Hitler's Lover, Maria Reiter
Maria Reiter (1909-1982), was one of the great (and little known) loves of Adolf Hitler’s life. He met her in 1926, when she was 16 years old and living in Berchtesgaden. Inexplicably, some historians doubt her story of a love affair with Hitler. But the evidence she presented is essentially iron-clad.
For this reason alone, her recollections are invaluable. Several intimates of Hitler such as Heinrich Hoffmann, Anni Winter, Gretl Braun and Wilma Schaub all knew about Mimi Reiter and confirmed the details of the liaison to American authorizes after World War II.
Maria Reiter was always called by Austrian diminutives by Hitler. He called her Mimi, Mimilein or Mizzerl and never by her given name, Maria. In a 1971 interview with Emil Maurice (Hitler’s chauffeur), Maurice admitted: “Hitler loved her with a crazy intensity. She was a girl he really could have married.” (Taped interview with Maurice, Toland papers, Library of Congress). Mimi Reiter gave several interviews in 1959, when she finally told the world her story of her love affair with Hitler. He first interview was in 1959 for the German magazine,Der Stern, to journalist Guenther Peis.
Mimi gave an additional interview to Bunte magazine in January, 1960, as well as to an American journalist in 1960 and again in 1989. Over the years, her story has been mistranslated or purposefully embellished. Various authors have added things to her reminiscences or blatantly altered her words.
The Unknown Lover: Fourteen Years after the End of the War, we Bring You a Woman who Claims She was Hitler’s Greatest Love (By Guenther Peis)
Maria Reiter was born in Berchtesgaden on December 23, 1909. In the summer of 1926, Fräulein Reiter was 16 years old and working at her sister’s clothing shop in downtown Berchtesgaden. Her older sister, Anni, was 21 years old and her legal guardian. Mimi lived with Anni and her husband, Gottfried Hehl.
In 1926, neither Anni or Mimi Reiter had never heard of the politician Adolf Hitler, even though he was then living on the Obersalzberg, a few miles north of Berchtesgaden. Mimi’s mother died on September 11, 1926. Her narrative picks up shortly after the death of her mother.
Maria Reiter begins her story:
About fourteen days after the death of my mother, my brother Richard came into our clothing shop. He told us that the radical politician, Adolf Hitler, was staying in the area and riding around town in a huge super-charged Mercedes car. Richard seemed to evince a great fascination with this Hitler person, though I had never heard of him at that time.
When Richard was telling us about Hitler, suddenly a man stopped outside our clothing shop and seemed to be window shopping. It just so happened that it was Adolf Hitler himself that was just then outside our little shop. Richard immediately said, ‘Look there, there is Hitler, what a coincidence! That’s him, that’s the man I was just talking to you about, Adolf Hitler.’
With these words my brother sealed my future fate. My sister Anni and I ran to the front door of the shop and started at this supposedly famous man. I will never forget my first site of Adolf Hitler. He was wearing white knee socks, a blue windbreaker and some Lederhosen. He was walking an absolutely gorgeous German shepherd dog with him. At that first moment, the dog impressed me more than Hitler. I later discovered the dog’s name was Prinz.
A few days later, I got to meet Adolf Hitler. Our first conversation took place in the Berchtesgaden Kurpark. The park had many benches where people could rest and talk. One afternoon I took our German shepherd, Marko, to the Park during my lunch break. Anni, my older sister, was with me during out lunch break.
Suddenly I saw Hitler coming out of his Hotel and walking in our direction. My heart raced because our brother Richard had told us he was an important man. Suddenly this political celebrity was standing right in front of Anni and he made a gallant bow.
“Hitler was extremely polite and formal. He bowed twice and then said very correctly to Anni, 'Excuse me, gracious miss, would you please tell me who the beautiful blonde girl is there, on the bench next to you?’
Hitler nodded his head in Mimi’s direction. Her knees were trembling.
"Hitler continued talking to my sister: 'I saw this young lady yesterday when she was walking a nice dog here in the park. May I please ask who she is?’”
Anni looked up at the intense man and said, “that is my younger sister.”
Hitler smiled and said, “You would make me so happy if you would introduce me to her.”
Mimi Reiter looked back on this scene and smiled knowingly. She describes her impressions:
“Of course I was noticing Hitler and heard everything he said to my sister. But I had to admit that my first impressions were not very favorable. I didn’t like his mustache, I thought it looked a little funny. But I did think he was fashionably dressed.”
Mimi was very shy at the age of 16 and had never had a male acquaintance, especially one who was 37 years old, and quite an old man for her tastes. She pretended to be engrossed with her German shepherd and pretended also not to be overhearing Hitler’s chat with Anni.
Mimi describes her first words with Hitler:
“He seemed very nervous before speaking to me. I noticed how he took his whip and kept moving it from his left hand to his right hand, awkwardly. Then he bowed slightly to me, took my right hand very tenderly into his right hand and then stared at me for an inordinately long time. It was a very penetrating stare ("er schaute mich mit durchdringenden Blicken an”).
Hitler then said to me, “Your dog is very beautiful and well behaved,” all the while giving me a penetrating and intense look. “I know how to train dogs, it’s a complicated business,” he said.
Mimi was uncomfortable with Hitler’s intensive staring.
“I have never been with a man before,” she admits now. “I had never been on a date alone, I had never been kissed by a man. And this man was far older than me. I was very afraid.”
Mimi then answered Hitler, “I didn’t train my dog, Herr Hitler. My brother-in-law did so.”
Maria Reiter admits now, “My answers were clipped and short. I was only 16 years old and this 'old man’ Hitler had sat down right next to me on the bench and was staring at me in a provocative way.”
Hitler kept the chat to the subject of German shepherds. “I can’t imagine my life without Prinz,” he told her, while studying her face and her legs. He wasn’t paying any attention to Prinz, but staring with unblinking eyes at Mimi Reiter.
The conversation lasted slightly more than one hour and consisted mostly of chatting about dogs. Mimi got up the courage to ask him if it was true that he had been in prison. Hitler laughed and admitted he had indeed been incarcerated. During this time, his eyes consistently hung on Mimi, making her very uncomfortable.
Finally it was time for the sisters to return to their shop to re-open the business for the afternoon. Hitler stood up and very formally bowed in front of Anni.
“May I ask your permission, dear lady, to take a walk with your younger sister some time?”
Anni also told Hitler that Mimi was just 16 years old and that he was “far too old” for her. In any case, it had only been 2 weeks since their mother had died and she was in mourning.
Hitler said nothing, bowed again and turned back to walk into his hotel. Anni thought the matter was concluded, but she was quite mistaken.
Though Mimi had spontaneously run away from the 37 year old politician, he had made an impression on her at first glance.
“I have to admit,” she says now, “that he was very dashing. He dressed very well and memorably. His blue eyes were amazing to gaze into. There’s nothing to compare them to. He was really very imposing and special to meet. The only think I didn’t like at first glance was his mustache, I thought to myself that if any woman kissed him, his mustache would tickle them.”
During the next two days, the Reiter sisters neither saw or heard from Hitler. But on the third day, he suddenly showed up at their clothing shop, walking into the door all by himself. Within seconds, his friend, Max Amann, followed him into the shop.
Max Amann engaged Anni in conversation while Hitler tried to monopolize Mimi. He asked her to take a walk with him. His specific destination was the Hochlenzer, a restaurant on the Obersalzberg that Hitler frequented.
Mimi said to him that the area was her homeland and she knew the Hochlenzer very well. She said, “I am at the Hochlenzer every Saturday and Sunday, you could find me there then.”
A little bit sarcastically, she then said to Hitler, “naturally I only go there with my close girlfriends or my relatives.” After a pause she said, “of course I’ve never there with some strange older man.”
Hitler looked at her searchingly with a penetrating gaze but was silent. He then bowed, left the shop and said nothing to Mimi.
Two hours later, Hitler’s friend and associate, Max Amann, suddenly appeared in the Reiter clothing shop. It was very obvious that Hitler had personally asked to come on this mission. Amann tersely greeted Anni and then took Mimi aside to talk to her privately.
Amann said, “Tonight at the Hotel Deutsches Haus (in Berchtesgaden), Hitler is going to give a speech. And he asked me to ask you, Miss Mimi, if you would like to see him give his speech this evening?” Mimi noticed the invitation was only for her, not for Anni. Happily, Anni then interjected that she cared nothing for politics and that Mimi had her permission to go and see Hitler that evening.
Mimi admitted, “I was afraid, especially when Herr Amann said to me, 'Naturally Hitler has to give a speech first, but he wants you know that afterwards, he wants to spend time with you. Of course you understand that afterwards, he’d like very much to sit with you alone.”
Mimi agreed to attend but demanded that her older sister attend as well, as a “chaperone.” Amann tried to convince her otherwise, but Mimi insisted, so Anni broke down and went with her younger sister.
That evening, the two Reiter sisters attended a Nazi rally at the Hotel Deutsches Haus. Everyone in the audience turned to look at them as they walked in and were seated in the front row at Hitler’s private table. Their presence created quite a stir in the hall, as most locals knew the sisters from their clothing shop.
Mimi remembers, “after we were seated, I looked up to see Hitler sitting on the podium, waiting to give his speech. He saw me and smiled, jumping down from the stage to greet me. He said, "Mimi, you have no idea how happy I am that you made the time to come and hear me.”
Mimi continued, “he pulled up my chair for me and gently pushed it back in. I’d never had a man pay attention to me, my father had been very brutal to me. But Hitler was kind and so gentle. I started to like him a little bit more after he began to show me affection.”
Hitler called over a waitress and had her bring Mimi some Sprudel (a non-alcoholic German sparking drink, like a Seven Up), and also some mineral water. Hitler asked if she was happy with her seat and her drink, then mounted the podium again, waiting to take center stage.
Maria Reiter was intensely embarrassed and became very red in the face.
“I had the impression,” she says, “that he arranged this entire speech just for me. He later told me, years later, that this was his way of conquering me. He knew he was a very gifted speaker, and that if I saw him orate, I would fall for him.”
When Hitler began his speech, Mimi became enthralled very quickly. He continued to embarrass her by how he behaved on the stage.
“He just kept fixing his eyes on me,” Mimi says. “His stare was always very intense. He kept looking at me, directly in my eyes, over and over. It was so obvious even my sister Anni was embarrassed for me. Hitler was anything but discreet. He was just speaking to me and me alone. I will never forget how uncomfortable and exposed I felt, though also I admit I was quite flattered.”
Mimi noticed that many other women in the audience seemed to want Hitler and they appeared very jealous of the pretty girl sitting at his table. Several of the women openly sneered or taunted Mimi during and after the speech.
When the talk ended, Hitler went to Anni and told her the meeting had been illegal because he was banned from speaking in Germany. Anni was so shaken by this news, she asked to take Mimi home. Hitler hesitated and asked if he might accompany her home in a short while. Anni agreed and left the hall, and Hitler then took Mimi to a private room, adjacent to where he had just delivered his fiery speech. Hitler arranged it so he and Mimi could sit closely together, though there were several other people at the same table, including two young girls who knew Hitler and who were very attached to him. Mimi does not remember their names but said, “they knew Hitler much better than I and they were staring daggers at me because he was paying attention only to me.”
Hitler told me in Munich months later that women were always chasing after him, that he could pick and choose whoever he wanted, but that he wanted Mimi alone.
Hitler’s chauffeur, Emil Maurice, then rejoined the group and took the two other young girls to another table, leaving Hitler and Mimi alone. Hitler became so intensively tactile with Mimi that it made her very uncomfortable.
“I was only 16,” she says, “He was a grown man and becoming very familiar with me. I liked him, but he was still just a strange old man to me!”
The budding Fuehrer took both of Mimi’s hands tenderly in his. He held her hands tightly underneath the table and asked her if she had understood his speech. She said that she had liked the speech and was afraid he would ask her to repeat little details. She was relieved when they were interrupted by a waitress and she never had to volunteer anything about his oration.
Hitler then began to call her “Du,” (the intimate form of saying “you” in German, reserved for close friends, family and lovers).
Mimi then said, “he started to take little liberties with me, slowly. He cut up some cake with a knife and started gently feeding me the cake with his fingers. He fed me like I was a little child, patting my hair and putting his hands on my brow (Traudl Junge, Hitler’s secretary from 1943-45 said, "Hitler hated being touched, but he oftentimes would put his fingers on people’s brows.”)
The charm of the Fuehrer knew no bounds and he was pulling out all the stops. He treated her one moment like a tender child, and the next moment, flirted with her as if she was a 30 year old woman. It was a sophisticated way to make inroads with a teenage girl and he made a huge impression on the her.
After a few hours, Hitler asked Mimi about her recently deceased mother. He spoke about how he had loved his own mother, who he said had died right before Christmas.
He told Mimi, “you have the same lovely blue eyes that my dear mother had.” All the while, Mimi noticed Emil Maurice and the two other Berchtesgaden girls, moving to a more distant table. She was increasingly isolated and more alone with Hitler. It occurred to her that Hitler had planned this beforehand with Emil Maurice. He later admitted to her that he had indeed pre-planned this first step in his seduction of her.
Hitler then laid his hands on her shoulders, pulling her towards him.
Mimi recalled, “I could feel the warmth of his hands on me and he whispered, 'I want to accompany you to the grave of your mother, would you allow that?’”
In the middle of this flirtation, one of the girls from the other table, Ernestine Metke, said, “Herr Hitler, tell us why you have never married?”
Then Hitler became even more cozy with Mimi, as she recalls today:
“When Miss Metke asked her curious question, Hitler suddenly pressed his knee very firmly against my thigh and then he stepped on my shoe with his shoe, exerting a lot of pressure. He was practically crushing my toes with his shoe. I knew he was sending me a signal, especially when he answered the girl. Hitler said, 'I will only marry a girl that I truly and deeply love. Who knows when and if that will ever happen?’”
Hitler then looked at Mimi with a “blazing look” and continued to press his knee against her thigh. Then he suggested that he accompany her to her home.
When they arrived at Anni and Gottfried’s home, both were asleep. Max Amann waited patiently in the anteroom by the back door. Mimi prepared she and Hitler both some tea and then realized it was past midnight. Hitler said he was tired and wanted to go back to his hotel. It was then she noticed that Max Amann was no longer in the house but had left.
She was completely alone with his mysterious older man.“Hitler was looking at me again with that uncomfortably intense look,” she admits. “He came closer to me, so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek. He then took me tenderly by the shoulders and caressed my cheek with hi index finger. 'Won’t you give me a goodbye kiss?” he said.
Though Mimi was beginning to like Hitler, she was still a very young girl of 16 and was afraid. She said, “No, Herr Hitler, I’ve never been kissed before and I cannot kiss you.”
Hitler looked at her searchingly for a long time, then said, “If you really can’t do this, if you are too afraid to move forward, then we must not see each other again. Really. We can’t meet each other again, it would cause us both too much pain. Don’t you want the same thing I want?”
Mimi recalls that Hitler’s forehead knitted together and he scowled. His mouth suddenly became very narrow and pinched, the pain was evident in his eyes. Everything that had been warm and inviting in his face had turned cold.
Hitler then tore the blue curtain to one side, said “Heil!” abruptly and called for Amann outside, who came scurrying up to meet his friend.
Anni ran out to the parlor when she heard Hitler yelling for Amann and asked what had happened. Mimi was silent and confesses now that she returned to her bedroom and cried for several hours. She was attracted to Hitler, but scared of him at the same time due to her youth and inexperience.
However, the romance had not ended, in fact it was just beginning. The next morning, at 10:00 a.m., Max Amann came into the dress shop of the Reiter sisters. He immediately approached Mimi and motioned her to the back room.
“See here,” Amann said to her, “what has happened? I’ve known Hitler for many years and I’ve never seen him in such a state. He poured out his heart to me. You must believe me: this man has completely fallen for you! ("Hitler hat mir sein Herz ausgeschuettet: Glauben Sie mir: Der Mann hat Feuer gefangen.”)
A half an hour later, Hitler himself came into the shop, wearing once more his Lederhosen and white shirt. Mimi recalls that he was in a wonderful mood, smiling, flirting and laughing. He immediately suggested they all make an excursion to the Starnberger See, a lake near Munich. Hitler added that Emil Maurice would drive and that Anni was also invited. Mimi agreed to go.
The next day, a Sunday, at 3:00 in the afternoon, Hitler’s black Mercedes drove up and the two sisters got into the car. Hitler cleverly arranged that Anni sit in the front with Maurice and that Mimi would sit by him in the rear seat. But Hitler and Maurice picked up the sisters not in front of their shop, but 8 blocks away. Hitler told Mimi later, “Berchtesgaden is a small town and people gossip. I want no one gossiping about such a young girl as yourself. Also in my position I can’t afford any idle chatter.”
When Hitler and Maurice picked up the sisters, Hitler hand sprung out of the car and helped Mimi into the back seat. He had a leather helmet and some gloves in the backseat, but he didn’t put them on.
Mimi continued, “My sister Anni had to do an errand for the church and Maurice let her out. Then Hitler told his driver to take up to Bischofswiesen (a small town near Berchtesgaden). After my sister left the car, Hitler immediately began to become more intimate with me. Maurice was driving and not paying us any attention in the backseat. Hitler took my hand in his and gently ran his hands over my face and neck. It was thrilling but also a little unsettling.”
After several minutes, Hitler instructed Maurice to stop the car, he wanted to walk around the forest for a little while. He assisted Mimi out of the car, held her hand, and they walked towards the forest.
“Hitler and I walked a little ways until we reached a beautiful clearing, with the sun coming through the trees,” Mimi remembers. “He made me stand quite still in front of a tree. He turned me left and right, studying my face. He was smiling and looking at me. I wondered what he was doing. and I asked him.”
“Hitler said, 'just stand there exactly as a you are. He stood about 5 paces away from me and was staring at my face, my chest and my legs. Then he stretched his arms out to me and beckoned me to him. 'Do you know what you are now, Mimilein?’ he asked, 'now you are my woodland sprite!’”
Mimi laughed at him and asked what he exactly meant, but Hitler silenced her.
“When you’re older, Mimi, you’ll understand me better, and by the way, you should never laugh at me.”
Then Mimi’s narrative of their first kiss continues: “Hitler then came up to me, grabbed me by the shoulders and passionately kissed me. He kissed me for the first time wildly, stormily and completely unrestrained. He pressed me too him very tightly and whispered, "Mimilein, my beautiful girl, I can’t stop myself anymore, I can’t restrain myself.”
Maria Reiter remembers that Hitler “completely enveloped my upper body with his, crushing me to him. He wrapped his arms around my body and kissed me passionately for a long time, over and over He didn’t know what he should do, he was clearly struggling with containing his feelings. He said several times between kisses, "Mimilein, I want you just way too much. What I feel for you is quite simply everything, kiss me, Mimi.”
Hitler’s romantic overtures were successful. Mimi found she enjoyed kissing this older man who had so much repressed passion for her. For 20 minutes they stood in the forest, kissing with wild abandon.
“I was so happy, I wanted to die in the forest,” Mimi admits. “Hitler kept looking at me with this wild intensity, almost like an animal let loose from a cage. His kisses were bruising and searching, he kissed me on the mouth, the forehead, the neck. I saw how excited he was, I saw how he was struggling with himself and trying to contain his passion, how he balled up his fists and kept trying to hold back.”
“Mimi,” Hitler whispered to her, “I could just crush you right now, right now at this moment.”
Finally after more than a half an hour of fervent kissing and petting, Hitler led Mimi back to the car, where Maurice was patiently waiting. As they walked back to the Mercedes, Hitler would stop a few times and kiss her again, or press her to his chest. He told her she was his ideal woman and under normal circumstances, he could marry her and have children, but first his great mission had to be fulfilled. He didn’t elaborate on what this “mission” (Sendung) was.
When they both reached the car, Hitler was in a glorious mood.
“So, Moritzl, let’s turn around and go back to the town!” Hitler then took both of Mimi’s hands and placed them in his lap. In the car, he gently took his fingers and closed her eyes, telling her to “sleep and dream.” He kissed her forehead and neck and squeezed her hands so tightly she thought he would crush her fingers.
The next day, Hitler visited the shop and took Mimi for a walk in the Kurpark. He asked if he could finally accompany her to the grave of her mother. Mimi agreed. He came around to Anni’s home that evening at 8:00.
Mimi described the scene:
“It was a chilly night, but he was dressed as he was the first day I saw him, with Lederhosen, a blue tie and a white shirt. As always, he was carrying his riding whip with him. We walked hand in hand to the cemetery in town and we stood looking down at the grave of my mother. Hitler bent down and lit two candles and was very solemn. I noticed the muscles in his neck knot together as he was staring down at the grave.”
“I began to cry, because I had only lost my dear mother so recently. I cried for several minutes. Hitler then took both my hands in his hands and pressed my head against his chest, cradling me. Then he pressed his forehead against my cheek and whispered to me, 'I am not like that yet.’”
What Hitler meant with that sentence is not entirely clear. Hitler then gently kissed her at her mother’s grave and said, “Listen to me, my sweet girl. From now on, I want you to call me 'Wolf,’ nothing else.” As they walked away from the cemetery, Hitler took the long way back to her sister’s home and took the time to again kiss her passionately and speak to her how attracted he was to her.
Hitler also for the first time told her that he loved her that evening on the walk.
Mimi said, “his kisses had broken up my reserve. He was very passionate and very forceful, yet also gentle. I found myself not wanting to be away from his embrace, I believe I was already beginning to fall in love with this man.”
Hitler did not attempt to go into the house with her, instead, he formally kissed her hand, clicked his heels and told her he would see her in the morning.
Sadly, the next day brought Mimi some bad news. Hitler told her that he was leaving Berchtesgaden for a few weeks, but he wanted her to write to him care of his landlady in Munich, Frau Dachs. Then Maurice turned up in the huge Mercedes and they took another drive to a secluded spot in the forest.
Once more Hitler and Mimi walked through the trees until Hitler stooped and began kissing her wildly again. He said, “Mimi, you’re everything to me, you are so beautiful, I want you so badly.”
Mimi admitted, “it was then that I started to fall completely in love with this man. He was so passionate, so full of energy and some strange spark, that I felt myself yearning to be with him. I was devastated that he was leaving me and travelling away. I wanted nothing more at that moment that to be with him in any way he wanted.”
Before Hitler left Berchtesgaden for his political trip, he gave Mimi a huge box of chocolate. He told her to eat it in bed every night at 10:00 and he would do the same, and they could think of each other.
During the next month, the couple exchanged many love letters. Hitler sent her candy, some jewelry and even a lock of his hair. He returned to Berchtesgaden in November. The couple resumed their relationship, though Hitler did not attempt to have sexual intercourse with her.
Mimi said, “it was difficult for us to be alone. We would steal moments together when we could, but it was next to impossible to be alone together for extended periods of time. Hitler was very tender and affectionate to me, but we were not yet lovers.”
Once more Hitler disappeared for a month, once more the couple exchanged letters and cards. Here is one of Hitler’s letters to her, dated , dated December 16, 1926:
My dear little Mimi:
You don’t know how much you have come to mean to me. I would so love to have your beautiful and sweet face in front of me so I could personally tell you what you mean to me. December 23 is your birthday. Now I beg of you to take my greeting which comes from the depth of my heart.
From my present (the two-volume edition of Mein Kampf), you should see how pleased I am that my sweet love is writing so often to me. You have no idea how happy a sweet little letter from you will make me. Out of it your lovely voice speaks to me. And then I always taken by a desire for you as if it was the first time. Are you also sometimes thinking of me? Tell me so and write me.
You know Mimi, whenever I have trouble or cares, I would so much like to be with you, to be able to look into your eyes in order to forget all of life’s cares. Yes, Mizzerl, you recall how much you mean to me and how deeply I love you. But read the books! Then you will be able to understand me.
Now again my sincerest best wishes for your birthday and for Christmas with my whole heart.
From your own
Wolf
———
On December 23, 1926, Mimi Reiter turned 17. To her surprise and happiness, Hitler turned up in their clothing shop, totally unexpectedly.
Mimi recalled, “Wolf was in a wonderful mood, so happy and like a boy. I was thrilled to see him again. He wished me a happy birthday and gave me a beautiful gold wristwatch. The next day we celebrated Christmas together, while me sister and my brother-in-law were absent from the house. I was more than ready to offer myself to Hitler, but he was cautious about this and had a mania for privacy. He told me that as hard as it was for him to wait, we simply had to wait for 'the right time.’”
The 'right time’ occurred in early March, 1927. Mimi was an excellent ice skater and at that time, took part in many competitions. She travelled by herself by rail to Munich to take place in an ice skating event.
She recalls:
“I was taking my practice laps when I looked up and saw Hitler and Emil Maurice sitting on one of the benches in the ice skating hall. I was so thrilled at seeing Wolf, I wanted to break off the competition just to see him. We chatted a little while and he insisted I compete. But I was so distracted by Wolf’s presence, I fell and didn’t even get a medal.”
After the event, Maurice drove Hitler and Mimi to his local restaurant, the Café Heck, by the Odeonsplatz in Munich. Maurice discreetly left them alone in a back table. Hitler immediately began talking to Mimi of his future plans with her.
Mimi continues:
“We sat there for over two hours. The only gloomy moment was when I ordered Schnitzel. Wolf glowered and said, 'Mimilein, how can you eat the flesh of animals? That is made from veal, how can you eat that?”
The table where they were seated was completely screened off from the other patrons, so Hitler took liberties with the young girl.
“He pressed his forehead against my neck, over and over, whispering to me how much he loved me, how much he wanted to spend his life with me and how beautiful I was. He kept saying, "Mimi, you have no idea how much I love you, do you love me too?”
After the meal, Maurice picked them up. In the backseat, Hitler kissed Mimi repeatedly and said, “You’re never going to be separated from me again, Mimchen. Did you hear me? When I get a bigger apartment, you have to stay with me, always. We’ll pick out everything together: the pictures, the chairs, the furniture. I can see everything already: a beautiful long sofa in violet plush.”
Yes, Hitler spent the car drive talking about living with Mimi in Munich. Of course she was thinking about marriage, he was not thinking of marriage at all, but only of living together. But she didn’t know that yet.
Maurice drove Hitler and Mimi to a street near the Isar. When they got out of the car, Hitler told Mimi this was his apartment in Munich (41 Thierschstrasse). He said, “I know you’d like to change out of your skating dress, you can do so here.” Mimi agreed and noticed that Maurice drove away. It was midday and Hitler escorted her up the stairs one flight, to his modest apartment on the right side of the hallway.
Mimi says, “Though by then I was very deeply in love with Wolf, I was still unsure and afraid. I knew what was going to happen, and it was what we both wanted, but I was a young girl.”
Mimi naively asked Hitler to turn his back while she changed. Obediently, he took a chair and sat in it, pretending to look through a book. Mimi struggled out of her skating dress, but a button got stuck on her blue evening gown and she had to ask him to unfasten it.
“Hitler helped me with the button,” Mimi says, “and then he turned me around to face him. He crushed me to him and kissed me passionately. He gently rocked me back on my heels and lifted me into his arms, placing me on his simple iron bed. We made love there.”
According to Mimi, Hitler was “a total man.” She says, “these rumors that he could not make love to a woman are utterly false. He was 100% capable of it and was very patient and gentle with me, knowing that I was inexperienced in the ways of intimacy.”
For the next several hours, Hitler and Mimi spent in each others arms in his dingy flat in Munich.
When he finally got up from the bed, he turned and said, “My dear darling, I have another surprise for you. Tonight I have tickets at the Gaertnerplatz Theater for Zirkusprinzessin. We can sit together and spend the evening this way.”
Maurice and a certain woman named Dr. Ida Arnold accompanied them. Mimi had the impression that Dr. Arnold and Maurice were a romantic couple. During the intermission, Hitler explained to Mimi that it was too dangerous for her to spend the evening in his apartment, and that she would have to spend the night in Dr. Arnold’s guest bedroom at her apartment.
That evening, Dr. Arnold asked Mimi many intrusive questions about Hitler.
“She saw that we loved each other,” Mimi said. “That night was very special for us both, we were both glowing with love, she noticed it and asked me if I thought Hitler would ever marry me. I remember her being very irate when she found out I was just 17 years old. I looked older and she was upset by that.”
The next day Hitler and Maurice drove Mimi back to the Munich train station, but he joined her in Berchtesgaden a few days later. For three weeks in April, 1927, the couple were together in Berchtesgaden.
“Wolf and I were able to steal many afternoons together at my sister and brother-in-law’s house. The mother of Gottfried was ill and both my sister and he were in Augsburg. Wolf and I spent many blissful hours there, it was by far the happiest time of my life. Wolf was very happy and told me every day how desperately he loved me. And I confess that I was terribly in love with him. Every moment with him was absolutely blissful. I dreamt of marrying him and having his children.”
But inevitably, Hitler’s political mission interrupted this idyll. Again he left Berchtesgaden, again he was gone for weeks or months at a time.
In July, he finally returned to Berchtesgaden. But curiously, he didn’t stop to see Mimi. In fact, she saw him walk by the clothing shop and he didn’t even come inside.
“I was devastated,” Mimi says today. “I was never so desolate in my life. I watched the man I love walk by the shop and ignore my existence. He was my first and my only lover, he was the man I knew I would someday marry. He never gave an explanation then. After a few hours, I began to cry. I began to cry hysterically. I imagined Wolf with other women, there were always women chasing him. I felt as if he didn’t love me anymore. I wanted to die. A life without him was a life I did not want to live.”
The next day, Mimi took a clothesline and tied it around her neck. She tied the other end around a doorknob and slammed the door shut, attempting to commit suicide. She fell to the floor unconscious. Several hours later, her brother in law, Gottfried Hehl, discovered her and rushed to a doctor. Mimi recovered and Gottfried Hehl sought out Hitler immediately to demand why he had stopped seeing Mimi.
(At this point, the article explains how Dr. Ida Arnold had been writing anonymous letters to the Nazi Party HQ, claiming she had personal knowledge that Hitler was “seducing young girls in Berchtesgaden.” Hitler told Helh that over 8 such letters had been received and he could not afford any political scandal. He told Hehl, “I love Mimi with my whole heart, please tell her this, but I have to remain distant from her for awhile.”
Mimi had to sign a sworn statement that she and Hitler were merely “friends." On May 10, 1930, Mimi Reiter married an Austrian hotel owner in Innsbruck. She admitted she "did not love him, but I was lonely.”)
Mimi remembered, “In 1928 and 1929 Wolf wrote me some more letters and cards (all of which still exist). He sent me a beautiful wedding present and a silver goblet with his engraved name on it. I still loved him passionately and my marriage was unhappy from the start.”
Then the death of Hitler’s niece, Geli Raubal, changed everything for both Hitler and for Mimi Reiter. Geli Raubal died on September 19, 1931. In early October, 1931, a man that Mimi recognized was standing in front of her at the hotel she ran in Innsbruck.
“My name is Hess,” the man with the prominent eyebrows told her. “Herr Hitler sent me. He wants to know if you are happy.”
Mimi looked at him and said immediately, “No!” Hess asked her what message he should convey to Hitler.
Mimi said, “Tell him that I am extremely happy that he sent you to ask me this question. Tell him that I would love to see him again.”
Mimi remembers: “My heart was in my throat when Hess drove away. He had handed me Hitler’s private telephone number to his apartment. Naturally this stirred up all my old memories of Wolf. My husband and I were already separated and our marriage had been very short and miserably unhappy. All I wanted at that moment was to see Wolf again.”
Mimi wasted little time. She left Seefeld two days later and took the train to Munich. At the railway station she called Hitler. At first a woman answered (probably Frau Anni Winter, Hitler’s housekeeper). Mimi waited a few moments and called again. This time Hitler himself answered the phone.
“When he heard my voice, he was very happy and touched. He said to me, "Mizzerl, where are you? I want you to come to me, do you hear me? I want you this very minute. He asked me if I still loved him. I started to cry and said, 'I can’t tell you that over the telephone.’”
Hitler instructed Mimi to get a taxi and drive to the apartment of Julius Schaub, his adjutant. When she arrived there, Schaub then accompanied her in a taxi to Hitler’s apartment on the Prinzregentenplatz. It was around noon when Schaub escorted her to Hitler’s flat.
Mimi Reiter:
“Schaub walked me into the large living room. I had never been to this apartment, I had only seen Wolf’s prior dwelling. This was far more luxurious, in a nicer part of town and it was so nice and almost 'swanky.’ There didn’t seem to be anyone stirring in the apartment at all, it was silent. Schaub left. About five minutes later, Hitler moved a curtain aside and suddenly was standing there in a dark blue suit. He looked somehow imposing, he looked more mature and worldy-wise than my dear Wolf from the 1920’s.”
Hitler walked up to Mimi and took her into his arms.
“He was very tender and correct with me,” Mimi remembers. I was trembling to be with him again, but at first, he wanted only to talk. Whenever I could want to caress him or hold him, he gently said, “later, there is plenty of time for that, later…” and he asked me extensively about my husband. I confessed to him that I had run away and abandoned my husband and that I wanted to divorce him. Hitler was furious, not out of any moral reason, but because he was concerned my husband might gain an advantage in the divorce proceedings.
Mimi: “We talked for two hours. Then he suggested we go on an excursion to the Tegernsee. Schaub went with us with his new driver, Schreck. We had a picnic and Wolf and I were able to spend some private time alone together, where finally he showed me physical affection and told me he still loved me deeply and truly.”
Schreck drove the couple back to Hitler’s apartment.
Mimi Reiter: we had already eaten a hearty snack at the Tegernsee. We arrived back to Hitlers deserted apartment around 8:00 in the evening. Schreck and Schaub disappeared. For two hours we talked about the past and he mentioned the death of his beloved niece, an event which Schaub had mentioned to me.
“I asked Hitler if I could move to Munich and if he could arrange for me to get some kind of job. He laughed and said 'you’re never going to work. You’re going to stay with me, From this moment on, you belong to me and I am going to take your life into my hands.’”
Hitler then got up from the sofa, dimmed the lights and returned to Mimi, taking his hands and caressing her face and hair.
Mimi: “Wolf pressed me to him and kissed me. We kissed each other for a long time and it felt as if no time had elapsed since our old love affair from 1927. It was a little past midnight and he leaned me further and further back on his couch. He grabbed me more and more tightly. I let everything happen to me. It was what we both had always wanted and we had been denied it for 4 years. I was never so happy in my life as that night when we were alone in his apartment.”
“Around 2:30 at night, Wolf finally straightened up from the sofa and stood up. He brought me a silk robe and wrapped me up in it and then snuggled with me.”
“He whispered to me, "Mimilein, you know that now I’m rich. I can offer you everything and anything you want. I can create a paradise for you. Just stay with me. My darling angel, I love you very, very much. Tell me you love me and that you will always stay with me.”
Mimi told Hitler with great tenderness that she loved him as much as loved her. But then she said something he didn’t like.
“Wolf,” Mimi said to him, “I love you more than I have ever loved anyone, but I’m not suited to be a mistress, hidden away from the world. I want to be with you, but I can’t be happy just seeing you at your convenience and waiting for you to visit me. Surely you can understand that?”
Mimi recalls that Hitler was snuggled with her on his sofa and suddenly became angry. He stood up and turned away from her.
“What are you demanding of me?” he said in an angry voice. “What am I supposed to give up for a woman? I love you. I have always loved you and I have always wanted you. But I want to have you here, right here, in my apartment. I want you to understand something: I’ve never had a relationship with a woman like I have had with you. Do you know that?”
They spent the rest of the night, arguing and making love. The next morning, Mimi returned to Austria, but Hitler repeatedly phoned her when he was on the road busy with politics. Throughout 1932, he arranged four or five clandestine meetings with Mimi.
She recalls: “Twice we met at the apartment of Max Amann. He was from Munich and had maintained a dwelling there for many years. Max Amann knew Wolf very well and he knew me from the old days. Wolf and I would spend two or three hours together, and they were the most blissful hours of my life. I never could get enough of him, nor he or me. He always told me how much he loved me and consistently tried to persuade me to remain with him as his mistress in his apartment.”
Twice more they met in Hitler’s Munich apartment, after a night at the opera.
“Wolf continually told me he wanted me to be his lover in Munich. I was perfectly willing to accept that role because of my great love for him, but I also insisted that eventually we must marry. I also wanted to have children. This would enrage Wolf, who would throw up his hands and say, "I love you! I can never marry, what about that can’t you understand!?’”
In 1932, Hitler arranged for his attorney, Hans Frank, to handle the divorce between Mimi and her Austrian husband. He was constantly gone from Munich and his trysts with Mimi in the Bavarian capitol became less frequent and Hitler was sometimes now distracted and rushed.
Their last intimate episode occurred in Munich, a few weeks before he was named Chancellor (let it be noted that Hitler was also sleeping with Eva Braun at this same time, and using the same sofa for “intimate purposes.”)
Mimi Reiter: “It was right after the New Year, 1933, a snowy night. Hitler summoned me to his apartment. We had a light meal of Semmeln and some chocolates and then we made love. I was always gloriously happy to be in his arms and to assure him how deeply loved he was. For several hours we were together, and then Hitler said to me very softly, "I love you and this is the last time I am going to ask you this. I want you to be here, with me. Here in the apartment. The fact I would even offer a divorced woman this opportunity is amazing to me.”
But Mimi rejected his proposal.
“I told him that under no circumstances could I live this way forever. I wanted to marry him, he was my lover and my life. I wanted to have children with him, be a normal person. I will never forget Hitler’s reaction. He was buttoning up his shirt and suddenly sprang up and had a rage, the only true rage I ever saw him have.
He screamed, "all you women just think about having children! I have a great mission to fulfill, you know I can never get married to anyone!”
Mimi was shocked. “It was a terrible scene. I was afraid someone would hear, it was three o'clock in the morning and even though we were alone, Hitler was very loud. He kept screaming he had his mission to fulfill and he didn’t have the time to devote to a wife and children. Finally he calmed down, we kissed each other and said goodbye.”
Mimi Reiter saw Hitler again in 1934, 1936 and 1938. They never had intimate relations again, and met merely as “friends.” She married Georg Kubisch in 1936 and Hitler personally congratulated Kubisch. He said to me, “So you’re the lucky man. Always treat this woman well, you are very fortunate to be having her.” When Kubisch died in France in 1940, Hitler sent Mimi 100 red roses. They exchanged several additional letters, but never met again.
