In October 1943, Adolf Hitler’s private secretary Martin Bormann fell head over heels with a woman he flirted with at a ball.
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The woman, Manja Behrens, was a dental assistant turned actress, who’d appeared in a couple movies. Although Bormann was married, he pursued Behrens relentlessly until she finally gave in.
A few months later, Bormann was forced to confess to his wife, Gerda, that he’d fallen “madly in love” with his mistress. Gerda, instead of being stung, had a novel solution. Why not establish a polygamous household together?
“One year [Manja] has a child, and the next year I do, so that you will always have a wife that is mobile,” Gerda gushed to her husband. “We’ll put all the children together in a house on a lake.”
She went so far as to suggest a contract be drawn up, granting the mistress the same rights as the lawful wife. Gerda even thought a law should be passed in Germany “which would entitle healthy, valuable men to have two wives.”
For Bormann, a man with an “unrestrained libido” that he satisfied “without regard to social convention,” this was a perfectly acceptable idea.