A historian, Harald Sandner, has questioned the long-standing conclusion that Adolf Hitler’s 23-year-old niece, Geli Raubal, died by suicide in Munich in 1931. He argues that newly identified evidence may undermine Hitler’s alibi and raise the possibility that he was present when she died, though the claim remains speculative.

The official account says Raubal was found dead in Hitler’s apartment on 19 September, after he had reportedly travelled to Nuremberg, and that police declared the death a suicide without conducting a post-mortem. Sandner says a death certificate places the discovery of her body roughly 24 hours earlier, potentially putting the death before Hitler’s departure; he also alleges that police and Nazi officials may have helped conceal the truth. Raubal lived closely under Hitler’s strict control, and rumours of a sexual relationship and his possessiveness have long surrounded the case.