Rudolf HESS

• Full name: Rudolf Walter Richard Hess • Born: 26 April 1894, Alexandria, Khedivate of Egypt

• Died: 17 August 1987 (aged 93),Spandau,West Berlin

• Occupation: Deputy Nazi Party Leader• Children: Wolf Rüdiger Hess (18 November 1937 – 14

October 2001)

• Spouse: Ilse Pröhl (22 June 1900 – 7 September 1995) married 20 December 1927

Rudolf Hess

How he joined the Nazi Party

• After hearing Adolf Hitler, a powerful rhetorician, speak for the first time in May 1920 at a Munich rally, Hess became utterly devoted to him, and spent much of his time and effort for the next several years organizing for Hitler at the local level in Bavaria. Hess joined the fledgling Nazi Party in 1920 as one of its first members.

Role of Hess Before Nazi Germany (Cont.)

• Hess had been involved with the Nazi Party from its earliest days and was on the march to the Beer Hall that lead to his and Hitler's imprisonment at Landsberg Prison from 1923 to 1924. It was in prison that Hitler dictated "Mein Kampf" to Hess who acted as Hitler's personal secretary while in prison. In fact, Hess was seen by many to be Hitler's most loyal follower.

• Hess commanded an SA battalion during the Hitler-led Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, which failed. Hess served seven and a half months in Landsberg Prison; Hitler was sentenced to five years in the same prison, but served just nine months.

 • To Hitler, he was simply a devoted follower who had shared with Hitler the ravages of

the Battle of Ypres and imprisonment. With Hitler's support, the position of Hess in the party was unchallenged.

• In 1934, he was appointed deputy leader of the party and in 1939, he was appointed second in succession after Göering to the position of Head of State.

Roll in Nazi Party and Germany

• Loyal to Party and was in the Party from the start• Was Hitlers personal secretary during the writing

of the Mein Kampf• 1920 He became Hitlers political secretary• 1934 Hitlers deputy leader in the Nazi Party• 1939 appointed second in succession after

Göering to the position of Head of State.• In 1941 he crashed landed a plane into

Scottland

Rudolf Hess’s Role During and After The War

• Like Goebbels, Hess was privately distressed by the war with the United Kingdom , he hoped that Britain would accept Germany as an ally. Hess may have hoped to score a diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the Third Reich and Britain

• On 10 May 1941 at about 18:00, Hess took off from Augsburg in a Messerschmitt Bf 110D. Goering ordered the General of the Fighter Arm to stop him but squadron leaders were ordered to scramble only one or two fighters, but could not stop him

• Hess landed near Floors Farm, Eaglesham, where he was discovered removing his parachute harness by local ploughman David McLean. Hess's capture was reported at the time in the British and international media and McLean claimed to have arrested Hess with his pitchfork.

•  Hess was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he served at Spandau Prison, Berlin, where he died in 1987. After World War II Winston Churchill wrote of Hess, "He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded.