Rudolf Hess

Not to be confused with Rudolf Hoess.

Rudolf Hess
Nazi Party Deputy Führer

Walter Richard Rudolf Hess (Heß in German) (April 26 1894 – August 17 1987) was a prominent figure in Nazi Germany, acting as Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party. On the eve of war with the Soviet Union, he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom, but instead was arrested. He was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life internment at Spandau Prison, where he remained until his death in 1987 as a result of strangulation by an electrical cord. The official cause of death was recorded as suicide; however, this theory has been questioned on many occasions by various sources.

Hess's seemingly bizarre attempt to negotiate peace and subsequent lifelong imprisonment have given rise to many theories about his motivation for flying to Scotland, and indeed conspiracy theories about why he remained imprisoned alone at Spandau, long after all other convicts had been released after having served their time or for other reasons. The manner of his death in custody is also contested. On September 27 and September 28, 2007, numerous British news services published descriptions of how his Soviet captors were unusually merciless towards Hess even though other Allied captors sought humane treatment of Hess in the years after World War II had ended, even during his last years.

Hess has become a figure of veneration among neo-Nazis.

Early life

Hess was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the eldest of the four children of Fritz H. Hess, a 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 (June 22 1900–September 7 1995) from Hanover. Together they had a son, Wolf Rüdiger Hess (November 18 1937–October 24 2001).

Hitler's deputy

After 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 Nuremburg Race 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 Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler.

Flight to Scotland

The wreckage of Hess's Bf 110.

Like Joseph Goebbels, Hess was privately distressed by the war with Britain. According to William L. Shirer, author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Hess may have hoped to score a stunning diplomatic victory by sealing a peace between the Reich and Britain.

Hess flew to Britain in May 1941 to meet the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, parachuting from his Messerschmitt Bf 110 over Renfrewshire on May 10 and landing (though breaking his ankle) at Floors Farm near Eaglesham, just south of Glasgow.

A young boy who was living on the farm was shooting pigeons at the time when Hess landed nearby. He claimed to have shot down Hess' plane with a stray bullet, a tale that was accepted by the other residents.

Hess was quickly arrested, although the details of how this happened are somewhat unclear and remain controversial. In one newsreel clip, farmer David McLean claims to have arrested Rudolf Hess with his pitchfork.

It appears that Hess believed Hamilton to be an opponent of Winston Churchill, whom he held responsible for the outbreak of the war. His proposal of peace included returning all the western European countries conquered by Germany to their own national governments, but German police would remain in position. Germany would also pay back the cost of rebuilding these countries. In return, Britain would have to support the war against Soviet Russia. Hess's strange behaviour and unilateral proposals quickly discredited him as a serious negotiator (especially after it became obvious he did not officially represent the German government). However, Churchill and Stewart Menzies, head of MI6, felt that Hess might have useful military intelligence.

After being held in the Maryhill army barracks, he was transferred to Mytchett Place near Aldershot. The house was fitted out with microphones and sound recording equipment. Frank Foley and two other MI6 officers were given the job of debriefing Hess — or "Jonathan", as he was now known. Churchill's instructions were that Hess should be strictly isolated, and that every effort should be taken to get any information out of him that might be useful.

This turned out not to amount to much. Although Hess was officially Deputy Führer, he had been squeezed out of Hitler's inner circle and had little detailed military information to offer. Hess became increasingly agitated as his conviction grew that he would be murdered. Mealtimes were difficult, since Hess suspected that his food might be poisoned, and the MI6 officers had to exchange their food with his to reassure him. Gradually, their conviction grew that Hess was insane.

Hess was interviewed by psychiatrist John Rawlings Rees who had worked at the Tavistock Clinic prior to becoming a Brigadier in the Army. Rees concluded that he was not insane, but certainly mentally ill and suffering from depression—probably due to the failure of his mission. Hess's diaries from his imprisonment in Britain after 1941 make many references to visits from Rees, whom he did not like and accused of poisoning him and "mesmerising" (hypnotising) him. Rees took part in the Nuremberg trial of 1945. The diary entries can be found in David Irving's book Hess: the Missing Years.

Taken by surprise, Hitler had Hess's staff arrested, then spread word throughout Germany that Hess had gone insane and acted of his own accord. Hearing this, Hess began claiming to his interrogators that as part of a pre-arranged diplomatic cover story, Hitler had agreed to announce to the German people that his deputy Führer was insane. Meanwhile Hitler granted Hess's wife a pension. Martin Bormann succeeded Hess as deputy under a newly created title.

Much controversy surrounds the case of whether Hitler knew of Hess' ideas to make peace with Britain and there has been a lot of contradictory material published on the matter. Along with the previous statement that Ilse Hess was granted a pension by the NSDAP government it is known that Hess had been getting flying lessons in a personalized Messerschmitt aircraft and in the early stages of this preparation he was accompanied by Hitler's personal pilot, Hans Baur. Also, as American journalist Louis C. Kilzer points out in his book Churchill's Deception; The Dark Secret That Destroyed Nazi Germany, on 5 May 1941 a four hour meeting was held between Adolf Hitler and Rudolf Hess which no one was allowed to attend. Adjutant Alfred Leitgen, keeping guard outside the meeting later recalled to have heard snippets of the meeting which made no sense. 'Albrecht Haushofer' and '[Duke] Hamilton' were mentioned; but interestingly Hess' voice was heard to say 'no problems at all with the airplane' and 'simply declared insane!'

My coming to England in this way is, as I realize, so unusual that nobody will easily understand it. I was confronted by a very hard decision. I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children's coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children.

— June 10 1941 (from Rudolf Hess: Prisoner of Peace by his wife, Ilse Hess)

Trial and life imprisonment

Rudolf Hess (first row, second from left), in the defendant's box at the Nuremberg Trials.

Hess was detained by the British for the remainder of the war. 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."

His last words before the tribunal were, "I have no regrets." 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 what would likely have been a strong 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,

Reflecting upon the whole of the story, I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated. Whatever may be the moral guilt of a German who stood near to Hitler, Hess had, in my view, atoned for this by his completely devoted and frantic deed of lunatic benevolence. He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy. He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded.

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."[1] U.S. president 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."

Death

On 17 August 1987, Hess died while under Four Power imprisonment at Spandau Prison in West Berlin. 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 this is disputed by some historians who claim Hess was in fact murdered. He was buried in Wunsiedel, and Spandau Prison was subsequently demolished to prevent it from becoming a shrine.

Wunsiedel

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 around 7,000 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 Britain

The Queen's Lost Uncle

Related 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 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 Hitler attacked its former Soviet ally.

Violet Roberts, whose nephew, Walter Roberts was a close relative of the Duke of Hamilton and was working in the political intelligence and propaganda branch of the Secret Intelligence Service (SO1/PWE), was friends with Hess's mentor Karl Haushofer and 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 be sealed until 2017 but when the seal was broken in 1991-92 they were missing. Edvard Beneš, head of the Czechoslovak Government in Exile and his intelligence chief František 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 does allow the debate to continue, since without these files the existing theories cannot be fully verified. Hess was in captivity for almost 4 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 England 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 landing

After Hess's Bf 110 was detected on radar, a number of pilots were scrambled to meet it, (including ace Alan Deere), 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 Rudolf 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 Rudolf 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 or recover Hess. It was shot down.

The witness accounts are said to uncover various insights. Hess's flight path implies 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.

Popular culture

• In the 1985 film Wild Geese II, a group of mercenaries are assigned to break Rudolf Hess (played by Sir Laurence Olivier) out of Spandau Prison, to discover secrets he knows about world leaders.
• In the 1993 thriller novel Spandau Phoenix, author Greg Iles wrote about a fictional account of Rudolf Hess's journey to Scotland and its aftermath.
• In the movie Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa, Hess is a member of the Thule Society as well as a lieutenant loyal to Chairman Eckhart.
• Joy Division's song "Warsaw" ends with the shout: "3 5 0 1 2 5 Go!" 350125 was Rudolf Hess's prisoner of war serial number after his flight to Scotland. The song as a whole narrates his life from the Beer Hall Putsch to his last days in prison.

Further reading

• Allen, Martin. The Hitler/Hess Deception: British Intelligence's Best Kept Secret of the Second World War. London: HarperCollins 2003
• Allen, Peter. The Crown and the Swastika: Hitler, Hess, and the Duke of Windsor.
• Brenton, Howard. H.I.D.: Hess Is Dead.
• Costello, John. Ten Days to Destiny: The Secret Story of the Hess Peace Initiative and British Efforts to Strike a Deal With Hitler. Also published as Ten Days That Saved the West.
• Douglas-Hamilton, James. Motive for a Mission: The Story Behind Rudolf Hess's Flight to Britain.
• Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935. (Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1985, ISBN 0-85030-402-4)
• Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of Identity. (New York University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8147-3124-4. Paperback 2003, ISBN 0-8147-3155-4)
• Hess, Ilse. Prisoner of Peace.
• Hess, Rudolf. Selected speeches.
• Hess, Wolf Ruidger. My Father Rudolf Hess.
• Hutton, Joseph Bernard. Hess: The Man and His Mission.
• Irving, David John Cawdell. Hess: The Missing Years 1941–1945.
• Le Tissier, Tony. Farewell to Spandau.
• Knopp, Guido for ZDF Hitlers helfer - Hess, der Stellvertreter. (German TV, 1998, ISBN 0-7509-3781-5)
• Kilzer, Louis C. Churchill's Deception: The Dark Secret That Destroyed Nazi Germany.
• Leasor, James The Uninvited Envoy.
• Machtan, Lothar. The Hidden Hitler. (2001) ISBN 0-465-04308-9
• Manvell, Roger. Hess: A Biography.
• Moriarty, David M. Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuhrer: A Psychological Study.
• Nesbit, Roy Conyers, and Georges Van Acker. The Flight of Rudolf Hess: Myths and Reality.
• Padfield, Peter. Hess: Flight for the Führer.
• Padfield, Peter. Hess: The Fuhrer's Disciple.
• Picknett, Lynn, Clive Prince, and Stephen Prior. Double Standards The Rudolf Hess Cover-Up. ISBN 0-7515-3220-7
• Pile, G. Rudolf Hess: Prisoner of Peace.
• Rees, John R., and Henry Victor Dicks. The Case of Rudolf Hess; A Problem in diagnosis and forensic psychiatry.
• Rees, Philip, editor. Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890. (1991, ISBN 0-13-089301-3)
• Royce, William Hobart The Behest of Hess's.
• Smith, Alfred. Rudolf Hess and Germany's Reluctant War, 1939-41.
• Tuccille, Jerome, and Philip S. Jacobs. The Mission. (Dutton Adult, 1991 novel, ISBN 1-55611-199-1)
• Thomas, Hugh. The Murder of Rudolf Hess (republished as Hess: A Tale of Two Murders).
• Schwarzwäller, Wulf. Rudolf Hess, the Last Nazi. (A Zenith edition)
• Ernst Haiger Fiction, Facts, and Forgeries: The 'Revelations' of Peter and Martin Allen about the History of the Second World War. The Journal of Intelligence History, Vol 6 no. 1 (Summer 2006 [published in 2007]), pp. 105–117.
• Cornell University Law Library [2] - "Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler" Cornell University lawschool. Readers can download a PDF version of the whole document here

External links

• Rudolf Hess at the Encyclopædia Britannica
• Interview with eyewitness of Hess's crash-landing outside Glasgow
• Rudolf Hess's relationship to Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy
• Correspondence on Rudolph Hess's incarceration held by the National Archives of the United Kingdom

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