Adolf Hitler’s wife Eva Braun’s knickers go under the hammer
Bonn · A collector has paid more than 3000 euro for underwear belonging to Eva Braun.
Anyone who thinks every last piece of Hitler’s private life has been analysed to reveal the Nazi leader’s inner thoughts is mistaken. Seventy years after the end of the war, a very personal accessory has come under the spotlight – and one that presumably during the dictator’s lifetime was for his eyes only. A pair of magnolia-coloured briefs belonging to Eva Braun, the woman who was briefly Hitler’s wife, changed ownership for 3250 euro during a sale at an English auction house.
Who would pay so much money for a pair of antique knickers? The auction house has remained discreet, but the final price was almost ten times higher than expected. The classically forties-style piece, with the embroidered initials E and B, exhibited hardly any wear. In 2015, a similar piece was found at a secondhand shop in Elmore, a village in Ohio, that has seldom seen as many journalists as arrived to see Eva’s pants. Poor Eva; one can only imagine what the Führer would have made of it all.
Even Hermann Göring’s underwear sells like hotcakes. The British press recently referred to the sale of a pair of his silk underpants- with a waistband measuring 114 centimetres – as “Silk Heil.” Is Nazi underwear a new object of desire for private collectors weary of war uniforms and medals? Or for rightwing sympathisers or contemporary history detectives who want to use underwear to come closer to a myth?
Eva Braun died with Adolf Hitler after taking poison on 30 April 1945. Then, as now, little is known of her private life.
Original text: Jasmin Fischer. Translated by Kate Carey.
