8. Beneath the streets of Berlin, Hitler and Eva Braun got married in possibly the darkest wedding in history
On the evening of April 28, 1945, a Berlin lawyer called Walter Wagner was summoned to the Bunker. To his amazement, he was told he would be officiating the wedding of the Fuhrer. He must have been terrified when he informed Hitler and Goebbels that they were lacking the necessary paperwork. Undeterred, Wagner went back above ground and returned soon after with the appropriate forms. Goebbels served as Hitler’s best man and then the wedding party celebrated the union with a toast. Even the supposedly tee-total Hitler is said to have shared a glass of champagne with his new bride.
The wedding took place around midnight. By 9am the next morning, Hitler was informed that the last line of defense had been breached. The Red Army were almost upon them. There and then, Hitler made the decision to die. According to some accounts, he wanted Braun to try and escape. However, having been denied the status of his wife for so long – apparently, Hitler believed being a married man would make him less attractive to his millions of female admirers across Germany – she chose to stay by her husband’s side and share his dark fate.
