Hitler's Heroine: Hanna Reitsch (34 page)

25 Perhaps understandably, many of the images of the Führerbunker show it after the fall of Berlin. Built next to the Reich Chancellery, it was connected to the Vorbunker and, via a tunnel, to the older bunkers under the Chancellery. This image shows one of the entrances and a nearby ventilation tower. (German Federal Archives)

26 Himmler sent Hanna chocolate and fruit juice after her crash in the Komet. Having always perceived him to be unkind, the gifts made Hanna reconsider and she paid him a visit after she had recovered. Himmler was not what she expected and denied the atrocities committed on the Jews. Hanna came to think he had been misrepresented, much to the shock of her friends. (German Federal Archives)

27 General Robert Ritter von Greim was a veteran of the First World War and the man who replaced Ernst Udet as a father figure to Hanna. It was because of von Greim that Hanna found herself in Hitler’s bunker. Von Greim committed suicide in 1945. (German Federal Archives)

28 A view inside the bunker. The SS had attempted to burn the interior. The bunker rapidly filled with water and by the time the Russians entered and were able to take photographs there was already an inch of floodwater on the floor. The image shows the grimness of the bunker where Hanna thought she would die. (German Federal Archives)

29 Hanna formed a tentative friendship with Magda Goebbels, which made it hard to view her actions dispassionately after the war. Hanna had also become deeply attached to the Goebbels children. In the background of this image stands Magda’s first son, Harald Quandt, who would cause problems for Hanna within the aviation community after the war. (German Federal Archives)

30 The ruins of the Führerbunker in 1947. At this time Hanna was still being interrogated by the Americans about the possibility the she had helped Hitler escape and controversy was rife over whether Hitler had actually survived the war. Hugh Trevor-Roper was working on his famous book, which would prove Hitler had perished and portray Hanna in an unflattering light. (German Federal Archives)

31 The unfortunate Joachim Küttner was a gliding friend of Hanna who discovered he had Jewish ancestors when the Third Reich came to power. Banished from gliding – much to Hanna’s outrage – he found it necessary to leave Germany. Hanna helped him get work abroad and eventually he ended up working on the US space programme, ironically alongside another of Hanna’s gliding friends – Wernher von Braun.

32 Hanna had few friends in Germany when she was asked to go to India as a special ambassador and promote gliding. She desperately wanted to meet Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru (pictured here on the left) and actually managed to take him up in her glider. She became very friendly with all the Nehru family.

33 When her father died, Indira Ghandi (
née
Nehru) took his place for several years, until her assassination. She often wrote to Hanna and Hanna sent presents to Indira’s two sons, including model aircraft.

34 After Hitler, Hanna’s relationship with the president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, was her biggest mistake. Though he preached freedom for Africans, he was in fact a dictator. A military coup ousted Nkrumah from power while he was out of the country. Hanna visited him in exile. He is seen here before the coup, speaking with President John F. Kennedy.

35 Karl Ritter was a movie producer with strong ties to the Nazi Party. He made propaganda films and befriended Hanna when she starred in a Ufa production. Demonstrating Hanna’s complete lack of common sense when it came to politics, she is here seen sitting with Ritter post-war, when her reputation was at its worst and many deemed her still a Nazi. (Michael Ritter)

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Cover illustration:
Hanna Reitsch in her hometown of Hirschberg. (German Federal Archives)