| Constanze Manziarly | |
| Birth Date: | 1920 4, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Innsbruck, Austria |
| Disappeared Place: | Berlin, Germany |
| Occupation: | cook, dietitian |
| Employer: | Adolf Hitler |
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 on 30 April 1945. 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. Two rooms in the Vorbunker, the older and upper unit,[2] were used for food supply. Another room was used as the kitchen, with a refrigerator and a wine store. Manziarly prepared Hitler's meals in this kitchen during his last months.[3]
On 22 April, Hitler personally requested Manziarly to leave Berlin, along with Junge and Gerda Christian.[4] However, all three women volunteered to stay with the dictator until his death, and he apparently gave each of them a cyanide capsule to take should they decide to end their own lives.[5] Junge stated that Manziarly later cooked a posthumous meal for Hitler on 30 April so others without direct knowledge of his death would not become suspicious.
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.[6] Early on 2 May, the group was captured by Soviet soldiers.[6] 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.[7] 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's memoir speculates that Manziarly could have committed suicide using her poison capsule.
The 1947 American book Who Killed Hitler? implies that Manziarly possessed exclusive knowledge of a Hitler lookalike seen in her kitchen prior to the collapse of Berlin, who was supposedly meant to ensure the dictator's survival.[8]
Constanze Manziarly has been portrayed by the following actresses in film and television productions: