{{Short description|Adolf Hitler's sister-in-law (1891–1969)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox person |name = Bridget Dowling |image = Bridget Dowling Hitler NYWTS (cropped).jpg |caption = Offering information about the <br />British War Relief Society, 1941 |birth_name = Bridget Elizabeth Dowling |birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1891|07|03}}{{efn|The Social Security Death Index for Brigid Dowling confirms her birth date to be 3 July 1891. She was living at 67 Silver Street, Patchogue, Suffolk, New York 11772, at the time of her death in November 1969.<ref>{{cite AV media|first=Matthew|last=Ogens|author-link=Matthew Ogens|date=18 October 2014|title=Meet the Hitlers|title-link=Meet the Hitlers|medium=Motion picture|time=20 minutes 31 seconds|location=United States}}</ref>}} |birth_place = Dublin, Ireland |death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1969|11|18|1891|07|03}} |death_place = {{Nowrap|Long Island, New York, U.S.}} |spouse = Alois Hitler Jr. |partner = |children = William Patrick Hitler |father = William Dowling |mother = Bridget Reynolds |relatives = Thomas Dowling, Brother |signature = |website = |footnotes = }}
'''Bridget Elizabeth Hitler''', née '''Dowling''' (alternative '''Brigid Elisabeth''', or '''Cissie''')<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/discoveries/adolf-hitlers-liverpudlian-half-brother-in-the-1911-census|title=We Found Adolf Hitler's Liverpudlian Half-Brother In The 1911 Census | Blog|website=Findmypast – Genealogy, Ancestry, History blog from Findmypast}}</ref> (3 July 1891<ref>{{Cite book | last=Gardner | first=David C. | title=The Last of the Hitlers | year=2001 | publisher=BMM |isbn=0954154401 | page=131}}</ref><ref>Wolfgang Zdral (pp. 134, 262 and Appendix) suggests 3 July 1891.</ref> – 18 November 1969),<ref>{{Cite book | last=Zdral | first=Wolfgang| title=Die Hitlers | year=2005|publisher=Campus Verlag GmbH |isbn= | pages=262, Appendix}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> was Adolf Hitler's half sister-in-law via her marriage to Alois Hitler Jr.. She was the mother of Alois Hitler Jr.'s son William Patrick Hitler. She was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland.
==Marriage== ===Engagement=== In 1909, Bridget and her father, William Dowling, attended the Dublin Horse Show where they met Alois Hitler Jr., who claimed to be a wealthy hotelier touring Europe when, in fact, he was a poor kitchen porter at Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel.<ref>{{cite web|author=Frank Hayes |url=http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/the-irish-hitler-the-strange-tale-of-bridget-hitler-and-the-nazi-leader-156889665-237617891 |title=The strange tale of the Irish Hitlers – the connection between Bridget Hitler and the Nazi leader |website=IrishCentral.com |date=2015-12-27 |access-date=2017-07-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYAb691FGA4 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/uYAb691FGA4 |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=Richard E. Grant's Hotel Secrets – The Shelbourne Dublin |publisher=YouTube |date=2013-01-18 |access-date=2017-07-18}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Alois courted Bridget at various Dublin locales and soon they were discussing marriage. On 3 June 1910, the couple eloped to London,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=372466.0 |title=Bridget Dowling Hitler (Dublin) Page 1 |website=Rootschat.com |access-date=2017-07-18}}</ref> living in Charing Cross Road for a while. Her father threatened to charge Alois with kidnapping but accepted the marriage after Bridget pleaded with him.
===Early married life=== The couple settled at 102 Upper Stanhope Street, a boarding house kept by the John family, in Toxteth, Liverpool and, in 1911 they had their only child, William Patrick Hitler. The house was destroyed in the last German air raid of the Liverpool Blitz on 10 January 1942.
===Split=== Alois went to Germany in 1914 to establish himself in business but these plans were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. Bridget refused to go with him, as he had become violent and started beating their son. In addition, Alois Jr. was an adulterous husband, engaging in numerous extramarital affairs.<ref name=splitfromhusband>{{cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-on-bridget-dowling-hitler-s-sister-in-law-1.4085596|title=An Irishman’s Diary on Bridget Dowling, Hitler’s sister-in-law|first=Brian|last=Maye|publisher=The Irish Times|date=November 18, 2019|accessdate=February 2, 2025}}</ref> Alois decided to abandon his family. He returned to Germany, remarried bigamously, and sent word after the war that he was dead. His deception was later discovered, and he was charged with bigamy by the German authorities in 1924. He escaped conviction due to Bridget's intervention, with Bridget agreeing to a legal separation;<ref name=legalseparation>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-hitlers/26113874.html|title=Irish Hitlers|first1=Frank|last1=Khan|first2=Catherine|last2=Wilson|publisher=Irish Independent|date=July 14, 2000|accessdate=February 24, 2025}}</ref><ref name=splitfromhusband /> though Alois had requested a divorce, Bridget's stoutly Catholic father forbid her from taking that route at that time.<ref name=legalseparation /> Bridget raised her son alone with no support from her husband. She and Alois were eventually divorced (although as a Roman Catholic she was religiously opposed to divorce). She set up a home in Highgate, North London, and took in lodgers to make ends meet. William was supported by Bridget's family in Ireland.<ref name=splitfromhusband />
==Emigration and claims== In 1939, Bridget joined her son on a tour of the United States where he was invited to lecture on his infamous uncle. They decided to stay and Bridget wrote a manuscript, ''My Brother-in-Law Adolf'', in which she claimed that her famous brother-in-law had moved to Liverpool to live with Bridget and Alois from November 1912 to April 1913 to avoid conscription in his native Austria. She claims that she introduced Adolf to astrology and that she advised him to trim off the edges of his moustache.
Adolf Hitler's stay in Liverpool has corroboration from the biographer and friend of British Intelligence chief, Sir William Stephenson, in his book ''A Man Called Intrepid''. Sir William was chief of British Security Coordination (BSC). Biographer William Stevenson says: "Hitler's little-known sojourn in England between November 1912 and April 1913 is authenticated by BSC documents.”<ref>William Stevenson, ''A Man Called Intrepid'', 1976, Harcourt, pp. 120–121 {{ISBN|0151567956}}</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=May 2024}}
1912 to mid-1913 has been described as Adolf's 'missing year'. During that period he had been living in homeless men's hostels in Vienna. In his book ''Hitler, A Life'', the historian Peter Longerich says that "Indeed, there is hardly any reliable evidence about Hitler's life for the period 1910 to 1913."<ref>Peter Longerich, ''Hitler, A Life'', 2019, Oxford University Press, p. 27</ref> The opening sentence of Chapter 4 of Adolf Hitler's book ''{{langr |de |Mein Kampf}}'' says: "In the spring of 1912 I came at last to Munich".<ref>{{cite book |title=Mein Kampf |location=Munich |url=https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200601h.html#ch1-04 }}{{author missing |date=February 2026}}{{year missing |date=February 2026}}{{publisher missing |date=February 2026}}</ref>{{rp|p=|loc=chapter 4}}{{pn |date=February 2026}}{{full citation needed |date=February 2026}}("{{lang |de |Im Frühjahr 1912 kam ich endgültig nach München.}}") But Adolf's statement was proven to be false. A Munich police record shows that Hitler moved from Vienna to Munich, aged twenty-four, arriving on Sunday, 25 May 1913.<ref>Bob Carruthers, ''Private Hitler's War: 1914–1919'', 2014, Pen & Sword Military, pp. 6–7. {{ISBN|978-1473822764}} </ref>
The mystery of whether Adolf visited his British relatives in Liverpool is unresolved. Some historians dismiss Bridget's manuscript as being a fabrication written in an attempt to cash in on her famous relationship. However, in his book ''The Hitlers Of Liverpool'', Michael Unger quotes the Canadian historian, Professor Alan Cassels, who wrote "The Merseyside details are certainly circumstantially credible" ... "I'm inclined to believe his sister-in-law".<ref>Michael Unger, ''The Hitlers Of Liverpool,'' 2011, Bluecoat Press, p. 5. {{ISBN?}}</ref> Brigitte Hamann and Hans Mommsen say that the few sources from Vienna during this period are "questionable throughout".<ref>Brigitte Hamann, Hans Mommsen, ''Hitler's Vienna: A Portrait of the Tyrant As a Young Man'', 2010, Tauris Parke, p.183.</ref> Professor Robert Waite disputes her claim that Adolf stayed with her as well as some other claims in her book in the appendix to his book ''The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler''. According to David Gardner, Bridget's daughter-in-law has said Bridget admitted to her that the book was fanciful.{{citation needed|date=November 2011}} The story of Adolf Hitler's visit to Liverpool has remained popular, however, and was the subject of Beryl Bainbridge's 1978 novel ''Young Adolf'' (adapted for television by the BBC as ''The Journal of Bridget Hitler'' in 1981) and Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's 1989 comic ''The New Adventures of Hitler''.
==Post-war== Following the war, Bridget and her son settled in Long Island, New York under the assumed name of Stuart-Houston. She died there on 18 November 1969 and is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Coram, Long Island alongside her son, who died on 14 July 1987.
==Family== The family of Bridget Dowling remained a mystery until the Irish censuses for 1901 and 1911 were digitised and released online.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Pembroke_West/Flemings_Place/1287727/ |title=National Archives: Census of Ireland 1901 |website=National Archives of Ireland |access-date=2017-07-18}}</ref> The names of the family members, including Bridget, are given in the 1901 census under the name William Dowling of Flemings Place, near Mespil Road, Dublin.
The family later moved to Denzille Street,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000220224/|title=The census return of 1911 records the name as "Denzille Street"}}</ref> Dublin, now named Fenian Street.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai000220223/ |title=National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911 |website=National Archives of Ireland |access-date=2017-07-18}}</ref> Married by then, Bridget was not included with her Dowling family on the 1911 census. Instead, she appears as "Cissie Hitler" on the 1911 England and Wales Census, shown with husband "Anton Hitler" and son "William Hitler" at 102 Upper Stanhope Street, Liverpool.<ref name="auto"/>
==See also== * Hitler family * ''Meet the Hitlers''
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist |30em}}
==Sources== {{Refbegin |30em |indent=yes}} * Vermeeren, Marc (2007). ''De jeugd van Adolf Hitler, 1889-1907: en zijn familie en voorouders'' [''The youth of Adolf Hitler, 1889–1907: and his family and ancestors''] (in Dutch). Soesterberg: Uitgeverij Aspekt. {{ISBN|978-9059116061}} {{Refend}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050206085010/http://www.dowlingfamily.info/i1910hit.htm Hitler's Irish Relatives] by Tony McCarthy * [https://web.archive.org/web/20020306182003/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2002%2F01%2F20%2Fwhit20.xml Getting to know the Hitlers] from the Daily Telegraph * [http://www.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/02/05/last.hitlers.cnna/ Author talks about 'the Last of the Hitlers'] CNN interview * [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/nai003698694/ Irish census record of Bridget Dowling from 1901] * [http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Dublin/Pembroke_West/Flemings_Place/1287727/ Record of Dowling Family from 1901] * [http://historyofliverpool.com/hitler-living-liverpool/ Adolf Hitler living in Liverpool] * {{Find a Grave}}
{{Subject bar |auto=y |portal1=Republic of Ireland |portal2=Biography }} {{Adolf Hitler}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowling, Bridget}} Category:1891 births Category:1969 deaths Category:Hitler family Category:People from Dublin (city) Category:People from Hornsey Category:People from Long Island Category:20th-century Irish writers Category:20th-century Irish women writers Category:Irish emigrants to the United States