Adolf Hitler, chancellor and dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945, signed his political testament and his private will in the Führerbunker on 29 April 1945, the day before he committed suicide with his wife, Eva Braun. The political testament consisted of two parts in total. In the first, Mein politisches Testament, Hitler denied charges of warmongering, expressed his thanks to Germany's loyal citizens, and appealed to them to continue the struggle. In the second, he declared Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Göring to be traitors, and set out his plan for a new government under Karl Dönitz. Hitler's secretary Traudl Junge recalled that he was reading from notes as he dictated the testament, and it is believed that Joseph Goebbels helped him write it.

Both the Political Testament and the Private Will and Personal Testament of Adolf Hitler were dictated to Junge during the last days of Hitler's life and signed on 29 April 1945. These artifacts are not to be confused with an entirely different—and controversial—document known as The Testament of Adolf Hitler.

Historical context On 16 April 1945, the Battle of Berlin began as the final phase of a war Germany had already lost; yet the Nazi regime, its leadership unwilling to consider capitulation, continued to issue criminal and largely unexecutable orders, relieving subordinates who refused to comply. Hitler's last appeal to Wehrmacht soldiers on that date deployed propaganda to mobilize resistance, asserting that the "Jewish-Bolshevik mortal enemy" would exterminate the Germans, murder their elderly and children, degrade their women, and march their men to Siberia—demanding, in consequence, that soldiers drown the Bolshevik assault "in a bloodbath" through "steadfastness" and "fanaticism." The deaths of as many as 200,000 soldiers and thousands of civilians would follow before the battle ended on 2 May 1945.

On 22 April, at a situation conference in the Führerbunker, Hitler declared that he would remain in Berlin and shoot himself if the city could not be relieved. The night of 24 April saw the Reich Chancellery above the bunker struck by bombs, and on the following day Goebbels recorded in his diary that a heroic death in Berlin would, within five years at most, transform Hitler into a legendary figure and National Socialism into a myth, "consecrated by the ultimate sacrifice." On 25 April, Soviet forces completed the encirclement of Berlin and American and Soviet troops met at Torgau on the Elbe; until that moment, those present in the bunker had still hoped for the collapse of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Hitler learned on 28 April—through Stockholm Radio—of Heinrich Himmler's secret negotiations with the Western Allies and of Himmler's offer to cease the murder of Hungarian Jews in exchange for a partial capitulation. The same day brought news of the unauthorized armistice concluded by Waffen-SS General Karl Wolff with American forces in Italy and of the disobedience of Waffen-SS General Felix Steiner. Hitler responded by ordering the arrest of Hermann Fegelein—the SS liaison to Himmler and Eva Braun's brother-in-law—at his Berlin apartment; an SS summary court condemned Fegelein to death for desertion and complicity in Himmler's unauthorized contacts, and Hitler signed the execution order, which was carried out in the garden of the Reich Chancellery. This final murder order is interpreted as personal revenge against the unreachable Himmler and as an expression of Hitler's fear of deposition or assassination by SS personnel in his immediate circle. Hitler was informed during the day that the relief armies on which the bunker's occupants had pinned their last hopes were encircled and cut off from one another. Shortly before midnight on 28 April, Hitler married Eva Braun, who had chosen to die with him. Around 2:00 a.m. on 29 April, he dictated both his private will and his political testament.

Will The last will was a short document signed on 29 April at 04:00. It acknowledged his marriage—but does not name Eva Braun—and that they choose death over disgrace of deposition or capitulation; and that their bodies were to be cremated. The will divided up Hitler's belongings as follows:

His art collection is left to "a gallery in my home town of Linz on the Danube". Objects of "sentimental value or necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life" went to "brothers and sisters," and "above all" Eva Braun's mother and his "faithful co-workers" such as his "old secretaries" and housekeeper Mrs. [Anni] Winter. However, he also required that his chief private secretary Martin Bormann be the one who was "permitted to take out everything that has a sentimental value or is necessary for the maintenance of a modest simple life" for these people.

Whatever else of value was to be given to the Nazi Party, and then, should the party no longer exist, to the State. Should the State also be destroyed, "no further decision of mine is necessary."

Bormann was nominated as the will's executor and was also "given full legal authority to make all decisions." The will was witnessed by Bormann, Goebbels, and Colonel Nicolaus von Below.

Testament

The last political testament was signed at the same time as Hitler's last will, 04:00 on 29 April 1945. It was in two parts. The first part of the testament talked of his motivations in the three decades since volunteering in World War I, repeated his claim that neither he "nor anyone else in Germany wanted the war in 1939," stated his reasons for his intention to commit suicide, and praised and expressed his thanks to the German people for their support and achievements. Also included in the first testament are statements detailing his claim that he tried to avoid war with other states and attributed responsibility for it to "international Jewry and its helpers." He would not "forsake Berlin [...] even though the forces were too small to hold out." Hitler expressed his intent to choose death rather than "fall into the hands of enemies" and "the masses" in need of "a spectacle arranged by Jews." He concluded with a call to continue the "sacrifice" and "struggle." He expressed hope for a renaissance of the National Socialist movement with the realisation of a "true people's community (Volksgemeinschaft)."

The first part's closing passages directed appeals specifically to the supreme commands of the Army, Air Force, and Navy to "strengthen the spirit of resistance of our soldiers in the National Socialist sense," citing as justification Hitler's own choice of death over "cowardly abdication or even capitulation"—a standard of conduct he declared ought henceforth to belong to the "concept of honor of the German officer." The testament's invocation of the six-year war as "the most glorious and valiant manifestation of a people's will to live" also referred back explicitly to Hitler's Reichstag speech of 30 January 1939, in which he had first threatened the "annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" should international finance Jewry succeed in plunging nations into another world war—a speech disseminated through all NS media, published as a book, and incorporated into the propaganda film Der ewige Jude in November 1940.

The second part of his testament lays out Hitler's intentions for the German government and the Nazi Party after his death and details who was to succeed him. He expelled Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring from the party and dismissed him from all of his state offices. He also cancelled the 1941 decree naming Göring as his successor in the event of his death. To replace him, Hitler named Großadmiral Karl Dönitz as President of the Reich and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Reichsführer-SS and Interior Minister Heinrich Himmler was also expelled from the party and dismissed from all of his state offices for attempting to negotiate peace with the western Allies without Hitler's permission or knowledge. Hitler declared both Himmler and Göring to be traitors.

Hitler appointed the following as the new Cabinet and what he saw as the new leaders of the German nation:;

President of the Reich (Reichspräsident), Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces (Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht), Minister of War (Kriegsminister), and Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (Oberbefehlshaber der Kriegsmarine): Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz Chancellor of the Reich (Reichskanzler): Joseph Goebbels Party Minister (Parteiminister): Martin Bormann Foreign Minister (Aussenminister): Arthur Seyss-Inquart Interior Minister (Innenminister): Gauleiter Paul Giesler Commander-in-Chief of the Army (Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres): Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force (Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe): Field Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim Reichsführer-SS and Chief of Police (Reichsführer-SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei): Gauleiter Karl Hanke Minister of Economy (Wirtschaft): Walther Funk Minister of Agriculture (Landwirtschaft): Herbert Backe Minister of Justice (Justiz): Otto Georg Thierack Minister of Culture (Kultur): Dr. Gustav Adolf Scheel Minister of Propaganda (Propaganda): Dr. Werner Naumann Minister of Finance (Finanzen): Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk Minister of Labour (Arbeit): Dr. Theo Hupfauer Minister of Munitions (Rüstung): Karl-Otto Saur Director of the German Labour Front and member of the Cabinet (Leiter der Deutschen Arbeitsfront und Mitglied des Reichskabinetts: Reichsminister): Dr. Robert Ley

The closing passages of the second part instructed those still present in the bunker not to die alongside Hitler but to continue fighting elsewhere; demanded that they place the "honor of the nation" above all personal interests; and declared the construction of a National Socialist state "the work of centuries to come." Hitler's final sentence bound all Germans, National Socialists, and Wehrmacht soldiers to obey the successor government "loyally unto death," and concluded with an injunction to the leadership and following of the nation to observe strictly the racial laws and to offer "merciless resistance" to "the world-poisoner of all peoples, international Jewry." Witnessed by Goebbels, Bormann, General Wilhelm Burgdorf, and General Hans Krebs.

Goebbels' addendum Goebbels appended a signed statement to the testament, timed at 5:30 a.m. on 29 April, declaring that he was compelled—for the first and only time—to disobey his Führer. Surrounded by "the delirium of treason," he argued that at least a few must hold to Hitler "unconditionally and unto death," and that this "sacrifice" would "inspire" others through a "clear and comprehensible example." He stated his irrevocable decision not to leave the capital, and expressed his intention to end a life that held no further personal value for him if he could not spend it in service to Hitler at his side. Goebbels invoked his wife and children—the latter, he wrote, too young to speak for themselves, but certain to endorse the decision were they old enough to do so.

On the afternoon of 30 April, about a day and a half after he signed his last will and testament, Hitler and Braun committed suicide. Within the next two days, Goebbels, Burgdorf, and Krebs also committed suicide. Bormann's fate was unknown for decades, but the positive identification of his remains in 1998 indicated that he died fleeing on 2 May 1945 to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army forces encircling Berlin.

Authorship In his book The Bunker, James O'Donnell, after comparing the wording of Hitler's last testament to the writings and statements of both Hitler and Goebbels, concluded that Goebbels was at least partly responsible for helping Hitler write it. Junge stated that Hitler was reading from notes when he dictated the testament after midnight on 29 April.

Rhetorical self-stylization