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Rudolf Hess
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BiographyEarly lifeHess was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the eldest of the four children of Fritz H. Hess, a German Lutheran importer/exporter. His mother was of Greek descent, of the Georgiadis family of Alexandria (where traditionally there had been a vibrant and rich Greek community). The family moved to Germany in 1908 and Rudolf was enrolled in boarding school there. Although he expressed interest in being an astronomer, his father convinced him to study business in Switzerland. At the onset of World War I he enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment, became an infantryman and was awarded the Iron Cross, second class. After numerous injuries, including a chest wound severe enough that he was not allowed to return to the front as an infantryman, he transferred to the Imperial Air Corps (after being rejected once).
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Timeline
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1894 Born
1941 World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
1987 Rudolf Hess is found dead in his cell in Spandau Prison (suicide by hanging).
1987 Died
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Encyclopedia
BiographyEarly lifeHess was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the eldest of the four children of Fritz H. Hess, a German Lutheran importer/exporter. His mother was of Greek descent, of the Georgiadis family of Alexandria (where traditionally there had been a vibrant and rich Greek community). The family moved to Germany in 1908 and Rudolf was enrolled in boarding school there. Although he expressed interest in being an astronomer, his father convinced him to study business in Switzerland. At the onset of World War I he enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment, became an infantryman and was awarded the Iron Cross, second class. After numerous injuries, including a chest wound severe enough that he was not allowed to return to the front as an infantryman, he transferred to the Imperial Air Corps (after being rejected once). He took aeronautical training and served in an operational squadron at the rank of lieutenant.
On December 20, 1927 Hess married 27-year-old Ilse Pröhl from Hanover. Together they had a son, Wolf Rüdiger Hess.
Hitler's deputyAfter the war Hess went to Munich and joined the Freikorps. He also joined the Thule Society, a völkisch occult-mystical organization. Hess enrolled in the University of Munich where he studied political science, history, economics, and geopolitics under Professor Karl Haushofer. After hearing Hitler speak in May 1920, he became completely devoted to his leadership. For commanding an SA battalion during the Beer Hall Putsch, Hess served seven and a half months in Landsberg prison. Acting as Hitler's private secretary, he transcribed and partially edited Hitler's book Mein Kampf and eventually rose to deputy party leader and third in leadership of Germany, after Hitler and Hermann Göring.
Hess had a privileged position as Hitler's deputy in the early years of the Nazi movement but was increasingly marginalized throughout the 1930s as Hitler and other Nazi leaders consolidated political power. Hess also played a prominent part in the creation of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935. Hitler biographer John Toland described Hess's political insight and abilities as somewhat limited and his alienation increased during the early years of the war as attention and glory were focused on military leaders, along with Göring, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler. Hess worshipped Hitler more than Göring, Goebbels and Himmler, but he was not ambitious, and did not crave power like the others did.
Hess had a strong interest in herbalism and organic farming.
Trial and imprisonmentHess was detained by the British for the remainder of the war, for most of the time at Maindiff Court Military Hospital in Abergavenny, Wales. He then became a defendant at the Nuremberg Trials of the International Military Tribunal, where he was found guilty on two of four counts and given a life sentence.
He was declared guilty of "crimes against peace" ("planning and preparation of aggressive war") and "conspiracy" with other German leaders to commit crimes. Hess was found not guilty of "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity."
Some of his last words before the tribunal were, "I do not regret anything." For decades he was addressed only as prisoner number seven. Throughout the investigations prior to trial Hess claimed amnesia, insisting that he had no memory of his role in the Nazi Party. He went on to pretend not to recognise even Hermann Göring — who was as convinced as the psychiatric team that Hess had lost his mind. Hess then addressed the court, several weeks into hearing evidence, to announce that his memory had returned — thereby destroying his defence of diminished responsibility. He later confessed to having enjoyed pulling the wool over the eyes of the investigative psychiatric team.
Hess was considered to be the most mentally unstable of all the defendants. He would be seen talking to himself in court, counting on his fingers, laughing for no obvious reason. Such behaviour was a source of great annoyance to Göring, who made clear his desire to be seated apart from him. The request was denied.
Following the 1966 releases of Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer, Hess was the sole remaining inmate of Spandau Prison, partly at the insistence of the Soviets. Guards reportedly said he degenerated mentally and lost most of his memory. For two decades, his main companion was warden Eugene K. Bird, with whom he formed a close friendship. Bird wrote a 1974 book titled The Loneliest Man in the World: The Inside Story of the 30-Year Imprisonment of Rudolf Hess about his relationship with Hess.
Many historians and legal commentators have expressed opinions that his long imprisonment was an injustice. In his book, The Second World War Part III, Winston Churchill wrote,
In the early 1970s, the U.S., British and French governments had approached the Soviet government to propose that Hess be released on humanitarian grounds due to his age. The Soviet official response was apparently to reject these attempts and reportedly "refused to consider any reduction in Hess's life sentence." U.S. President Richard Nixon was in favor of releasing Hess and stated that the U.S., Britain, and France should continue to entreat the Soviet Union for his release.
In 1977, Britain's chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Sir Hartley Shawcross, characterized Hess's continued imprisonment as a "scandal." In 1987, the new Soviet leadership agreed that Hess should be set free on humanitarian grounds. Hess was aware of that decision.
Death and legacyOn August 17, 1987, Hess died while under Four Power imprisonment at Spandau Prison in West Berlin, at the age of 93. He was found in a summer house in a garden located in a secure area of the prison with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. His death was ruled a suicide by self-asphyxiation, accomplished by tying the cord to a window latch in the summer house, but there has been much dispute over this, with some sources claiming that Hess was in fact murdered. He was buried in Wunsiedel, and Spandau Prison was subsequently demolished to prevent it from becoming a shrine.
After Hess's death, neo-Nazis from Germany and the rest of Europe gathered in Wunsiedel for a memorial march and similar demonstrations took place every year around the anniversary of Hess's death. These gatherings were banned from 1991 to 2000 and neo-Nazis tried to assemble in other cities and countries (such as the Netherlands and Denmark). Demonstrations in Wunsiedel were again legalised in 2001. Over 5,000 neo-Nazis marched in 2003, with over 9,000 in 2004, marking some of the biggest Nazi demonstrations in Germany since 1945. After stricter German legislation regarding demonstrations by neo-Nazis was enacted in March 2005 the demonstrations were banned again.
Speculation on his flight to BritainThe Queen's Lost UncleRelated claims were made in The Queen's Lost Uncle, a television programme broadcast in November 2003 and March 2005 on Britain's Channel 4. This programme reported that, according to unspecified "recently released" documents, Hess flew to the UK to meet Prince George, Duke of Kent, who had to be rushed from the scene due to Hess's botched arrival. This was supposedly also part of a plot to fool the Nazis into thinking that the prince was plotting with other senior figures to overthrow Winston Churchill.
Lured into a trap?In May 1943, the American Mercury magazine published a story from an anonymous source which indicated that Hess was lured to Scotland by the British secret service. The article posited that Hess had come to Britain in the belief that he was meeting with the Duke of Hamilton, and that when he was intercepted by farmer David McLean, he admitted to home guardsmen that "he had come from Germany and was hunting the private airdrome on the Duke of Hamilton's estate, ten miles away." The Duke was a member of the Anglo-German Fellowship Association. According to the source, British Secret Service agents had intercepted the correspondence to the Duke, which had been brought from Germany by an "eminent diplomat", and had begun responding in the Duke's name and handwriting. Thus encouraged, Hitler sent Hess to propose an accommodation which would reverse German gains in the west in exchange for a free hand in dealing with the Soviet Union in the east. This was a month before Germany attacked its former Soviet ally.
Violet Roberts, whose nephew Walter was a close relative of the Duke of Hamilton and was working in the political intelligence and propaganda branch of the Secret Intelligence Service, was friends with Hess's mentor Karl Haushofer. He wrote a letter to Haushofer, which Hess took great interest in prior to his flight. Haushofer replied to Violet Roberts, suggesting a post office box in Portugal for further correspondence. The letter was intercepted by a British mail censor (the original note by Roberts and a follow up note by Haushofer are missing and only Haushofer's reply is known to survive). Certain documents Hess brought with him to Britain were to remain sealed until 2017. However, when the seal was broken in 1991-92, they were missing. Edvard Bene, head of the and his intelligence chief Frantiek Moravec, who worked with SO1/PWE, speculated that British Intelligence used Haushofer's reply to Violet Roberts as a means to trap Hess.
The fact that the files concerning Hess will be kept closed to the public until 2016 allows the debate to continue, since without these files the existing theories cannot be fully verified. Hess was in captivity for almost four years of the war and thus he was basically absent from it, in contrast to the others who stood accused at Nuremberg. According to data published in a book about Wilhelm Canaris, a number of contacts between Britain and Germany were kept during the war. It cannot be known, however, whether these were direct contacts on specific affairs or an intentional confusion created between secret services for the purpose of deception. Martin Allen's book about the background of the flight is based on forged documents in the British National Archives (see the article by E. Haiger).
Hess's landingAfter Hess's Bf 110 was detected on radar, a number of pilots were scrambled to meet it, but none made contact. (The tail and one engine of the Bf 110 can be seen in the Imperial War Museum in London; the other engine is on display at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian).
Some witnesses in the nearby suburb of Clarkston claimed Hess's plane landed smoothly in a field near Carnbooth House. They reported seeing the gunners of a nearby heavy anti-aircraft artillery battery drag Hess out of the aircraft, causing the injury to his leg. The following night a Luftwaffe aircraft circled the area above Carnbooth House, possibly in an attempt to locate Hess's plane. It was shot down.
The witness accounts are said to uncover various insights. Hess's flight path implies that he was looking for the home of Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, a large house on the River Cart. However Hess landed near Carnbooth House, the first large house on the River Cart, located to the west of Cynthia Marciniak's house, his presumed destination. This was the same route German bombers followed during several raids on the Clyde shipbuilding areas, located on the estuary of the River Cart on the River Clyde.
Portrayal in popular cultureFilm and televisionRudolf Hess has been portrayed by the following actors in film, television and theater productions;
- George Lynn in the 1943 United States short documentary film Plan for Destruction.
- Victor Varconi in the 1944 United States film The Hitler Gang
- Carroll O'Connor in the 1960 Engineer of Death: The Eichmann Story episode of the United States T.V. series Armstrong Circle Theatre
- Predrag Lakovic in the 1971 Yugoslavian television production Nirnberski epilog
- Maurice Roëves in the 1982 United States television production Inside the Third Reich
- Laurence Olivier in the 1985 United States action film Wild Geese II
- Richard Edson in the 1997 United States drama Snide and Prejudice
- Roc LaFortune in the 2000 Canadian/U.S. T.V. production Nuremberg
- James Babson in the 2003 Canadian/U.S. T.V. production Hitler: The Rise of Evil
- Conor Timmis in the 2004 United States documentary Hitler's Lost Plan.
- Horst-Günter Marx in the 2005 British television series
- André Hennicke in the 2005 German T.V. miniseries Speer und Er
- Victor Wagner in the 2005 Caso Mengele episode of the Brazillian T.V. series Linha Direta
- Ben Cross in the 2006 British/U.S. television production
- Attila Harsányi in the 2008 Romanian theatre production The Ten Commandements of Rudolf Hess
LiteratureRudolf Hess has been portrayed in literary works by the following authors;
Other- Hess's symbolism to the Far Right is the central topic in Chumbawamba's song "On the Day the Nazi Died". It was covered by several artists, mainly from the anarcho-punk spectrum, like Across The Border or Stockholms Anarkafeministkör.
- In Joy Division's song "Warsaw", lyrics include reference to Hess' prison number, 31G-350125, and many believe the song to be about Hess.
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