Hitler’s possible role in niece’s death under scrutiny after documents raise questions about alibi, report says

Updated on: September 24, 2026 / 10:49 AM EDT / AFP

Newly unearthed records in a Munich archive have cast doubt on Adolf Hitler's whereabouts at the time of his niece's suspicious 1931 death, according to news magazine Der Spiegel.

Hitler's unusually close and controlling relationship with his niece, Geli Raubal, has long been the subject of speculation and rumor, and newspaper reports at the time suggested that Hitler may have played a role in her death.

Raubal died from a gunshot wound to the chest from a pistol belonging to Hitler, in what was officially determined to be a suicide.

According to the official account, Hitler's personal servant, Georg Winter, discovered the 23-year-old Raubal's body on the floor inside her locked room in Hitler's apartment in Munich on Sept. 19, 1931, a Saturday.

Hitler, who at the time was a prominent far-right extremist but had not yet seized power in Germany, was away in the city of Nuremberg that day, giving him what appeared to be a strong alibi.

But according to an article in Der Spiegel, historian Harald Sandner recently discovered documents in archives in Munich casting doubt on that account — and raising questions about whether Nazi…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/moneywatch/