HESS, RUDOLF (1894–1987)

German Nazi leader.

Born on 26 April 1894 to a middle-class mercantile family living in Alexandria, Egypt, future Nazi Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess initially trained to follow his father into the world of commerce. World War I, however, derailed his career plans; Hess enlisted in 1914, saw combat on the western and eastern fronts, and ended the war as a lieutenant in the Air Force. For Hess, November 1918 and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles represented a national humiliation brought about by the actions of so-called traitors such as the Jews and the Marxists. Following demobilization, Hess enrolled at the University of Munich, where he came to know geography professor Karl Haushofer, who convinced him that Germany's survival depended on the acquisition of territory. Hess at this time also became active in Munich's Far Right political scene; he joined the anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist Thule Society and, as a member of the paramilitary Freikorps, participated in May 1919 in the bloody suppression of the Munich Soviet.

One year later, Hess attended a lecture given by the then-obscure Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), an experience that Hess later claimed transformed his life. Convinced of Hitler's prophetic powers and messianic significance, Hess threw his support behind him and his fledgling German Workers' Party, the predecessor of the Nazi Party. Imprisoned alongside Hitler in the Landsberg Castle as punishment for participating in the November 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Hess cemented his position as a member of Hitler's inner circle. As Hitler's private secretary, Hess served as Hitler's mouthpiece and, more importantly, controlled access to Hitler. Hess also played the crucial role in developing the Hitler cult, establishing within the party the notion that the Führer "was always right and always would be."

HESS IN THE THIRD REICH

The early days of the Third Reich witnessed a proliferation of honors and an expansion of power for Hess. On 21 April 1933, Hitler made him deputy Führer within the Nazi Party, and Hess in December 1933 entered Hitler's cabinet as minister of state without portfolio. Over the course of the 1930s, however, Hess's relationship with Hitler deteriorated and, with no personal or territorial power base of his own, Hess became increasingly marginalized in the Darwinist Nazi political system as men like Martin Bormann outmaneuvered him. Hess's appointment on 1 September 1939 to the position of second in the line of succession after Hitler recognized Hess's enduring popularity with the German people but masked his deepening insignificance within the party and the government.

As most historians believe, this sense of political marginalization, combined with a misguided notion that Germany could appeal to a "peace party" within the British political establishment, convinced Hess to try to regain Hitler's favor by helping to end the war between Great Britain and Germany. In the summer of 1940, Hess unsuccessfully attempted to use an intermediary to arrange a meeting with a high-ranking British statesman on neutral soil. In desperation, Hess decided to fly to Great Britain in order to make the case for peace personally. After months of secret preparation and two abortive previous attempts, Hess flew a modified Messerschmidt Bf 110 fighter-bomber to Britain on the night of 10 May 1941 and landed by parachute on the Scottish estate of the Duke of Hamilton. Although there is still disagreement as to whether Hitler knew or approved of Hess's plans, news of the flight provoked official outrage in Nazi Germany and silence in Great Britain. The British interrogated Hess and then imprisoned him for the duration of the war.

THE NUREMBERG TRIAL AND HESS'S IMPRISONMENT

At the end of World War II, the British transferred Hess to Germany to stand trial as one of the twenty-two defendants at Nuremberg. Allied officials indicted him on four charges: conspiracy, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace. Hess considered the proceedings a farce, a case of victor's justice that he irrationally believed might nonetheless result in his being awarded control of the three Western occupation zones. In his closing remarks to the court, Hess stated, "It was granted to me for many years of my life to work under the greatest son that my people has ever produced in its thousand years of history. If I even could do so, I would not wish to erase this period from my life. I regret nothing." The court found Hess guilty of the crimes of conspiracy and crimes against peace; despite the demands of the Soviet prosecutor for the death penalty, the court sentenced Hess to life imprisonment. Hess served more than forty years in Berlin's special Spandau Prison, then hanged himself in a garden shed on 17 August 1987.

See alsoHitler, Adolf; Nazism; War Crimes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fest, Joachim. The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership. Translated by Michael Bullock. New York, 1970.

Knopp, Guido. Hitler's Henchmen. Translated by Angus McGeoch. Phoenix Mill, U.K., 2000.

Smelser, Ronald, and Rainer Zitelmann, eds. The Nazi Elite. Translated by Mary Fischer. New York, 1993.

Stafford, David, ed. Flight from Reality: Rudolf Hess and His Mission to Scotland, 1941. London, 2002.

Charles Lansing