All language subtitles for H-B.02of13.Early.Attempts.on.Hitlers.Life.x264.AC3.MVGroup.org_track6_[eng]

Powell: Adolf Hitler caused
the deaths of 50 million people.

An entire nation
followed him to ruin.

He was hated by those
he persecuted

and even by some of
his own commanders,

yet in 25 years, no one
managed to kill him.

Winston Churchill had
very few bodyguards,

whilst Hitler had thousands.

He needed them.

During his travels
across Europe,

there were over
40 attempts on his life.

Now with access to captured
original SS records,

the producers
of "Churchill's Bodyguard"

can reveal for the first time
in this new series

how fate and a small number
of handpicked bodyguards

helped this evil genius
to cheat death

on so many occasions.

Why did no one manage
to kill Adolf Hitler?

Enough people wanted to,
but as this series shows,

it was not as simple
as it sounds,

even in Hitler's earliest days

as a minor rabble-rousing
street politician.

After Germany's catastrophic
defeat in 1918,

soldiers streamed back

from the Western Front
full of anger

and frustration.

They believed
they had been let down

by their own government,
forced into a humiliating peace,

stabbed in the back.

One of these soldiers

was 29-year-old
Corporal Adolf Hitler.

He had served

as a front-line messenger
in the 16th Bavarian Infantry

and had been lucky
to survive the war.

He was wounded twice.

In October 1918, during
fighting south of Ypres,

a gas shell exploded near
Hitler, blinding him.

He spent three months
in hospital

and emerged into
a Germany in turmoil.

With no job
or profession to go to,

Hitler hung around
his old regiment in Munich

and was given the task

of spying on
political party meetings.

Germany had a new
democratic government,

the Weimar Republic,

but this faced
horrendous problems.

With inflation
spiraling out of control,

many, like Emil Klein,

doubted whether
it could survive.

[Man speaking German]

Powell: Amid the chaos,

Communists clashed with
Nationalists and Socialists.

War veterans

formed armed groups that shot
at each other on the streets.

It looked as though the country
was on the verge of civil war.

Hitler was excited
by the anarchy

and formulated
his own political beliefs,

mainly based on a growing
hatred of Jews and Marxists,

who Nationalists like
Fridolin von Spaun

thought wanted
to destroy Germany.

[Man speaking German]

Powell: One of the political
groups Hitler spied on

was the National Workers' Party.

But rather than inform on it,
he joined it,

and within two years,
he had taken it over,

giving it a new name --

The National Socialist
German Workers' party.

The Nazis had been born.

When he joined this group,

it had only 54 members,

but his fiery talent
for public speaking

soon attracted many more,

some, like Emil Klein,

against their better judgment.

[Man speaking German]

Powell: Hitler had finally
found a purpose to his life,

but politics in
the Weimar Republic

were dangerous.

In the first three years
after the war,

there were 380 political
assassinations in Germany.

Fights in beer halls and clubs
were the norm.

Fists, knuckle-dusters,
knives, metal poles

were the preferred weapons,

but guns and grenades
were available, too.

If Hitler was going to survive
in his new career,

he had to protect himself
from rival political gangs.

Like any mobster chief,

he needed hard men
to look out for him.

And these were readily available
from the ex-soldiers

attracted by Hitler's
rabble-rousing speeches.

His first security unit was
called the Ordnertruppe --

the Steward's Troop --
made up of tough veterans.

Since the formation
of paramilitary groups

had been outlawed,
they had to call themselves

the Gymnastics
and Sports Division

of the new Nazi Party
to avoid being arrested.

The first members
of the Ordnertruppe

were key figures in Hitler's
personal security.

They would become his most
trusted bodyguards

and would follow him
throughout his career.

Ulrich Graf was a 42-year-old
butcher by trade.

He set up Hitler's
first bodyguard,

but taking several bullets
in one crucial clash

soon put him out
of action.

These were men who knew Hitler's
most intimate secrets,

and even when their personal
traits let them down,

Hitler would protect them from
the fury of his own party

because they had served him well
in these early years.

One would even be a rival
in love with Hitler

for the affections
of a young woman.

Emil Maurice was just
23-years-old

when he joined Hitler's
first protection squad.

He went on to become
chauffeur to Hitler

and a member of
his closest bodyguard.

A watchmaker by training,

Maurice had French family roots
and dark good looks,

but his background held a secret

that would later be used
against him.

Another early member of this
gang of street brawlers

was 26-year-old Rudolf Hess,

who was later rewarded
by being appointed

Deputy Führer.

Because many Nazi
political combats

took place in beer halls,

the Ordnertruppe became known
as the Saalschutz

or Hall Protection.

Then in August 1921,

the Sturmabteilung,
or SA, was formed.

Not a bodyguard but a
paramilitary force

intended to win the battle
of the streets.

The title meant "storm troopers"

and came from the elite
trench-storming troops

of World War I.

In time,
the SA would be equipped

with its own
military-style uniform

and be known as
the "brownshirts."

On November 4, 1921,

Hitler was caught up
in a typical brawl

that came close to killing him.

Talking to a hostile crowd
in a beer hall in Munich,

he had only 50 SA men
to protect him

against hundreds of communists.

One heckler started
the fighting.

Then Nazis and Marxists
went at each other

with knives and clubs.

Shots were fired at Hitler
on the rostrum,

and Hitler fired back
with his own pistol.

[Gunfire]

Maurice and Hess were
at Hitler's side

and were badly injured
in the fighting

before the police arrived
to restore order.

Amazingly, no one was killed.

Hitler later described
the events,

praising his closest comrades.

Man: "The dance had hardly begun
when my storm troops,

"as they were named
from that day forth, attacked.

"Like Wolves they rushed
again and again

"in groups of 8
or 10 on the enemy.

"They gradually swept
them out of the hall.

"After five minutes,
I could hardly see anyone

"who was not streaming
with blood.

"I was beginning
to appreciate their quality.

"At their head was
my splendid Maurice.

"Hess, my private secretary,
and many others,

"though badly hurt,
continued to attack

as long as their legs
could carry them."

Powell: Not surprisingly,

these pitched battles sometimes
led to problems with the police.

In another incident,

at the Lowenbrau Bierkeller
in 1922,

which the Nazis later hushed up,

Hitler egged on his thugs

to drag a rival speaker off
the stage and beat him up.

Hitler was arrested
and given the minimum

three-month sentence
by a sympathetic judge,

later reduced to one month
with the rest on probation.

It was this bloody experience
of political combat

that bound Hitler close
to his early bodyguards,

a relationship that would endure

for most of his life.

In these violent
and dangerous early days,

a key figure in the protection
of Adolf Hitler was Ernst Rohm.

He would eventually rise

to command the SA
as his private army.

But that was far in the future.

In 1920, he was 33-years-old.

A squat little man
with a scarred face,

he reveled in the chaos
of Weimar Germany.

Contrary to his usual
brutish image,

he was a classics scholar

who came from a distinguished
family of royal officials.

In World War I,

he proved himself a fearless
leader of troops

and remained in the small army
of the Weimar Republic

after the war.

This gave him access to secret
stores of army weapons

which he slipped to
the nationalist Freikorps.

In 1920, Röhm joined
the Nazi Party

and became one of Hitler's
closest friends.

He helped to organize
the first units

of the SA, recruiting young,
enthusiastic men

who had missed out on the war

in addition to war veterans.

Typical of these
was Bruno Gesche,

a natural brawler who
was just 17 years old

when he joined
the Nazi Party in 1922.

Sacked from a series of jobs

every time his SA membership
was discovered,

Gesche remained loyal
and eventually became

the head of Hitler's
personal bodyguard.

The SA in the early years was
run on a purely volunteer basis.

Kurt Ludecke was an early member

and many years later
wrote about the difficulties

of organizing and kitting out
the first units.

Short of money, it was difficult
to find equipment for them.

Man: "Most of our material
was stored in my apartment.

"Not much was new,
but all was in fine condition.

"Germany was filled with
the debris of the war --

"uniforms, implements,
even arms,

"which had been sold by soldiers

"or stolen after the armistice

"from immense army depots.

"It was easy to get
military goods,

"but not to get them undamaged.

"I solved the problem
by keeping two Jewish dealers

constantly on the lookout
for what we needed."

Powell: This included
searching for weapons.

Arms had been banned

for the civilian population
in Weimar Germany,

and their possession could lead
to several years in jail.

But the political parties
on the fringes

needed them to instill fear
into their opponents

and to protect themselves.

Man: "it was no easy task

"to obtain weapons
and keep them in secret.

"Arms were being bootlegged,

"and it was
an exciting business.

"One had to risk danger
a hundred times

to find a single weapon that
was intact and not rusted."

Powell: By the end
of December 1922,

about 100 men had enlisted
under Ludecke,

and some 40 regular
army soldiers

had pledged themselves
to him in secret.

Man: "All possessed
complete uniforms,

"with steel helmets
and field outfits.

"Outside Munich, I had managed
to secure and hide

"15 heavy Maxim guns,

"more than 200 hand grenades,

"175 perfect rifles,

"and thousands of rounds
of ammunition --

a real arsenal."

Powell: In late 1922,

another major figure
entered the close circle

of Hitler's personal security.

The flamboyant 29-year-old
Hermann Göring

was a minor aristocrat.

He started World War I
as an infantry officer

but soon transferred to the most
exciting unit to serve with,

the pioneering air force.

Starting as an observer,

Göring qualified as a fighter
pilot in October 1915.

He was soon an ace,

winning the coveted
Pour le Mérite --

the German equivalent
of the Victoria Cross --

and commanding
the Richthofen Squadron,

the legendary
Red Baron's Flying Circus,

by the end of the war.

When Göring joined
the Nazi Party,

Hitler was delighted.

Here was a true war hero who
could lead his veterans

into political combat.

He put him in charge
of the fledgling SA

based in Munich.

A correspondent from
the London Times

described the appearance of
Hitler's early armed followers.

"Many of these storm troops
are lads of from 17 to 20,

"but professionals
and businessmen.

"Ex-officers, students,
and farmers

"can be seen in the ranks.

"Recently, Hitler's men have
been equipped with steel helmets

"of the regulation
government pattern,

"presumably surplus war material

that was supposed to have been
destroyed long ago."

"These political gangsters

were not allowed to carry
weapons in public,

such as knuckle-dusters
or knives."

"But in spite of this,

every active member
of the Hitler organization

carries a flexible steel
truncheon covered with rubber."

In May 1923, shortly after
Göring took command of the SA,

the Ordnertruppe was replaced
as Hitler's personal bodyguard

by the Stabswache,
or Headquarters Guard.

Numbering just 20 men,

it was soon renamed
Stosstrupp Hitler --

Hitler's Shock Troop.

These chosen men wore
a different uniform

to the rest of the SA --
field-grey jackets and breeches

On their heads,
they wore gray ski caps

with a silver
death's head button.

This skull would become the sign

of the most notorious
of Nazi organizations, the SS,

and many historians

date its beginning
from this bodyguard unit.

The chilling
death's head insignia

was not invented by the Nazis

but copied from the badges

of long-established
cavalry regiments.

It was probably
because of its association

with elite Prussian Hussars

that Hitler adopted it,
wanting his bodyguards

to be considered
the elite of his party.

The first great test
for this Nazi bodyguard

came in January 1923,
when the Weimar government

postponed the payment
of war reparations.

In retaliation,
the French occupied the Ruhr,

the country's industrial
heartland.

Their heavy-handed tactics

caused a general strike
and widespread resentment.

Hitler had recently
been emboldened

by the support of
the World War I hero

General Erich Ludendorff.

He decided to exploit the chaos
by launching a coup d'etat

during a political meeting
in a Munich beer hall

being addressed by the Bavarian
Prime Minister, Gustav von Kahr.

It would be
a tremendous political

and personal gamble.

If Hitler's putsch failed,
at best,

his political career
would collapse,

at worst, he might be shot

as a traitor.

On November 8, 1923,
at 8:00 in the evening,

Adolf Hitler entered
the Munich Burgerbraukeller.

He was armed with a pistol

and accompanied by
a handful of bodyguards.

The Bavarian prime minister
was speaking.

Kurt Ludecke,
one of the SA men with Hitler,

described what happened next.

Man: "The door was flung open.

"Steel-helmeted men
burst through,

"pushing Maxim guns
into the hall.

"Other steel helmets appeared
menacingly at every window.

"Hitler seized his revolver
and elbowed his way forward

"through the crowd behind
his heavily armed bodyguard.

"Hitler jumped up on a table

"and fired two shots
into the ceiling...

[Gunshots]

"demanding quiet.

"In an instant,
the stillness was absolute.

"One could even hear
Hitler breathing hard.

"He shouted to the audience,

"The National Revolution
has begun.

"Six hundred armed men
are covering the hall!"

Powell:
In truth, there were only 60.

It was a daring bluff.

Meanwhile, Ernst Rohm took
several hundred SA troopers

to seize control of the Bavarian
military headquarters.

Next morning,

Hitler and his supporters

decided to march
to the city center

to rally the citizens
to their cause.

It was a dull, cold day,

and two thousand Nazis

formed a column with Hitler
and Ludendorff at the head.

Göring walked beside Hitler with
Ulrich Graf on the other side.

There was no band,

and the column advanced
quietly and somberly.

A police barrier
on one of the bridges

across the river Isar
was brushed aside.

And when the column
reached the Marienplatz,

it was greeted
by cheering crowds.

[Cheering]

Hitler and Ludendorff were
not sure what to do next,

but when they heard that
the army had turned

on Röhm and his brownshirts,

they decided to march
to their rescue.

As the Nazis reached the end of
the narrow street

leading into the Odeonplatz,

they were blocked by a line
of armed state police

near the Feldherrnhalle
war memorial.

Ulrich Graf stepped forward.

He shouted that
General Ludendorff

was marching with them

and there was no need
for any shooting.

But as Emil Klein described,
the police ignored him.

[Speaking German]

[Gunfire]

Powell: The reality
was less heroic

than this dramatic
Nazi painting.

A man beside Hitler fell dead,

dragging him down
and dislocating his arm.

Graf threw himself
in front of Hitler

and took several bullets
intended for his leader.

Göring was hit in
the thigh and collapsed.

Only Ludendorff

remained unscathed,

marching on through
the police line to be arrested.

When the shooting stopped,

14 Nazis and four policemen
lay dead.

Hitler avoided
the flying bullets

and was dragged away from
the carnage by his bodyguards

but arrested two days later.

Following his narrow
escape in the putsch,

the Nazi Party, the SA,

and the Stosstrupp
were all banned.

It looked like
the end of the line

for Hitler and his followers.

But the attempted coup
catapulted Hitler to fame.

He used his trial
to project his beliefs

into the national newspapers,

making clear that he was trying
to save the nation

from the disasters
of the Weimar Republic.

Unlike Ludendorff,

who claimed at the trial that
he was an unwitting participant,

Hitler portrayed himself
as a man of destiny

who was proud of his actions.

The judges were clearly
sympathetic

and gave him
a lenient sentence --

five years,

but with the possibility of
parole after just six months.

Hitler now had a national stage
for his politics

and used his time in jail
to set out his beliefs.

In Landsberg Prison,
the regime was lax,

and Hitler was free to associate

with Rudolf Hess
and Emil Maurice.

They took notes as he composed
his Nazi manifesto,

Mein Kampf.

He also pondered two lessons
from the failed putsch.

The first was that
street fighting was not enough.

He would have to use
the democratic system

to achieve power.

Only then could
he dismantle it.

The other lesson
was more brutal.

The violence and sacrifice
of that day in Munich

convinced him more than ever

that he needed
a loyal bodyguard,

a group of protectors
that would risk their own lives,

as Graf had done,
and would, in his words,

"even march against
their own brothers."

Hitler served just over
a year for high treason.

As he re-entered
German politics,

he had to resurrect his party
machinery and his bodyguard.

They must be stronger,
more efficient,

more vicious than ever before.

Five days before Christmas 1924,

Hitler was met outside
Landsberg Prison

by his photographer friend
Heinrich Hoffmann.

He was a free man

and posed beside
his friend's car.

Hitler should have been happy,

but he knew he had
a mountain to climb.

His style of extreme politics
suited a time of crisis,

but the Weimar Republic

had managed to stabilize
the economy.

The threat of revolution
and civil war had passed.

This was the Roaring Twenties

and Germans enjoyed
a new prosperity.

They had no time
for political fanatics,

and although Hitler
tried to behave

like a legitimate politician,
his party lost votes

whenever there was an election.

In Munich, the city the Nazis
had nearly taken in 1923,

the party had fewer
than 700 members.

Hitler now lived the life
of a bohemian,

living off the royalties
from Mein Kampf

and using them to buy a villa

near Berchtesgaden on a slope
of the Obersalzberg.

This would eventually
become the Berghof,

the most heavily defended
private residence in Germany.

But for the moment,
there were few threats

against a man who was thought
to be yesterdays hero.

The re-formed Nazi Party
was small but radical,

and this soon led

to a substantial problem
for Hitler.

For, as he reconstructed the SA,

Hitler's political views

diverged steadily
from those of Ernst Röhm,

the hard man who had led
the brownshirts

against the army in Munich.

Röhm had always loathed

the German political
and military establishment

and wanted the SA to become
a mass revolutionary movement

which could overthrow it
by force.

Hitler was no longer interested

in such ideas and ordered him

to either submit or resign.

Röhm chose to resign
as head of the SA

and ended up sailing to Bolivia
to become a military adviser.

The SA was now put
under the command

of a retired army captain,
Franz Pfeffer von Salomon.

By 1927, its membership
had risen to 10,000.

At the same time, Hitler's
bodyguard, the Stabswache,

was recreated.

Numbering just eight men,
including Emil Maurice,

it was led by Julius Schreck,

who also served
as Hitler's chauffeur.

The Stabswache was soon
renamed the Schutzstaffel,

the SS,
Hitler's Protection Squad.

Its members now wore black caps

with the death's head insignia.

The SS was subordinate
to the much more numerous SA,

but its members acted
like an elite.

There were stricter
entrance requirements

than the general SA

and it maintained
tighter discipline.

These special demands attracted
ambitious brownshirts

like Bruno Gesche.

After a Nazi Party
rally in 1927,

he was so impressed by
the appearance of the early SS

that he left the SA to join it.

By 1929, it numbered 280 men.

That year, Heinrich Himmler
was made Reichsfuhrer-SS.

It proved Hitler's most
important appointment

among the many people
that devoted their lives

to protecting him,

and one which would cost
the lives of millions.

Himmler would soon become

one of the most feared men
in Nazi Germany

and turn the SS

into a massive
and sinister organization

that included most
of Hitler's security units.

He also set a pattern
of Nazi infighting

that seriously compromised

the efficiency of Hitler's
overall bodyguard.

Himmler was 23 years old when he
joined the Nazi Party

and served
as flag carrier for Röhm

during the Beer Hall Putsch.

Following Hitler's release
from prison,

Himmler became
a Nazi regional leader,

but lack of funds forced him
to drift through several jobs,

eventually becoming
a chicken farmer.

Given the chance to head the SS,

Himmler ruthlessly turned it

into a major force
within the Nazi Party.

By the end of 1929,

he had expanded its membership
to a thousand.

It was also in 1929

that the prosperity
of the Jazz Age

was shattered by
the Wall Street Crash.

Weimar Germany

was plunged into another
economic depression.

Mass unemployment

once again sowed
the seeds of discontent.

What was bad for Germany

was excellent for Hitler
and the Nazis.

The SA immediately began

a massive recruitment drive

to take advantage of
the mass of unemployed men,

and many new recruits
like Wolfgang Teubert

were ready to flock to them.

[Speaking German]

Powell: In elections
held in 1928,

the Nazi Party
had barely managed

to win 12 seats
in the Reichstag.

With Germany teetering
on the edge

of a new economic disaster,

voters swung away
from center politics

to the extremes.

The Nazis' election machine
was now in full swing,

presenting Hitler
as the strong man

that Germany desperately needed.

The Nazis had few
detailed policies.

The focus was on Hitler,
the leader.

In 1930, the revived Nazis
won six million votes,

giving them 107 seats
in the Reichstag

and making them the second
biggest party in Germany.

It was a dramatic
turnaround for Hitler,

and as a result, money flowed
into Nazi campaign coffers

from supportive businessmen.

But just as the Nazi vote
had gone up,

so had that of their most deadly
rivals -- the Communists.

They were only 30 seats behind.

Powell: They were not afraid to
fight fire with fire, and were happy

to take the battle
back onto the streets.

[Man speaking German]

Powell: Hitler needed
his SA more than ever,

but at this critical moment

came a challenge
from within its ranks.

Angered by the apparently
lavish lifestyles

of the party leadership,

including the purchase of
an extravagant new headquarters

in Munich, the Brown House,
SA men in Berlin,

led by their deputy leader,
Walter Stennes,

occupied
the party's headquarters.

Hitler was forced to accept
many of their demands

for better pay and conditions,
but now declared himself

Supreme Leader of the SA,
as well the Nazi Party.

Having put down the challenge,

Hitler turned
to Ernst Röhm for help.

Recalled from Bolivia,

Röhm became chief of staff
and effective leader of the SA

on January 14, 1931, and oversaw

its rapid growth
to a paramilitary army

of 170,000.

Unemployment helped fill its
ranks with aggressive young men.

They beat the Communists

on the streets,

and capitalist backers were
happy to see them doing it.

The Nazis were not exactly
lovers of capitalism.

They were, after all,
a socialist party.

But Hitler knew he had
to keep on friendly terms

with big business
to get into power.

But Röhm was still
an extreme revolutionary.

He fought the Communists

because they were rivals
not because

he liked capitalism.

Although Röhm

delivered Hitler a victory
on the streets,

his revolutionary beliefs soon
reignited serious tensions

between the two men.

There was also a rising
tension between Rohm

and his nominal subordinate,
Himmler.

Both of them craved to become

the exclusive protector
of the Führer.

In late 1930,
after the Stennes revolt,

the ever-devious Himmler
had persuaded Hitler

to make the SS
independent of the SA.

SA officers could no longer give
orders to anyone in the SS.

But when Röhm took up
command of the SA,

Himmler suffered a blow and was
declared to be his subordinate.

Despite this,
barely a month later,

Röhm issued orders
putting Himmler

in charge of
the Sicherheitsdienst,

the SD, or security service
which would be responsible

for protecting Hitler and other
leading members of the party.

The SS now wore a completely
different uniform

to the brownshirts --

all black with the SS
lightning strike insignia

and the death's head.

Himmler wanted
to poach men from the SA,

but Hitler forbade him.

SA men had to volunteer
for the SS,

and strict entrance
requirements were imposed.

Hitler wanted the SS to be
an ultra-loyal, ultra-fit unit

separate from the SA.

He saw them as his own police
force within the Nazi Party.

Whereas the SA struck down
opposition from outside,

the SS could be
used to neutralize

any opposition within the party,

and that included the SA.

That the potential threat posed
by the SA had not gone away

was emphasized
by a second incident

involving Walter Stennes.

Ordered by Hitler
to leave Berlin

and take up a desk job
at the Brown House in Munich,

Stennes refused point-blank.

With his SA supporters,
he brushed aside the SS guards

and again took over
the Berlin HQ.

Hitler was furious.

Humiliatingly,
he was obliged to get

the Berlin police
to throw them out.

In retaliation, Stennes
was expelled from the party,

but for Hitler,
it was a clear warning.

Hitler now turned
to his loyal SS

and instructed Himmler
to take charge of security

in and around the Brown House.

All guards were uniformed

but not allowed to carry
conventional weapons.

However, they were armed
with gas pistols

to stun anyone
assaulting the building.

Despite these divisions
within his own party,

Hitler was confident

that he was on the verge
of winning power in Germany.

He just had to keep his guard up

and his own people
under control.

That this could be all
thrown into jeopardy

by a sexual scandal

was the last thing
he anticipated.

But in late 1931,

this is exactly what threatened
Hitler's grab for power,

and the scandal would
involve one of his closest

and most trusted bodyguards

Munich -- September 20, 1931.

A 23-year-old music student

was found dead in
a second-floor apartment

at 16 Prinzregentenplatz.

In her hand was a gun.

She had been shot in the heart.

The dead woman's nose
was broken,

and there were other serious
injuries to her body.

Her name was Angela Raubal,
known as Geli.

And what made the story
sensational

was that the apartment
belonged to Adolf Hitler

and so did the gun.

Geli Raubal was his niece,

and he had been having
a clandestine affair with her.

Rumors soon spread around Munich
that the death wasn't suicide

but murder, and that she'd been

involved in a love triangle

with her uncle and his
bodyguard, Emil Maurice,

one of his oldest
and closest companions.

Scandal was the last thing
Hitler needed

at this crucial moment
in his career.

If the story broke
into the national press,

it could be the end of his plans
to bring the Nazis to power.

Geli had come to live
in Hitler's flat

in August 1928, when her mother,
his half-sister,

became his housekeeper.

The 40-year-old Hitler
soon became infatuated

with his young niece.

He was extremely possessive,

and when she showed
interest in Emil Maurice,

his bodyguard and one
of his closest companions,

the tension grew.

On December 24, 1928,
Geli wrote to Maurice.

Powell: Not surprisingly,

Maurice had soon been sacked.

Hitler admitted to his friend,
Heinrich Hoffmann,

who later became his official
court photographer,

that he loved Geli
and thought of marrying her.

But he felt he must
remain single

for the sake of his
political career.

He was also attracted
to a teenage girl

working in Hoffmann's
photographic studio --

Eva Braun.

If Hitler was jealous
of Geli's male friends,

then she may have
been jealous of Braun.

On September 18, 1931,

Geli told Hitler that she wanted
to leave and go to Vienna.

They had a row,

and Hitler stormed
out of the apartment.

Geli, left alone,

shot herself through the heart
with his revolver.

When he heard the news,
Hitler was distraught.

But Geli's body was reported
to be badly battered.

Hitler was known for his
outbursts of angry violence.

And at this stage in his career,

he frequently carried,
and on occasions used,

a formidable
rhino-hide whip.

Hitler responded to these rumors
with a published denial.

Powell: This was enough

to get Hitler off the hook
of public scandal,

but the death of Geli Raubal

marked a turning point
in his romantic life.

The affair had made him
vulnerable both emotionally

and politically.

His long relationship
with Eva Braun

never captured the passion
he enjoyed with Geli,

but it was safe and secure,

and that was what Hitler wanted
from now on.

For during 1932,

he faced his sternest
political test --

an election campaign
to become leader of Germany.

But as he crisscrossed
Germany,

drumming up support for himself
and his party,

he was exposed to numerous
assassination attempts.

Standing on podiums
and ranting at his audience,

he made the perfect target
for a lone gunman

or ring of plotters with a bomb.

He was standing as a candidate

for President of
the Weimar Republic,

but he was up against Field
Marshal Paul von Hindenburg.

A hero of World War I,

Hindenburg represented
the old

conservative strain
of German politics

and would not be easily moved.

On March 13th,

Hitler won more than 30%
of the popular vote

from a disgruntled
and fearful population.

It was a startling result

and meant that Hindenburg did
not win an absolute majority.

They would have to fight
another election,

and as Egon Hanfstaengl
later described,

once again it was
Hitler's oratory

which was the decisive factor.

Hanfstaengl:
He had that ability

which is needed to make people
stop thinking critically

and just emote,

the ability derived
from his readiness

to throw himself totally open,

to appear as it were bare
and naked before his audience,

to tear open his heart
and display it.

Powell: Just two days
after this success,

Hitler was traveling by train
from Munich to Weimar

with his head of propaganda,
Joseph Goebbels.

As they discussed
campaign tactics,

gunshots struck the side
of their carriage.

[Gunshots glass shatters ]

The bullets missed,
but it was a clear sign

that Hitler's dramatic
rise in popularity

now made him a prime target.

On another dangerous occasion,

as he was traveling
by car near Freiburg,

demonstrators hurled
missiles at it.

[Tires squeal]

Taking his life in his hands,
Hitler jumped out

and confronted them,
swinging his rhino-hide whip.

But such action was reckless,

and as Hitler ruthlessly
pursued his dream

of becoming dictator of Germany,

he and his old
bodyguard comrades

needed to take a more
professional approach

to his protection.

It would lead to the creation
of one of the most fearsome

and evil bodyguard organizations
the world has ever seen.

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