There are only five living members of the Hitler family. If they have their way, the family bloodline will stop with them.
German Federal Archive/Wikimedia CommonsAlthough Adolf Hitler wed Eva Braun shortly before their deaths in 1945, the Führer never had children. The couple is pictured here in 1942.
Peter Raubal, Heiner Hochegger, and Alexander, Louis, and Brian Stuart-Houston are all vastly different men. Peter was an engineer; Alexander was a social worker. Louis and Brian run a landscaping business. Peter and Heiner live in Austria, while the Stuart-Houston brothers live on Long Island, a few blocks from each other. But they all have one thing in common: They are the only remaining members of Adolf Hitler’s family.
And they’re likely going to be the last.
- The Mystery And Intrigue Surrounding Adolf Hitler’s Family And Bloodline
- The Immediate Family Of Adolf Hitler And Their Impact On The Führer’s Upbringing
- Who Were The Führer’s Nieces And Nephews?
- The Five Remaining Hitler Family Members And Their Decision To End Adolf Hitler’s Bloodline
- Was Jean-Marie Loret Really Hitler’s Secret Son?
The Mystery And Intrigue Surrounding Adolf Hitler’s Family And Bloodline
Hitler died in a Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945, without having had any children of his own, but he had several nieces and nephews who carried on his bloodline after World War II. Today, just five of Hitler’s descendants are still living, but none of them have children, and their deaths will bring an end to the Führer’s genetic line.
There are also rumors that Hitler fathered an illegitimate son with a French woman during World War I, though this has never been proven. Still, the fact that these allegations persist speaks to the public’s enduring fascination with Adolf Hitler’s descendants.
The Immediate Family Of Adolf Hitler And Their Impact On The Führer’s Upbringing
Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, to Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl. Alois’ surname had originally been Schicklgruber, but he changed it in 1877 to honor his stepfather, Johann Georg Hiedler. There is uncertainty surrounding the identity of Alois’ biological father, and it’s possible that Adolf’s mother may have been his father’s first cousin once removed or his half-niece.
Alois had no children with his first wife, but he had a son named Alois Jr. and a daughter named Angela with his second wife. Then, with Klara, he fathered five children: Gustav, Ida, Otto, Adolf, Edmund, and Paula.
Public DomainAdolf Hitler’s parents, Alois and Klara.
Gustav, Ida, and Otto all died in infancy or toddlerhood before Adolf was born in 1889. Edmund, who was born five years after Hitler, died of measles when he was six. Paula was born when Hitler was seven, and she was the only one of his full siblings to survive to adulthood.
Hitler’s childhood was marked by abuse and trauma. Alois was already in his early 50s when Adolf was born, and he had little interest in child-rearing. As Adolf grew older, his relationship with his father became hostile. Alois verbally and physically abused Adolf, and the future Führer began to rebel.
Adolf was deeply affected by the death of his brother Edmund in 1900, and he became emotionally detached. As a teenager, he reportedly bullied his younger sister. As reported by The Guardian in 2005, Paula wrote in her diary when she was eight years old, “Once again I feel my brother’s loose hand across my face.”
Then, when Klara died in 1907, 18-year-old Adolf Hitler was devastated. He later wrote that her death “hardened” him and enabled him to be “tough” as an adult.
SuperStock/Alamy Stock PhotoPaula Hitler, the younger sister of Adolf Hitler, who died without children in 1960.
Alois had passed away 1903, so after Klara’s death, the only remaining member of Hitler’s immediately family was his sister Paula, in addition to his two half-siblings, Alois Jr. and Angela.
Since Paula never married or had children, all of Adolf Hitler’s descendants were born to his older half-siblings, and it was these nieces and nephews who initially carried on the family bloodline.
Who Were The Führer’s Nieces And Nephews?
Alois Jr. had two children: William Patrick Hitler and Heinrich “Heinz” Hitler. William was born to Alois Jr.’s Irish wife, Bridget Dowling, in 1911. Heinz was the result of a bigamous marriage between Alois Jr. and a German woman named Hedwig Heidemann, whom Alois Jr. wed while separated from his first family during World War I.
Heinz died during World War II while fighting for the Nazis. William, however, moved to the United States after the war broke out and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He frequently spoke out against the Führer and even wrote an article titled “Why I Hate My Uncle” for Look magazine in 1939.
Look Magazine/RareNonFiction.comWilliam Patrick Hitler’s 1939 article in Look magazine criticized his uncle’s regime and detailed why he wanted to separate himself from the bloodline.
Adolf Hitler reportedly called William his “loathsome nephew” — and William returned the sentiment. After the war, he changed his last name from Hitler to Stuart-Houston to eliminate any association with his uncle and his heinous regime. William went on to have four sons: Alexander, Louis, Howard, and Brian. Howard died in a car crash in 1989 at age 32 without having had any children of his own.
Meanwhile, Angela Hitler wed Leo Raubal and had three children: a son named Leo Jr. and two daughters named Geli and Elfriede.
Geli’s relationship with Adolf Hitler sparked controversy in the 1920s. At the time, her uncle had just been released from prison and was in the early stages of his rise to power. In 1925, when Geli was 17, she moved in with Adolf along with her sister and her mother, who was working as his housekeeper. Despite their 19-year age difference, Adolf and Geli were close — and some people even believe they were romantically involved.
Adolf Hitler reportedly maintained strict control over his half-niece’s life, forbidding her from making friends and essentially keeping her as a prisoner in his home. When he found out that Geli was involved in a relationship with his chauffeur in 1927, he purportedly fired the man.
Ullstein Bild Dtl./Getty ImagesAdolf Hitler with his half-niece and purported lover Geli Raubal, circa 1929.
In September 1931, when Geli was just 23, she was found dead in Hitler’s Munich apartment with a gunshot wound to the lung from his pistol. Hitler was out of town at the time, and the police ruled Geli’s death a suicide.
While Geli had no children, both of her siblings, Leo Jr. and Elfriede, carried on Adolf Hitler’s bloodline. Leo Jr. had one son named Peter Raubal, and Elfriede had a son named Heiner Hochegger.
These five men — Peter Raubal, Heiner Hochegger, and Alexander, Louis, and Brian Stuart-Houston — are still alive today, and they are the last living descendants of Adolf Hitler.
The Five Remaining Hitler Family Members And Their Decision To End Adolf Hitler’s Bloodline
Hitler’s nephew William Stuart-Houston remained in the U.S. after World War II and raised his family on Long Island. His son Howard was engaged to be married when he died in 1989, but Alexander, Louis, and Brian never wed. There has been speculation that the brothers made a pact to remain childless and purposely end Hitler’s bloodline, but according to a 2018 article in The Times of Israel, Alexander later denied this. He also revealed that one of the brothers had once been engaged to a Jewish woman, though the relationship didn’t work out.
Alexander, Louis, and Brian Stuart-Houston are now all in their 60s and 70s, making it unlikely that they’ll change their minds and father children. Likewise, neither Peter Raubal nor Heiner Hochegger, who were born in 1931 and 1945 respectively, ever married or had children. They both live in Austria, but they’ve also distanced themselves from their great-uncle.
The U.S. Navy MemorialWilliam Patrick Hitler, a.k.a. William Stuart-Houston, Adolf Hitler’s “loathsome nephew” and the father of three of the Führer’s living descendants.
In 2004, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald the following year, Peter Raubal spoke to German media about claims that he could collect royalties from Mein Kampf if he so desired. “Yes, I know the whole story about Hitler’s inheritance,” Raubal said, “but I don’t want to have anything to do with it. I will not do anything about it. I only want to be left alone.”
All of Hitler’s descendants have — for good reason — maintained private lives, so it’s unknown if they intentionally chose to end the Führer’s bloodline or if nobody would marry them due to their family history. Still, they’ve clearly purposely separated themselves from Adolf Hitler’s legacy, and by the next century, Hitler’s genetic line will be gone for good.
That is, unless the rumors that Hitler fathered a secret son are true.
Was Jean-Marie Loret Really Hitler’s Secret Son?
Long after Adolf Hitler’s death in 1945, rumors arose that he’d fathered a child named Jean-Marie Loret with a French woman during World War I. German historian Werner Maser first brought this claim to public attention in the 1970s, and Loret himself published an autobiography titled Your Father Was Called Hitler in 1981.
Wikimedia CommonsJean-Marie Loret (left) alongside Adolf Hitler, his alleged father.
Loret claimed that his mother, Charlotte Lobjoie, and Adolf Hitler met in German-occupied Lille, France, during World War I, when Hitler was stationed there. At the time, Hitler was 28 and Lobjoie was 19. They began a sexual relationship, and Jean-Marie Loret was born in Seboncourt, France, in March 1918.
The birth registry of Seboncourt does reportedly list Loret’s father as an “unidentified German soldier,” and analyses of Loret’s blood type and handwriting seemingly show links to the Führer. However, experts believe it is impossible to establish proof of his paternity.
There are also claims that Hitler fathered a son with Unity Mitford, a British socialite in his inner circle. As the story goes, Mitford put the child up for adoption to protect his identity, though even Mitford’s sister once dismissed the rumor as the “gossip of villagers.”
Public DomainUnity Mitford, the alleged mother of one of Adolf Hitler’s rumored illegitimate sons.
If either of these children truly were Hitler’s sons, it’s certainly possible that his bloodline continues. Loret had as many as 10 children with several women, but their identities are mostly unknown, making it infeasible to track down any other possible children of Adolf Hitler who may still be alive today.
In the end, it’s ironic — yet fitting — that the man who made it his life’s goal to create the perfect bloodline by eliminating the genes of “undesirables” will have his own stamped out, perhaps intentionally.
What was Hitler’s real last name?
Adolf Hitler’s father was born Alois Schicklgruber, but he’d officially changed his last name to “Hitler” by the time Adolf was born in 1889, so Hitler was, indeed, the Führer’s legal surname.
Did Adolf Hitler have children?
Although Hitler married Eva Braun in 1945, the two of them took their own lives just hours later, and Adolf Hitler died without any children. However, there are rumors that he fathered illegitimate sons with two women, Charlotte Lobjoie and Unity Mitford, though these claims have never been proven.
What happened to Hitler’s immediate family?
Adolf Hitler’s father, Alois, and mother, Klara, died when he was a teenager. His three older siblings, Gustav, Ida, and Otto, passed away before he was born, and his younger brother, Edmund, died when Hitler was 11. His younger sister, Paula, survived to adulthood and died in 1960 without children. Hitler also had two older half-siblings from one of his father’s previous marriages: Alois Jr. and Angela. Alois Jr. had two sons, while Angela had three children.
Who is William Patrick Hitler?
William Patrick Hitler was the son of Adolf Hitler’s half-brother, Alois Jr., making him Hitler’s half-nephew. William spoke out against his uncle and changed his last name to Stuart-Houston after World War II. He had four sons.
Does Hitler have any living descendants?
As of 2025, Hitler had five known living descendants: Peter Raubal (the son of his half-nephew Leo), Heiner Hochegger (the son of his half-niece Elfriede), and Alexander, Louis, and Brian Stuart-Howard, the surviving sons of William Patrick Hitler.
Where are Hitler’s relatives today?
Hitler’s five surviving great-nephews range in age from 60 to 94 as of 2025. Peter Raubaul and Heiner Hochegger live in Austria, where Raubaul previously worked as an engineer. Alexander, Louis, and Brian Stuart-Howard live on Long Island. Alexander was a social worker, while Louis and Brian ran a landscaping business.
Did Adolf Hitler’s descendants profit from his legacy?
No, all of Hitler’s descendants have worked hard to eliminate any connection to the Führer and have denied any royalties from Mein Kampf they may be entitled to.
Will Hitler’s bloodline continue?
Unless claims that Hitler fathered illegitimate sons are true, it is unlikely that his bloodline will continue. None of Hitler’s descendants who are still alive today have children of their own, and as they are all over the age of 60, they probably won’t become fathers at this point. Hitler’s bloodline will end within the next several decades upon their deaths.
After learning the true story of Adolf Hitler’s descendants, read about the theory that Hitler was Jewish. Then, go inside the election that allowed Adolf Hitler to rise to power.
