His alibi no longer holds up: 95 years later, Adolf Hitler is suspected of having participated in the murder of his niece.

According to unearthed documents, the Nazi leader had not yet left Munich at the time of Geli Raubal's death on September 18, 1931, contrary to his claims. The young victim was 23 years old.

Documents unearthed from Munich archives by a researcher cast doubt on where Adolf Hitler was at the time of his niece's suspicious death in his apartment in 1931, according to the weekly magazine Der Spiegel .

Even back then, the press and political opponents of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP), then on the rise, had questioned the theory of Geli Raubal's suicide by gunshot, who had been living for several years in Munich with his uncle, Adolf Hitler, suspected of being involved in his death.

Author Harald Sandner, known for his historical works on the German dictator, found in the national and municipal archives of Munich two announcements and a death certificate that call into question the official version of the time, according to the Spiegel article dated Tuesday.

Present at a demonstration on the day of his niece's death

Adolf Hitler claimed that he had already left Munich on the afternoon of September 18, 1931, the day before the discovery in the morning of the body of his niece, lying on the floor of her room, by the building manager and servant of the Nazi leader.

However, the three documents date the discovery of the body to September 18 at 10:15 a.m., when his uncle was still in town according to Harald Sandner: Hitler would have participated in a party demonstration between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., before leaving for Nuremberg in the afternoon.

The Nazi leader was then on the path to power, which he would obtain in January 1933 with his appointment to the chancellery, which would hasten the end of the Weimar Republic and the advent of the totalitarian regime.

According to historian Thomas Weber, quoted by Spiegel, Hitler wanted to present himself "as the embodiment of all virtues and values," and the suspicion that he might have been involved in the death of his niece would have tarnished this image.

No autopsy was performed

The official chronology was based in particular on the police report dated September 28, about ten days after the death of Geli Raubal.

Another possible indication of a cover-up, according to Harald Sandner, is that no autopsy was performed. While the discovered documents reinforce suspicions, they do not provide any proof of manipulation, he emphasizes.

The Münchner Post newspaper, which was close to the Social Democratic Party, reported at the time a violent argument between Hitler and his niece, injuries on the latter's body, and crisis meetings at the NSDAP headquarters on how to present the case publicly.

Other newspapers suggested that Hitler himself killed, or had killed, his 23-year-old niece, whose actions he wanted to control. The cause of the dispute may have been his refusal to let the young woman go to live in Vienna, where she hoped to continue her vocal training.