“Secrets of the Fuhrer’s Family: What Hitler’s Relatives Were Really Doing During WWII”
As a little interesting aside here: the very following day, July 29th, a blacksmith and a teacher in Northern Italy welcomed their first child, whom they named Benito Mussolini.
In any event, Franziska, despite her young age, became ill with a lung disorder, and died on August 10, 1884. Alois was now free to marry his latest pregnant mistress who had already taken over care of his children when his wife got sick, Klara Polzl.
Well, not so fast.
You see, Klara was either Alois’ niece or first cousin once removed. Importantly, as far as the Catholic Church was concerned, it was the latter thanks to a birth certificate change that Alois had done when he was 39, with some family members corroborating who he claimed his real father was, as his mother had not owned up to it when she gave birth to him. Either way, such a marriage in Catholic Austria-Hungary required a dispensation from the Pope, which was granted at the end of 1884, allowing for the two to exchange vows in January of 1885.
Alois and Klara ultimately had five children: three of them died in infancy between 1885 and 1887; then came Adolf, born April 20, 1889, Edmund, in March 1894 and Paula, in January 1896. Edmund died of measles in June 1900, because the past was the worst, leaving the Hitler household with four children: Alois Jr, Angela, Adolf and Paula.
The future dictator and Paula both died without offspring – although, again, much speculation has been made about Adolf’s alleged illegitimate children. For example, according to one story, he may have sired a child with British socialite Unity Mitford, sister to celebrated novelist Nancy Mitford. We’ll save Hitler’s alleged children for a topic for another day, however.
