Constanze Manziarly: Difference between revisions

Cook and dietitian to Adolf Hitler

Constanze Manziarly
Manziarly in 1943
Born	(1920-04-14)14 April 1920
Disappeared	2 May 1945 (aged 25) Berlin, Germany
Status	Missing for 80 years, 4 months and 13 days
Occupation(s)	cook, dietitian
Employer	Adolf Hitler
*Her death was never confirmed.

Constanze Manziarly (14 April 1920 – disappeared 2 May 1945) was born in Innsbruck, Austria. She served as a cook and dietitian to Adolf Hitler until his final days in Berlin in 1945.

Manziarly was born in Innsbruck, Austria, on 14 April 1920.^[1] According to Hitler’s secretary Traudl Junge, Manziarly wanted to be a teacher and only took up cooking for Hitler temporarily.

Manziarly worked as cook and dietitian for Hitler from his 1943 stays at the Berghof until his death in Berlin. According to Junge, as of late 1944 Manziarly was still considered too new to be included within Hitler’s “inner circle”. On 16 January 1945, Hitler began residing in the Führerbunker, the newer and lower unit of the Reich Chancellery bunker complex. During Hitler’s last months, Manziarly prepared Hitler’s meals in the kitchen of the Vorbunker,^[4] the older and upper bunker. Manziarly also prepared sandwiches to be set out on a tea wagon for high-ranking Nazi Party personnel and generals reporting to Hitler.

On 22 April, Hitler personally requested Manziarly to leave Berlin, along with Junge and Gerda Christian.^[7] All three women instead volunteered to stay with the dictator, who apparently gave each of them a cyanide capsule in case they decided to end their own lives. On 30 April at around noon, Hitler told his private secretary Martin Bormann it was time; he would shoot himself that afternoon. Thereafter, Manziarly was present for Hitler’s last meal at the usual time of 1 p.m. His secretaries, Christian and Junge were also present. After lunch, Hitler’s adjutant SS-Sturmbannführer Otto Günsche told the secretaries that Hitler wanted to bid everyone farewell. According to Junge, Manziarly cooked a posthumous meal for Hitler so others without direct knowledge of his death would not become suspicious.^[a]

On 1 May, Manziarly left the bunker in a breakout group led by SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke. Evading the Soviet Red Army troops, they made their way north to a German Army holdout in the cellar of the Schultheiss-Patzenhofer Brewery on Prinzenallee. The group included Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck, Else Krüger, Christian, and Junge. Early on 2 May, the group was captured by Soviet soldiers. Mohnke tasked the four women with trying to deliver his written report to Hitler’s successor, Karl Dönitz. The women walked out of the brewery courtyard and made their way into the Soviet occupied area of Berlin. The women split up, with Christian and Krueger waiting at a water supply area.^[13] Manziarly was wearing a Wehrmacht jacket, and went to find some civilian clothes while Junge waited for her. Junge next saw Manziarly being taken towards a U-Bahn subway tunnel by two Soviet soldiers; she reassured Junge that “They want to see my papers.” Manziarly was never heard from again. Junge implies in her memoir that Manziarly would have been as likely as anyone to be raped by Soviet soldiers, with a note in Junge’s memoir speculating that Manziarly could have committed suicide using her poison capsule.^[a]

Constanze Manziarly has been portrayed by the following actresses in film and television productions:

• Beevor, Antony (2002). Berlin: The Downfall 1945. London; New York: Viking-Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-670-03041-5.
• Galante, Pierre; Silianoff, Eugene (1989). Voices From the Bunker. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. ISBN 978-0-3991-3404-3.
• Joachimsthaler, Anton (2000) [1995]. The Last Days of Hitler: The Legends, The Evidence, The Truth. London: Cassell. ISBN 978-1-85409-465-0.
• Junge, Gertraud (2004) [2002]. Müller, Melissa (ed.). Until the Final Hour: Hitler’s Last Secretary. Translated by Bell, Anthea. New York: Arcade Publishing. ISBN 978-1-55970-728-2.
• Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler: A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-06757-6.
• Mollo, Andrew (1988). Ramsey, Winston (ed.). “The Berlin Führerbunker: The Thirteenth Hole”. After the Battle (61). London: Battle of Britain International.
• O’Donnell, James P. (1978). The Bunker. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-25719-7.
• Villatoux, Paul; Aiolfi, Xavier (2020). The Final Archives of the Führerbunker: Berlin in 1945, the Chancellery and the Last Days of Hitler. Casemate. ISBN 978-1-61200-904-9.