Brigitte Hamann (née Deitert) was born on July 26, 1940, in Essen, Germany, and died on October 4, 2016.

She was a German-Austrian author and historian based in Vienna.

She studied history in Münster and Vienna and for a time worked as a journalist in her native Essen.

Brigitte Hamann married the historian in 1965 and university professor Günther Hamann (1924–1994), moved to Vienna and obtained Austrian in addition to German citizenship.

They had couple have three children.

Her 1999 book, Hitler’s Vienna: A Dictator’s Apprenticeship, examined how societal attitudes at the time shaped Hitler’s anti-Semitic views during his time in Vienna between 1908 and 1913, and the effects of his inordinate fear of both infection and women.

After the publication of The Hidden Hitler by the historian and University of Bremen professor Lothar Machtan, Hamann investigated claims about Hitler’s homosexuality and appears in the 2004 HBO documentary film, Hidden Fuhrer: Debating the Enigma of Hitler’s Sexuality, by the American documentarians Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.

During 2005, she released Winifred Wagner: A Life at the Heart of Hitler’s Bayreuth, a biography of Winifred Wagner, the British-born woman who became a founding member of the Nazi Party and a close friend of Hitler.

Brigitte Hamann passed away at 76 years old.