Rudolf Hess

Lore & Background

Hess enlisted as an infantryman in the Imperial German Army at the outbreak of World War I. He was wounded several times during the war and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd Class, in 1915. Shortly before the war ended, he enrolled to train as an aviator, but saw no action in that role. He left the armed forces in December 1918. In 1919, he enrolled at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU), where he studied geopolitics under Karl Haushofer. He joined the Nazi Party on 1 July 1920 and was at Hitler's side on 8 November 1923 for the Beer Hall Putsch. While serving a prison sentence for this attempted coup, he assisted Hitler with a manuscript that became a foundation of the political platform of the Nazi Party. After Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933, Hess was appointed Deputy to the Nazi Party Führer in April of the same year. He was elected to the Reichstag in the March elections, was made a Gruppenführer of the Nazi Party in June, and in December 1933, he became Minister without Portfolio in Hitler's cabinet. He signed into law much of the government's legislation, but the source does not specify that he signed the Nuremberg Laws. Hess was also appointed in 1938 to the Secret Cabinet Council and to the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich in August 1939. Hitler decreed on the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939 that Hermann Göring was his official successor, and named Hess as next in line. By the start of the war, Hess was sidelined from most important decisions. On 10 May 1941, Hess made a solo flight to Scotland, where he hoped to arrange peace talks with the Duke of Hamilton. The British authorities arrested Hess immediately on his arrival and held him in custody until the end of the war, when he was returned to Germany to stand trial at the 1946 Nuremberg trials. During much of his trial, he claimed to be suffering from amnesia, but later admitted this had been a ruse. The tribunal convicted him of crimes against peace and of conspiracy with other German leaders to commit crimes. He served a life sentence in Spandau Prison; the Soviet Union blocked repeated attempts for his early release. While still in custody as the only prisoner in Spandau, he hanged himself in 1987 at the age of 93. After his death, the prison was demolished. His grave, bearing the inscription 'Ich habs gewagt' according to the source, became a site of r

Reader's Guide

Rudolf Hess was a key Nazi official who served as Deputy Führer until 1941, when he flew to Scotland on a failed peace mission. He was convicted at Nuremberg and spent the rest of his life in Spandau Prison, where he died by suicide in 1987.

Did You Know?

• Hess was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and grew up under British rule, which he admired.
• He studied geopolitics under Karl Haushofer, who promoted the concept of 'living space' (Lebensraum).
• Hess was wounded multiple times in World War I and trained as a pilot but saw no action.
• He was the only prisoner in Spandau Prison at the time of his death.