, who knows maybe they could have been happy together, far away from Germany and Hitler. However like history goes "it's one of those things we will never know."
April 20, 2011
I haven’t bought a bottle of German wine in many years. But, thanks to Ron Hansen I may try some liebfraumilch one day soon. Hitler’s Niece turned out to be better than I expected. I got it through GR Bookswap by chance. I was scrolling through some books and ran across Hitler’s Niece. I had read a small flurry of GR reviews from my home page and the title left me curious but not convinced. But there it was popping out on Bookswap a couple of weeks later so I figured “Why not?”
I was not immediately drawn into this book, thinking “Do I really want to know more about Hitler?” But I read it in a couple of days. This book is well written plus a lot of things: romance, drama, history, pop-psychology, lifestyles of the rich and famous, mystery. The book is definitely at least R-rated, maybe X if you are timid about these things, but could be made PG-13 with some cutting and airbrushing. Ah, yes, there are the “Unspeakable things” that leave a lot to the imagination.
In rating Hitler’s Niece I’m not going to wimp out with “It started out a two stars but ended up a four so I am giving it a three.” For me it really was a four star book most of the time. But I am still going to put it out on Bookswap where it might just pop up for someone else who is not sure about more Hitler. GR worked for me this time; I would never have heard of this book without GRs.
Come to think about it, I would rather have a German pilsner than a German moselblumchen.
I was not immediately drawn into this book, thinking “Do I really want to know more about Hitler?” But I read it in a couple of days. This book is well written plus a lot of things: romance, drama, history, pop-psychology, lifestyles of the rich and famous, mystery. The book is definitely at least R-rated, maybe X if you are timid about these things, but could be made PG-13 with some cutting and airbrushing. Ah, yes, there are the “Unspeakable things” that leave a lot to the imagination.
In rating Hitler’s Niece I’m not going to wimp out with “It started out a two stars but ended up a four so I am giving it a three.” For me it really was a four star book most of the time. But I am still going to put it out on Bookswap where it might just pop up for someone else who is not sure about more Hitler. GR worked for me this time; I would never have heard of this book without GRs.
Come to think about it, I would rather have a German pilsner than a German moselblumchen.
July 18, 2012
Covering the time of Germany during Hitler's climb, but before the beginning of the war. We see his rise through the adoring eyes of his niece Geli. This gives a more chilling look into the man, as Geli becomes more infatuated by her uncle, and he too is somewhat under her spell, the German people's enchantment with him grows. We also get the unique chance to view him through his family relations and early friendships, then as his powers grow we see how these relationships change.
There is no war or holocaust here, this is the exploration of Hitler as a human, with all the expected ugliness and hate. But it digs deeper and shows the many complicated layers which all add up and give us a glimpse of how he was able to lead the German people into another World War. Given the subject, it isn't a comfortable or easy read on many levels and what happened to Geli leaves the readers with many questions, which the world will probably never find the answers.
There is no war or holocaust here, this is the exploration of Hitler as a human, with all the expected ugliness and hate. But it digs deeper and shows the many complicated layers which all add up and give us a glimpse of how he was able to lead the German people into another World War. Given the subject, it isn't a comfortable or easy read on many levels and what happened to Geli leaves the readers with many questions, which the world will probably never find the answers.
June 24, 2007
Newsflash...Hitler was one sick puppy. Granted this gives more "insight" into how truly sick he was but it focused on his love life and his quirks. It was somewhat enjoyable but often difficult to get through.
August 19, 2022
Hitler's Niece by Ron Hansen is a historical fiction novel following the life of Angelika Marie Raubal known as "Geli," the niece of Adolf Hitler who was found dead in Hitler's apartment in 1931 when she was only twenty-three-years old.
Ron Hansen is one of my favorite authors and I've gotten to know his writing style through his other novels: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Desperadoes, The Kid, and Mariette in Ecstasy. I really enjoyed Hitler's Niece. It was extremely creepy, unsettling, foreboding, and steeped in mockery of the evil and deranged man that Hitler was. Geli, his niece, was a wonderfully written character. It was compelling to see how Hansen explored this mysterious figure "lost in history" (little is known about her and the cause of her tragic death is disputed) and their complex (implied incestuous and romantic) relationship. Oftentimes I was completely revolted and disgusted. This novel was devastating and the ending was crushing.
Ron Hansen is one of my favorite authors and I've gotten to know his writing style through his other novels: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Desperadoes, The Kid, and Mariette in Ecstasy. I really enjoyed Hitler's Niece. It was extremely creepy, unsettling, foreboding, and steeped in mockery of the evil and deranged man that Hitler was. Geli, his niece, was a wonderfully written character. It was compelling to see how Hansen explored this mysterious figure "lost in history" (little is known about her and the cause of her tragic death is disputed) and their complex (implied incestuous and romantic) relationship. Oftentimes I was completely revolted and disgusted. This novel was devastating and the ending was crushing.
January 26, 2022
This book was disturbing, as expected, but surprisingly graphic. I don’t think I’d recommend it to a friend. However, I do appreciate it for what it is and found the life of Geli Raubal (Hitler’s niece) very tragic and worth learning about.
January 23, 2023
It is fiction which included many interesting, bizarre facts about Hitler, the hyptonic affect he had on people, the psychotic group of misfits with whom he surrounded himself, and the fact that he could have actually been the one to murder his niece who was supposedly the only woman he really loved. The report said that she committed suicide but there's also reason to believe otherwise.
Interesting read regardlless of how much you may choose to believe, if anything.
I even have an opinion of where his hatred of Jews begain: his mother's illness was terminal while suffering a long time before her death under the care of Jewish doctor and family member who may have been illegitimate with the biological father being Jewish.
Interesting read regardlless of how much you may choose to believe, if anything.
I even have an opinion of where his hatred of Jews begain: his mother's illness was terminal while suffering a long time before her death under the care of Jewish doctor and family member who may have been illegitimate with the biological father being Jewish.
March 28, 2010
Ron Hansen's Hitler's Niece is a truly disturbing (as most reviews claim, trying to distance themselves from any fascination), but entirely engaging book that episodically relates Hitler's rise to power in the 20s and early 30s and his infatuation with his niece Geli Raubal. Hitler is menancing, pathetic, awkwardly playful, a commanding personality able to bend the will of those around him, except Geli. At least some of the time. The book is tied to history, but is also a work of substantial imagination, that creates a certain understanding, but no sympathy for the dictator to be. Hansen's Catholicism breaks through especially in one priest-critic of the Nazi's. In the portrayal of Hitler we recognize Arendt's proposition about the banality of evil. To write Hitler and his followers off as super-human, demonic evil powers is foolish and misses the potential for evil in most of us, given the right timing and the right offer.
February 2, 2017
I was a little disappointed in the book. The thought of Hitler being intimately involved with anyone is grotesque in of itself, but I thought maybe good writing could overcome the subject matter. It didn't. There was a lack of tension. It was as if the author couldn't decide if he was writing historical opinion or historical fiction. So it went between being overly distanced or overly maudlin.
It was thoroughly okay.
It was thoroughly okay.
July 31, 2008
I actually couldn't finish this book. I really tried, but it was so smutty it grossed me out. It had some of what I thought it really was...the history of Hitler's rise and how he was influenced by this young lady. But sex was everywhere...even when it didn't add to or even confused the story. perhaps if I had finished....nah, my skis is still crawling
November 18, 2017
A few years ago, I read Mailer's "Castle in the Forest" because I thought his approach to looking at Adolf Hitler's childhood from a "Screwtape" perspective was a great approach. The book was interesting and replete with stories of sexual perversion in the hinterlands of the Austro-Hungarian empire (Hitler's biological father, I think, would have mounted a woodpile if he thought it contained a snake). I think Hansen's fictional treatment of the early Hitler biography serves as a better sequel to the Mailer book. We often forget that one of the early disappointments that formed Hitler's personality was his failure as a painter, and I liked the way Hansen weaved German art from the period into the narrative. Taking a short break from the narrative to google the works Hansen describes and see for yourself how disturbing were these works from Hitler's personal collection is interesting; there is, after all, something psychologically illuminating about a man collecting portraits of naked women with sinister pythons draped over their shoulders or on the verge of suicide. Hansen's seeming obsession with Hitler's "white, hairless calves" is a little weird, but it cannot cushion the shock of his description of Hitler's own nudity or the subsequent cringe-worthy first sexual encounter with the protagonist. This book reminded me a lot of "Lolita" with its middle-aged egomaniacal father-figure completely ruining an immature girl's life. The author has, however, done his research, and this book also catalogues all the sycophantic and equally-failed personalities in Hitler's inner circle before he became Chancellor. I found this novel equally as engaging as his similar novel on Jesse James. His prose is sound, his research is solid (he obviously spent time on the ground in Munich), and I think he presents a plausible explanation for Geli Raubal's premature and mysterious death. This is a fine, well-delivered book.
September 9, 2016
On Hitler’s Niece and writing historical fiction
If you want to know about Hitler’s life, then read Ian Kershaw’s Hitler: A Biography (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010). If you want to find out as much as possible about the history of the Nazi movement and Hitler’s role in it, then read Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock (Knopf, 1992). But if you want to get a sense of who Hitler was a human being, I encourage you to read a very well written historical novel by Ron Hansen called Hitler’s Niece (Harper Collins, 1999).
Hansen traces Hitler’s abnormal psychology from the perspective of Angela Maria (“Geli”) Raubal (1908-1931), his half niece. Geli is intelligent, beautiful, full of joie de vivre and untouched by the political obsessions anti-Semitic hatred of her uncle and his cronies. She maintains an ironic distance from Hitler’s fanatical followers—Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Alfred Rosenberg and others—who also appear in the novel. Compared to her, however, they’re wooden characters in a farce, much as they were in real life. These vain men are fawning and obsequious, hungry for power and always ready to not merely follow, but also anticipate Hitler’s orders and wishes.
By the author’s own admission, however, the novel doesn’t adhere strictly to historical facts. It is only inspired by them, particularly by Bullock’s book Hitler and Stalin, which Hansen states provoked his fascination with Geli Raubal. (Author’s Note, 307-308) The novel describes Geli’s life, from beginning to end; from birth to tragic death. We find out that her father died at the young age of 31, leaving her mother, Angela, to take care of three kids (Geli, Leo and Elfriede) with almost no source of income. After seeing that Geli, at seventeen, had bloomed into a lovely young woman, Hitler invited her to be his housekeeper and companion. Her mother gladly accepted this unorthodox arrangement, in the hopes of making possible a better lifestyle for their family.
Becoming Hitler’s companion, caretaker, maid and eventually his mistress, Geli catches a glimpse of the inner workings of the Nazi party and its key players’ rise to power. Above all, Hitler’s Niece shows us, up close and personal, how a psychopath capable of genocide “falls in love.” Even after her death, Hitler called Geli the love of his life. Neither Eva Braun, his doting life companion, nor any other woman could compete with his obsession with Geli.
Geli Raubal spent six years either living with Hitler or being in frequent contact with him. For a period of time, she lived in his Munich apartment while she studied medicine and took music lessons. She also accompanied him to the opera, cinema, and the many other social functions he attended. The plot of the novel hinges on their sexual tension and on Geli’s psychological trauma as she becomes, increasingly against her will, his sexual partner in a sordid, sadomasochistic relationship that sickens her and intoxicates him. The more she tries to escape, the more possessive, dependent and desperate he becomes. As the narrator states, “She was his escape, his torpor, his surrender to the vacillation and passivity that were increasingly part of his nature” (220).
Need and obsessive desire, however, don’t imply love. For love to exist, the lover has to be able to consider, empathize with and fulfill the beloved’s own needs, as a separate individual. Hitler can’t do that. He “loves” his niece like a man who is incapable of real love. His idea of flirtation is bragging incessantly about himself. His idea of “affection” is engaging in perverse and demeaning sexual rituals. His idea of respect for women gives way to a fundamental misogyny and traditionalism that require them to serve him, and his idea of passion is possession and control of the object of his desire.
Hitler demands to know at all times where Geli is, what she is doing and with whom. He retains the freedom to see other mistresses—including Eva Braun—but keeps a tight leash on Geli, discouraging other suitors. Once Emil Maurice, Hitler’s good-looking Corsican chauffeur begins dating Geli, Hitler finds a pretext to dismiss him. “She is with me,” Hitler snarls when another man, Schirach, asks his permission to take out Geli on a date. (244)
Caught in the vortex of her uncle’s overpowering addiction to her, Geli cannot escape the misery that dominates her life. When she expresses her distress, her friends turn their back on her and even her mother would rather, essentially, prostitute her to “Uncle Alf,” “the patriarch” of the family, rather than face poverty again. At the end, Hitler’s Niece adds an interesting but largely speculative twist to the story. Although the official version is that Geli committed suicide in 1931, in the novel, Hitler, realizing that he can no longer master his niece, beats her, breaks her nose, and then shoots her. His entourage quickly covers up the murder and presents it to the police and the press as an act of suicide. This adds an intriguing element of mystery to the plot, turning Hitler’s Niece into a detective story. But the novel’s main strength remains the psychological aspects of the drama. Hansen helps us see that is not much difference between Hitler the public man, who could order the murder of millions of innocent people, and Hitler the private lover who could destroy the object of his desire rather than risk losing her.
Given this novel’s many strengths, it’s surprising to me that Hitler’s Niece received some scathing reviews, particularly from The New York Times. In “Springtime for Hitler, in love with his niece,” Michiko Kakutani offers a lengthy plot summary and then dismisses the novel as a poor representation of history which takes away from the gruesome reality of Hitler’s “public crimes, crimes that tragically were not speculative imaginings of a novelist, crimes that have been consigned to the margins of this inept and voyeuristic novel” (NYT, September 7, 1999).
http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/09/05...
I completely disagree with Kakutani’s harsh assessment and standards of evaluation in this case. The role of historical fiction is not to convey history accurately or in great detail. That is what (nonfiction) history books do. In my opinion, the role of historical fiction is to do exactly what Hitler’s Niece does so well: namely, find inspiration in real historical events to imagine the mindset, emotions and desires of its key figures. Often only more marginal characters, such as Geli Raubal, or Hitler’s niece, can give us a three-dimensional picture of the monster whose acts have marred the pages of history.
Claudia Moscovici, Literature Salon
If you want to know about Hitler’s life, then read Ian Kershaw’s Hitler: A Biography (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010). If you want to find out as much as possible about the history of the Nazi movement and Hitler’s role in it, then read Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock (Knopf, 1992). But if you want to get a sense of who Hitler was a human being, I encourage you to read a very well written historical novel by Ron Hansen called Hitler’s Niece (Harper Collins, 1999).
Hansen traces Hitler’s abnormal psychology from the perspective of Angela Maria (“Geli”) Raubal (1908-1931), his half niece. Geli is intelligent, beautiful, full of joie de vivre and untouched by the political obsessions anti-Semitic hatred of her uncle and his cronies. She maintains an ironic distance from Hitler’s fanatical followers—Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, Alfred Rosenberg and others—who also appear in the novel. Compared to her, however, they’re wooden characters in a farce, much as they were in real life. These vain men are fawning and obsequious, hungry for power and always ready to not merely follow, but also anticipate Hitler’s orders and wishes.
By the author’s own admission, however, the novel doesn’t adhere strictly to historical facts. It is only inspired by them, particularly by Bullock’s book Hitler and Stalin, which Hansen states provoked his fascination with Geli Raubal. (Author’s Note, 307-308) The novel describes Geli’s life, from beginning to end; from birth to tragic death. We find out that her father died at the young age of 31, leaving her mother, Angela, to take care of three kids (Geli, Leo and Elfriede) with almost no source of income. After seeing that Geli, at seventeen, had bloomed into a lovely young woman, Hitler invited her to be his housekeeper and companion. Her mother gladly accepted this unorthodox arrangement, in the hopes of making possible a better lifestyle for their family.
Becoming Hitler’s companion, caretaker, maid and eventually his mistress, Geli catches a glimpse of the inner workings of the Nazi party and its key players’ rise to power. Above all, Hitler’s Niece shows us, up close and personal, how a psychopath capable of genocide “falls in love.” Even after her death, Hitler called Geli the love of his life. Neither Eva Braun, his doting life companion, nor any other woman could compete with his obsession with Geli.
Geli Raubal spent six years either living with Hitler or being in frequent contact with him. For a period of time, she lived in his Munich apartment while she studied medicine and took music lessons. She also accompanied him to the opera, cinema, and the many other social functions he attended. The plot of the novel hinges on their sexual tension and on Geli’s psychological trauma as she becomes, increasingly against her will, his sexual partner in a sordid, sadomasochistic relationship that sickens her and intoxicates him. The more she tries to escape, the more possessive, dependent and desperate he becomes. As the narrator states, “She was his escape, his torpor, his surrender to the vacillation and passivity that were increasingly part of his nature” (220).
Need and obsessive desire, however, don’t imply love. For love to exist, the lover has to be able to consider, empathize with and fulfill the beloved’s own needs, as a separate individual. Hitler can’t do that. He “loves” his niece like a man who is incapable of real love. His idea of flirtation is bragging incessantly about himself. His idea of “affection” is engaging in perverse and demeaning sexual rituals. His idea of respect for women gives way to a fundamental misogyny and traditionalism that require them to serve him, and his idea of passion is possession and control of the object of his desire.
Hitler demands to know at all times where Geli is, what she is doing and with whom. He retains the freedom to see other mistresses—including Eva Braun—but keeps a tight leash on Geli, discouraging other suitors. Once Emil Maurice, Hitler’s good-looking Corsican chauffeur begins dating Geli, Hitler finds a pretext to dismiss him. “She is with me,” Hitler snarls when another man, Schirach, asks his permission to take out Geli on a date. (244)
Caught in the vortex of her uncle’s overpowering addiction to her, Geli cannot escape the misery that dominates her life. When she expresses her distress, her friends turn their back on her and even her mother would rather, essentially, prostitute her to “Uncle Alf,” “the patriarch” of the family, rather than face poverty again. At the end, Hitler’s Niece adds an interesting but largely speculative twist to the story. Although the official version is that Geli committed suicide in 1931, in the novel, Hitler, realizing that he can no longer master his niece, beats her, breaks her nose, and then shoots her. His entourage quickly covers up the murder and presents it to the police and the press as an act of suicide. This adds an intriguing element of mystery to the plot, turning Hitler’s Niece into a detective story. But the novel’s main strength remains the psychological aspects of the drama. Hansen helps us see that is not much difference between Hitler the public man, who could order the murder of millions of innocent people, and Hitler the private lover who could destroy the object of his desire rather than risk losing her.
Given this novel’s many strengths, it’s surprising to me that Hitler’s Niece received some scathing reviews, particularly from The New York Times. In “Springtime for Hitler, in love with his niece,” Michiko Kakutani offers a lengthy plot summary and then dismisses the novel as a poor representation of history which takes away from the gruesome reality of Hitler’s “public crimes, crimes that tragically were not speculative imaginings of a novelist, crimes that have been consigned to the margins of this inept and voyeuristic novel” (NYT, September 7, 1999).
http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/09/05...
I completely disagree with Kakutani’s harsh assessment and standards of evaluation in this case. The role of historical fiction is not to convey history accurately or in great detail. That is what (nonfiction) history books do. In my opinion, the role of historical fiction is to do exactly what Hitler’s Niece does so well: namely, find inspiration in real historical events to imagine the mindset, emotions and desires of its key figures. Often only more marginal characters, such as Geli Raubal, or Hitler’s niece, can give us a three-dimensional picture of the monster whose acts have marred the pages of history.
Claudia Moscovici, Literature Salon
June 24, 2019
This book is outrageous. It is disturbing, as it is supposed to be. This novel follows Hitler's early years and his perverted relationship with his niece that ultimately resulted in her death either by suicide or Hitler's hand.
Geli rode the Hitler train enjoying the fame, money and partying. Every man in Nazi party, young or old seemed to have had the hots for her. Hitler, being jealous and possessive, controlled Geli's life and began to sexually abuse her. Earlier in the story, Geli was a snarky girl who used her beauty, sex appeal, and family relationship with Hitler to her advantage. Then everything went out of control when Hitler decided to assert his rights for caring and providing for her for so long.
This book is well-written and gives a glimpse into a well-researched plausible view of Hitler's sick love life.
Geli rode the Hitler train enjoying the fame, money and partying. Every man in Nazi party, young or old seemed to have had the hots for her. Hitler, being jealous and possessive, controlled Geli's life and began to sexually abuse her. Earlier in the story, Geli was a snarky girl who used her beauty, sex appeal, and family relationship with Hitler to her advantage. Then everything went out of control when Hitler decided to assert his rights for caring and providing for her for so long.
This book is well-written and gives a glimpse into a well-researched plausible view of Hitler's sick love life.
April 20, 2020
Honestly, I probably wouldn't have read this if it weren't written by Ron Hansen, but I did and am glad for it. Though quite disturbing at times, it also provides a somewhat oblique perspective on the early years of Hitler's rise and the combination of his obsequious behavior toward potential benefactors while controlling those around him he perceived as subservient.
However, the primary focus of the book is his perverse affection for his niece, Geli Raubel. Though much is not known, there is apparently enough historical information available to piece together a reasonably plausible novel. And while Hansen does a great job of breathing life into the cast of characters, loathsome as they are, it is with Geli that he creates someone truly tragic.
However, the primary focus of the book is his perverse affection for his niece, Geli Raubel. Though much is not known, there is apparently enough historical information available to piece together a reasonably plausible novel. And while Hansen does a great job of breathing life into the cast of characters, loathsome as they are, it is with Geli that he creates someone truly tragic.
August 29, 2020
Well written and Introduces Hitler’s supporters and Brown Shirt gang along with his niece Angelita and Henna. Hitler and Geli were intensely involved . She posed for him for nudes, he spent a lot of his down hours with her. Takes place while he is rocketing to power. Has interesting details: the painting of Ford, which hung in one of his office rooms; he trained in “histrionics” (how he held his hands and made gestures during speeches) with a magician. A few references to his hypnosis like projections. His psychoness/abnormal psych shines thru.. Mostly of course centered on his niece. It was after she told someone he was molesting her that she was found dead.
May 5, 2020
This is a very well written tale of Hitler in a role as uncle. The book portrays Hitler as twisted and in love. His relationship with his niece is shown as an erotic obsession. In real life her death at the young age of 23 was officially called a suicide. Hansen posits an even darker scenario: murder by uncle. It makes a better story this way, but that Hitler was at least the catalyst of his niece's death is clear.
March 7, 2022
Okay here’s the thing and the reasoning of why this took me so long to finish it. The first 3/4 of this book are a snooze. It’s quite difficult with all of the German words I’m unfamiliar with and honestly it just didn’t keep my interest. Fast forward to the last 1/4 of the book. Super interesting and I couldn’t put it down. I understand why the author included the snoozefest that is the first 3/4 but I wish it could have been shortened some!
November 3, 2022
I'm going to need to take some time to think about this one, and in particular the tension between an extremely thoughtful, plausible and disturbing picture he paints of Hitler's psychology, in which his relationship with his niece is also the tale of his relationship with the world around him writ small, and Hansen's efforts to essentially write history without the burdens and boundaries of historical scholarship.
June 26, 2018
This worthy attempt at historical fiction didn’t go far enough, in my opinion, in delving into the main character’s reckoning with her uncle’s evil – even before the Holocaust began. Thus it feels less character-driven and more events-driven, as if hanging the narrative on significant historic markers. (8)
April 26, 2019
Is it over yet? Definitely nothing ground breaking her unless you want to rad about Hitler’s sexual activities which I did not. We know he brought Geli to Munich and basically controlled her ever move. Nothing new there. Now, did Hitler kill her or did she commit suicide. To be honest, who cares?
Bought it at a garage sell and should have passed it up.
Two stars.
Bought it at a garage sell and should have passed it up.
Two stars.
February 10, 2020
Interesting to watch the growth of Hitler's popularity and power through the eyes of his niece. The one statement that disturbed me was "The people were welcoming extreme solutions [to political problems]. Sound familiar?
February 27, 2020
Çok fazla mekan ve kişinin içinde boğulduğumu düşünüyorum. Daha sade bir anlatım olabilirdi. Onun dışında gerçeğe bağlı bir kurgu olması dolayısıyla ve hitlerin çarpık aile ilişkileri ile hastalıklı ruhsal durumunu bir kez daha gözler önüne sermesi sebebiyle etkileyici idi.
May 25, 2022
Did not like writing style. And not sure how much is true. I felt the author gathered bits of eye witness accounts of Hitler and sewed them together to create a possible scenario. I would have preference a one page magazine article
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