80th Anniversary of Hitler’s Suicide in the Führerbunker

On this day 80 years ago, the fascist dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide in Berlin as World War II came to a close, and conspiracies have shrouded his death ever since.

Adolf Hitler spent his last months in the Führerbunker, an underground shelter beneath the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. He descended into the bunker on January 16, 1945, as Soviet forces closed in on the German capital. It was a final retreat, both strategic and psychological, as the Nazi regime collapsed.

As defeat became inevitable, Hitler isolated himself more deeply. His inner circle, including Joseph Goebbels, Martin Bormann, Eva Braun, and a number of military aides and staff, retreated with him. They spent their last days drinking and smoking, except Hitler who abstained from both vices in exchange for a heavy addiction to amphetamines, cocaine, and sedatives administered by his personal doctor.

On April 29, 1945, with Soviet forces just blocks away, Hitler married Eva Braun, his longtime mistress, in a symbolic gesture.

The next day, on April 30, 1945, both Hitler and Eva committed suicide by taking a cyanide capsule, with Hitler also shooting himself in the head.

Their bodies doused in petrol in the garden of the Chancellery and set on fire following Hitler’s explicit instructions. The goal was to prevent his corpse from being captured, displayed, or desecrated—a fate he had seen befall Mussolini.

The Immediate Aftermath

After Hitler’s death, Admiral Karl Dönitz was named his successor, designated as President of the Reich rather than Führer, per Hitler’s political testament. Dönitz briefly led the remnants of Nazi Germany before its unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945.

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s longtime propaganda minister, was named Chancellor of Germany in Hitler’s political will—but he held the position for only one day. Goebbels and his wife Magda chose to die rather than live in a world without National Socialism. On May 1, 1945, they poisoned their six children in the bunker with cyanide, then committed suicide themselves. Their bodies were partially burned, but the Soviets found their remains.

Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary and one of the most powerful men in the Third Reich, attempted to escape Berlin on May 1, 1945, as Soviet troops encircled the city. For decades, his fate was unclear, and he was tried inabsentia at Nuremberg in 1946 and sentenced to death. However, in 1972, skeletal remains were found near the Lehrter Bahnhof in Berlin. DNA tests in 1998 confirmed they were Bormann’s. He had died in 1945, likely by suicide during his failed escape attempt.

Hitler Escaped Conspiracy

One of the most persistent conspiracy theories surrounding Hitler’s demise is the claim that he never died in the Berlin bunker at all. Instead, proponents allege, Hitler escaped the collapsing Third Reich and fled—most commonly to Argentina—shielded by a network of Nazi sympathizers.

The theory hinges on the Soviet Union’s initial refusal to release physical proof of his death, the absence of a fully intact body, the decoy body photographed, and post-war U-boats that appeared in South America. Some theorists even believe that Hitler lived out his days in Antarctica, where the Germans attempted to make settlement to facilitate their whaling expeditions.

People like Otto Günsche, Heinz Linge, Rochus Misch, Traudl Junge, and Erich Kempka testified that they were present in the bunker at the time of Hitler’s suicide or participated in the burning.

Despite a lack of evidence, the Cold War-era conspiracy theory continues to thrive in books, tabloids, and forums.