Archival findings challenge the 1931 timeline

Newly examined documents from Munich state and municipal archives dispute the long-standing alibi of Adolf Hitler regarding the September 1931 death of his 23-year-old niece, Geli Raubal. German historian and author Harald Sandner identified two death notices alongside an official civil death register entry that record the discovery of Raubal's body on 18 September 1931 at 10:15. For 95 years, the official narrative maintained by the Bavarian justice system and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) asserted that valet Georg Winter discovered her body in a locked room on Saturday, 19 September, a day after Hitler had departed for Nuremberg.

The newly located records place the discovery of the body more than 24 hours earlier than previously reported, during a window when Hitler was still present in Munich. According to Sandner's reconstruction of the day, Hitler attended a party rally between 10:30 and 12:30 on 18 September before departing for Nuremberg later that afternoon.

“Since the body was indisputably in the apartment at that time, the actual time of death must logically have been much earlier: either in the early hours of 18 September, or even the previous night.”

Discrepancies in the official investigation

The established account of Raubal's death rested on a Munich police report completed on 28 September 1931, ten days after the event, which ruled the case a suicide. Investigators carried out no autopsy on the 23-year-old, despite the fatal gunshot wound inflicted with Hitler's own pistol in his apartment on Prinzregentenplatz. Contemporaneous coverage by left-wing Munich newspapers reported that injuries had been noted on her body and that Nazi officials held urgent crisis meetings to determine how to present the incident to the public.

Although Sandner acknowledged that the archival records do not constitute irrefutable proof of police manipulation, they suggest local law enforcement may have protected the rising political figure. Historian Thomas Weber noted to Der Spiegel that Hitler sought to present himself as the embodiment of all virtues and values, an image that any direct implication in his niece's death would have damaged prior to his appointment as German chancellor in January 1933.

Strained relations at Prinzregentenplatz

Raubal, the daughter of Hitler's half-sister Angela Raubal, moved to Munich in 1927 to live in her uncle's apartment. Hitler funded her musical education while exercising severe control over her social contacts and daily routines. Tensions escalated after Hitler discovered her romantic relationship with his chauffeur, Emil Maurice, leaving the Nazi leader infuriated.

Neighbors reported a heated argument between Hitler and Raubal on 18 September, triggered by his refusal to allow her to relocate to Vienna to continue her singing lessons. Political opponents and contemporary press figures questioned the suicide verdict immediately after the 1931 shooting, citing the possessive nature of the relationship. Sandner plans to publish his complete forensic findings detailing the chronological contradictions in the archival record.