What Was Found Inside Hitler's Last Will - YouTube

Hitler was an incredibly rich man when he wrote  his last will and testament in the bunker where  

he would take his life. He had amassed a fortune  from the sales of Mein Kamf, business deals,  

and private investments. But who got Hitler’s  money after his death? What else was in his  

will? And could there be a massive fortune  hidden away somewhere waiting to be found?

As Nazi Germany fell during  the end of World War II,  

Hitler committed suicide and transferred his  power to other members of the Nazi regime.  

But before he did this he wrote a will. There  were three copies of the will distributed,  

and all may have been lost to time if it had  not been for a British intelligence officer  

named Herman Rothman. He was deployed to Germany  to interrogate high level Nazi officials for  

information. While on assignment he spotted a  suspicious man dressed in civilian clothing.  

Rothman decided something didn’t seem right, and  that the man warranted further investigation.

He discovered the German man was carrying  falsified documents. It turned out the  

impostor was Heinz Lorenz. Lorenz was  the press secretary for Joseph Goebbels,  

the man who was made Chancellor of Nazi Germany  by Hitler just before he committed suicide.  

Sewn into one of the seams of Lorenz’s jack  were three documents. They were: a final  

political statement written by Hitler himself, a  document written by Goebbels, and Hitler’s will.

As you might expect the political statement  was wildly racist against the Jewish people.  

Hitler blamed them for his own shortcomings,  and for causing Nazi Germany to lose the war.  

Thus reinforcing what a lunatic Hitler was.  But what was in his will? Who got his fortune?

The first thing Hitler talks  about in his will is his new wife,  

Eva Braun. Up until right before their double  suicide, Eva and Adolf were not yet married.  

Eva was the aid to Hitler’s official photographer.  They first met during a photo shoot of the führer.  

Hitler and Braun developed a relationship,  and when opportunities presented themselves,  

spent time alone together. Hitler explained in his  will that he was too busy to marry, and that was  

why they did it right before their deaths. Some  scholars have their own theories about why Hitler  

waited so long to marry Braun, but according  to Hitler’s will, at the end of April in 1945,  

the two were joined in matrimony. Hitler goes on to declare that Eva  

Braun made the decision under her own  freewill to commit suicide with him.  

Whether this is true or not, we will never know,  but in his will Hitler claims this to be the case.

In the next part of his will Hitler discusses  what will happen to his belongings and money.  

He states that everything he possesses that has  any value should be given to the Nazi Party.  

However, Hitler writes it in a way that  seems as if he doesn’t own much of anything.  

This is far from the truth as he amassed  a fortune from the sales of Mein Kampf,  

as well as through royalties on images of himself,  and business deals. Hitler continues by saying  

that if the Nazi Party does not survive that  his belongings should be given to the State,  

and if the State doesn’t survive then all is  lost, and his wishes are no longer necessary.

Hitler does make specific arrangements for his  paintings and pictures, which he had collected  

over the years. They were to be given to Lintz,  Austria, the town in which he grew up. There he  

wanted the art to be displayed in a gallery for  the public, and not as a private collection.

It is in the next part of the will  that Hitler mentions his money. Yet,  

he still does not acknowledge the massive sum  he has accumulated over the course of his rise  

to power. Hitler gives Martin Bormann,  his private secretary and Nazi official,  

full legal authority to make decisions based  on his will. Hitler states that everything of  

sentimental value, and the funds necessary for a  modest life, should be given to his brothers and  

sisters. However, it would seem his own family  was not quite as important as someone else.

Hitler goes on to say that above all Eva  Braun’s mother should be taken care of.  

He was more intentional in including her  directly in his will than his own family.  

This seems odd, but then again, Hitler  was an odd man. He also put in his will  

that all of his faithful co-workers,  particularly his secretary Frau Winter,  

should be looked after as well. There is  no specific number or amount of money each  

should receive, which means it was up to the  discretion of Bormann. However, we know that  

Hitler’s fortune was massive, so if his last will  and testament was followed, there was a hefty sum  

of money that could have been distributed  among the parties described in the will.

Hitler concludes his will by saying that he,  and his now wife Eva Braun, would rather escape  

disgrace by choosing death over being captured.  He also included that once he took Eva’s life and  

then his own their bodies were to be immediately  burnt. He signed the will: “Given in Berlin, 29th  

April 1945, 4:00 a.m. A. Hitler.” Below his name  the three witnesses of the will signed as well.  

They were: Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Martin  Bormann, and Colonel Nicholaus von Below.

It was not a very long will, and did not  contain many specifics, but it did give us  

a glimpse into what would happen to Hitler’s  belongings once he took his own life. However,  

this begs the question: what really happened  to all of Hitler’s possession and money?  

The surprising thing is, we aren’t entirely sure.

We know for a fact that Mein Kampf made Hitler  very rich. By the time of his death in 1945 the  

book had sold about eight million copies,  and had been translated into 16 languages.  

It is estimated that Hitler earned around  one million dollars per year in royalties.  

Some of this money was used to buy his Alpine  retreat—named the Berghof, which was located  

near the town of Berchtesgaden in Germany. This  was not a cheap estate, so Hitler must have spent  

a significant amount of money on it. He also felt  he had enough money that once he became führer, he  

forwent the salary associated with the position. In Mein Kampf, and other writings, Hitler talked  

about his earlier life in poverty and hardship.  He was a struggling artist in Vienna before  

fighting in World War I and the publication of his  influential book. He talked about how he overcame  

all odds to succeed and make enough money to live  comfortably. Once he had money it was reported  

that he spent millions on gifts and payments to  buy the loyalty of politicians and businessmen.  

The payments would allow him to be able to call  in favors and make others dependent on him.  

Obviously this would not have been  possible without massive sums of money.

Once he became führer Hitler no longer thought  of there being a divide between his personal  

money and that of the Nazi Party. He would use  funds from both his own wealth and the State to  

buy property, art, and make business deals. It  is also well established that before becoming  

the führer Hitler was a tax evader. He was in  debt through back taxes until he rose to power.

And once in power the money continued to  flow into his pockets. Big businesses would  

make huge contributions to his efforts,  so that they could secure military and  

infrastructure contracts. It is estimated  that from the time he started as chancellor,  

until his suicide in 1945, Hitler received over  three billion dollars in corporate payments.

So what happened to all of  Hitler’s money? Is it still  

out there in the world waiting to be discovered?

In his will Hitler says he wanted all his  property and wealth to go to the Nazi Party.  

However, we know that the Nazi’s were defeated,  and therefore, the will defaults to the next  

beneficiary which was the State. In a way  the State did get much of Hitler’s wealth.

At the end of the war the Allies gave the  copyrights of Mein Kampf to the Bavarian  

government. There was still a lot of potential  money that could have been brought in by owning  

the copyrights to the book. However, the  government banned any reprinting of the  

work in Germany, and therefore, those funds  stopped coming in. Both Hitler’s Berghof  

estate in the Alps and his apartment in Munich  were also given to Bavaria. So it would seem  

that a lot of Hitler’s assets did actually  go to the State like he wanted in his will.

However, most of this was in the form  of physical and intellectual property.  

What happened to his expensive  art collections and actual money?

There are accounts of Hitler’s house in the Alps  being bombed by Allied forces and then looted by  

the soldiers. It is possible that much of the  artwork that Hitler had collected was stolen  

during this time. We also don’t know exactly  what was in Hitler’s house when it was raided.  

We know the Nazis liked to create secret passages  and bunkers. If there were such secrets within  

Berghof perhaps the soldiers who found them were  able to get away with money and other valuables.

In 1952 what remained of Hitler’s Berghof  house was blown up by the Bavarian government  

to keep it from attracting tourists and people  who may have still shared Hitler’s ideologies.  

With the destruction of the house  anything that may have been hidden within  

would have been lost. Hitler’s  apartment in Munich is still there,  

but it has been converted into a  police station instead of a residence.

So it would seem that the Bavarian government  did in fact receive some of Hitler’s possession  

as per his will. However, when trying to  follow the actual money, and where it went,  

things become a bit unclear. Since his fortune was  so intertwined with the money of the Nazi Party,  

it is possible that much of his wealth was spent  on the war effort at the end of World War II.  

That being said, is it possible that some of the  money and valuables that once belonged to Hitler  

were smuggled out of Nazi Germany by deserters  and officers trying to escape Allied forces? Yes,  

it’s possible. However, we may never know how much  of Hitler’s fortune was disseminated this way.

Hitler knew he would lose World War II, and rather  than being tried for his crimes, he decided to  

take his own life and that of his brand new bride.  Just before he committed suicide Hitler did write  

a will, and in it he laid out what to do with his  possessions. But he was somewhat vague about the  

extent of his actual wealth in the document.  It would seem that most of what Hitler owned  

went to the Bavarian State, however, his  fortune is not completely accounted for.  

Perhaps some of Hitler’s money and valuables  are still out there waiting to be discovered.  

Or perhaps everything he had and owned was lost  or plundered during the war that he started.

Now watch “How Rich Was Hitler  (Where Did All His Money Come From).”  

Or check out “Hitler's Actual  Plan for Taking Over America.”