New records put Hitler at center of renewed questions over his niece’s 1931 death

Newly uncovered archival documents challenge the established timeline of Geli Raubal's 1931 death, placing Hitler in Munich when her body was reportedly discovered. German historian Harold Sandner found an entry in Munich's death register and two death notices listing September 18 as the discovery date, a day earlier than the accepted account. Historian Thomas Weber called the findings credible but stopped short of concluding Hitler killed Raubal.

Newly uncovered archival documents have raised questions about the 1931 death of Adolf Hitler's half-niece, Angela 'Geli' Raubal, whose death was officially ruled a suicide. German historian Harold Sandner found an entry in Munich's official death register that gave the date and time of the discovery of Raubal's body as 10:15 a.m. on September 18, 1931, a day earlier than the accepted account. Two death notices also listed September 18 as the date. The accepted account had held that Raubal's body was discovered on September 19 after Hitler had already left Munich for Nuremberg. Official records show Hitler did not leave Munich until the afternoon of September 18, placing him in the city when her body was reportedly discovered. Sandner suggested the conflicting records could point to a possible cover-up by police officials sympathetic to the Nazi Party. Thomas Weber, a historian of Nazi Germany at the University of Aberdeen, told CNN he considered the findings credible and that they seriously challenge the established chronology. Weber stopped short of concluding that Hitler killed Raubal, noting the Nazi Party could have had other reasons to conceal details surrounding her death as it sought broader political support. The documents do not establish how Raubal died or prove Hitler was responsible, but they renew questions about what happened inside Hitler's Munich apartment in September 1931.