Rudolf Hess was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt. From an early age he understood the iron connection between militarism and imperialism. He dreamed that Germany would emulate the model of expansion of the British Empire, based on a combination of industrial progress, military power and colonial expansion.
Hess excelled as a infantry fighter in the battles of World War I, was wounded several times, won medals of heroism and was promoted to the rank of junior officer. Lying in a hospital after one of his injuries, he became enthusiastic about the stories of the German flight champions' air battles and asked to be accepted to a pilot's course. Hess completed the course in October 1918. He joined the Flying Circus Squadron on the Western Front. It was already clear that the German Empire had lost, and the pilots' mood was low. Nevertheless he flew operational flights and took part in the last air battles of the war.
Germany's surrender, which took place in stark contrast to the uplifting mood of 1914, was accepted by him personally and created a mental crisis. It led to the elimination of all his plans for the future. He felt the humiliation completely. Bitterness, frustration, hatred and a sense of revenge accumulated in him. They found expression in the words of his squadron commander, Herman Goering, who addressed his soldiers after receiving the surrender order: "Our day is yet to come!"
His political view was formulated by geography professor Karl Haushofer, his teacher and friend at the University of Munich, where he began studying after the war. Haushoffer's sons, Albert and Heinz, became Hess' best friends. Albert had advanced degrees in geography and a senior academic position from the University of Berlin. The brothers helped Hess in Berlin in the critical days before Hitler came to power and later during Nazi rule.
Two other figures who influenced Hess at the time were Dietrich Eckert, who was the spiritual teacher of Hitler, and Ernest Roham, commander of the ''Brown Shirts''. Through them he got to know Hitler. He joined the Nazi Party in May 1920, after hearing Hitler speak and get excited about it. Hess was fascinated by the metamorphosis he envisioned. The content of the speech, which ranged from hatred of the Jews, through the supremacy of the Aryan race to the re-establishment of Germany as a power, was very appealing to his ears. There is no doubt, based on his personality, that Hess was also influenced by Hitler's suggestive powers.
Hess, who was the No. 16 member of the Nazi party, began assisting in activities, including personal assistance to Hitler. Hitler greatly appreciated Hess and liked to hang out with him. They were a cute duo. Hess was tall, masculine, and energetic, with an ascetic face and fanatical eyes, very restrained compared to Hitler, who insisted on being the center of social attention everywhere.
He decided without hesitation to accept Hitler's offer to be his political secretary. He believed in his ability to combine his military and intellectual skills and thought he could exert influence in different directions. It was suitable for him to serve as a connection between the people and the educated circles and at the same time between the party and the institutions of government. This subject has become his area of expertise.
Hess linked Hitler's ideas to those of Haushofer. He estimated that the two would find a common language. He invited Haushofer to Hitler's speech and thus began a close relationship between them.
After the putsch in Munich in 1923 Hess was imprisoned along with Hitler. Between the thick walls, Hitler wrote "Mein Kampf." Haushofer visited them several times in prison and formulated the spiritual and scientific infrastructure. In light of the fact that Hitler was inexperienced in writing books, it seems that Haushofer and Hess were full partners in writing and at least the brains behind it.
Hess was by nature an ardent idealist with no social skills and saw in the figure of Hitler his social messenger. Hitler, after appointing Hess as his personal secretary, could devote himself to public appearances. Hess was a regular speaker at the openings before Hitler's speeches. Beyond that he ran the Nazi party on a daily basis. Hess became one of the main influences on the path of the Nazi party and its "idealist" figure.
Hess had a strong card he used to strengthen his position in the party and undo the contempt he recieved due to his overt subservience to Hitler. He remained an active pilot, a fact which gave him great prestige in the public.
Hess continued to be one of the few active German pilots during the post-war recession period in Germany. He had several missions as a pilot in a legitimate militia organization. He participated as a pilot in the suppression of the Spartacist revolt in the Ruhr Valley.
Some time after Charles Lindbergh's historic flight from New York to Paris in 1927, Hess planned a parallel flight in the opposite direction. Had the flight been carried out, it would have compared his political status to that of Hitler.
Following the outbreak of the global economic crisis in 1929, Germany held another round of elections. The meaning of it was clear: the vote would determine whether Germany would abide by the Versailles Agreements and meet its debt repayments, or turn its back on the Allies and develop an independent policy, as the Nazis wanted.
The political left organized a huge demonstration in Munich of war veterans. Hess took off in a light aircraft painted with Nazi slogans and flew at low altitude in circles for about three hours above the crowd, disrupting and distracting the public through propeller noise and low flight. The noise was so loud that the speakers' voices were not heard. Eventually the demonstration dispersed with a sense of failure for the organizers. In the election a month later, the Nazi party soared to second place in the Reichstag, with a fifth of the electorate.
Hess continued to hone his flying skills. In 1932 he finished second in the German air race "around the summit of Mount Zugspitze". In 1934 he won the prestigious race.
At the center of his political pursuits during the period of the Nazi Party's growth was the question of the party's economic direction, socialist or capitalist. Hess had no doubt. He came from a capitalist background. The party clung to the great capital tycoons, the owners of industrial enterprises depended on cheap labor, who enslaved the German people.
Goering at that time began to be the most prominent and popular figure in German politics. The Hess-Goering coalition and their comrades from the military, academia and the economy had no problem controlling its will. This coalition became the leading factor in the party, which at the time was about to disintegrate. They linked Hitler to the tycoons and obtained the funding needed to propel the party wheels. They gave the party its new, reactionary image. They understood that Hitler controlled the the broad popular base of the party and at this stage did not openly undermined it.
Hess and Goering riped the fruits from the election results in which the Nazi party came to power. They maneuvered their men to the central positions of control and created the SS empire. Hess' junior aide, Himmler, was the commander of the SS, who until that elections had been just Hitler's small personal guard.
Himmler and Hess had similar psychological needs in a strong leader and an interest in which they could invest themselves. Both adhered to the anti-Semitic, anti-communist and anti-Catholic, anti-democratic, anti-humanist party platform and the mission of the noble Nordic race. Unlike the introverted Hess, Himmler was a determined political animal and took on every task he was asked to do. He enlisted Hess to the SS as an honorary general. Inspired by Hess, Himmler became the cultivator of official Nazi esotericism.
Hitler appointed Rudolf Hess as his second deputy, along with Goering. Hess' status as Fuhrer deputy included the role he had held since 1925, as Hitler's secretary and head of the party organization. His duties were defined as overseeing that the party would fulfill the tasks assigned to it by the Fuhrer, presenting the party's demends to state bodies and in the field of law enforcement and ensuring that Nazis claims will become a reality. In addition to that he also served as a super commissioner for public complaints.
For these ends, Hess built an organization similar to the government offices in Berlin and in some cases carried out their tasks from the outside. For example, the "Ribbentrop Office" he held in Berlin was a shadow of the official Foreign Ministry and competed with it. Ribbentrop, his protégé, would later become Foreign Minister.
Hess showed a special interest in foreign relations both because of the intelligence aspect, and also because of his origins as a German from abroad. He personally felt as a representative of Germany's interests abroad. He and Karl Haushofer were appointed presidents of another special foreign organization, which under cover as a cultural organization established the Nazi base among German minorities in neighboring countries. Through this organization, Hess established exclusive intelligence mechanisms outside Germany. As a cabinet member he made a crucial contribution through them in making decisions about the invasions of Czechoslovakia, Austria and Poland.
His ''Homeland Affairs'' organization had offices for public law, art, culture, journalism, employment, finance, technology and organization. He had a total of about twenty offices by 1939. His vast empire was headed by Martin Bormann, later Hitler's personal secretary. His varied activities were the basis for many mechanisms that grew rapidly and a springboard for many senior members of the Nazi party.
The main issue he dealt with was the rewording of German law. It was a concept of "revolutionary justice" that came from his Ministry of Law and crushed the traditional law of state authorities. This allowed Himmler to create the secret terrorist state shaped like a triangle: political police - concentration camps - SS, while bypassing all legal processes. This was the cooncept according to which Himmler ran the concentration camps. Himmler's authority rested on Hitler's will. However, it was Rudolf Hess's law enforcement officers who interpreted the law so that Himmler could create the system.
Hess had an important office for "public health" with two sub-ministries, one for "blood proximity research" and the other for "race policy".
In the Ministry of Blood Research Hess created the mechanisms, recruited the ardent supporters and mostly removed the medical inhibitions by gradually transferring the medical ethical responsibility from the doctor to the state. This was the beginning of totalitarian medicine and as such the beginning of the process that ended in Auschwitz, Treblinka and the other death camps. His officials founded the "Hereditary Health Courts'', which secretly ruled who to sterilize. He was involved in all the medical controversies, methods and processes designed to examine family origins of "Jewish blood''.
At the same time, the Ministry of Race Policy outlined the issue of the colonial question and the idea of race. The working paper dealt mainly with "proper leadership for various peoples". The most important goal of the white race was defined as: "to function as a race of masters."
Rudolf Hess decided to fly to England alone, in order to talk about it with Winston Churchill. Ribbentrop, who had been ambassador to England before being appointed foreign minister, led the "English policy" already referred to by Hitler and Hess in "Main Kampf" as such that would liberate Germany for search of living space in the East. The ''English policy'' made the grand opening of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin possible. Hess expected to find in England people like him in their thinking, embodying the arrogant aerial psyche, who think of the British Empire as the Nazis thought of Russia. But among most English politicians there was no such approch.
Hess was convinced of the necessity of the idea of his famous peace flight to England, as a dramatic gesture that suited his romantic and unstable character. It might have put him back in line with Hitler, in the sense of: "Hitler conquered France and I made peace with England''. Hess acted mostly out of a sense of self-conviction. He felt he was fulfilling the Fuhrer's wish, without talking to him. He will bring peace with Britain, prevent war between two fronts, and gain personal prestige and promotion after his return. All of these had no basis in reality. It was not preceded by comprehensive consultations, discretion and decision-making cooperation.
The sense of self-conviction that was central to Hess's decision-making process eliminates the need to delve into whether he had collaborators. Flight experts claim that no professional pilot would have dared to fly in an area as crowded with radar and anti-aircraft fire protection as the shores of England were in those days. Hess would not have hesitated anyway. He believed in the Supreme Providence and the higher the degree of risk, the greater the reward was considered for him.
He took off on his flight on Saturday May 10, 1941. Hitler was like a madman and completely surprised when he learned of the flight. The announcement he made for publication on German radio was as follows: ''Party member Hess, who was explicitly banned by the Fuhrer from using airplanes due to an illness that has worsened in recent years, managed to place his hands on a plane recently contrary to this order. The letter he left behind shows, unfortunately, Unfortunately, signs of mental disorder, which justify the fear that he was a victim of hallucinations. " In view of this reaction of Hitler no senior English government official agreed to talk to him and Hess was sent to an isolated prison.
In England, psychological experts drew Hess' personality profile. He was described as having a pale personality, a dubious moral character, to whom the nickname "the first lady of the country" and other feminine nicknames stuck. Hess was described by them as quite peaceful, but a little unbalanced. He turned and turned in his mind on his own initiative until it became a madness for one thing. Hess used flight to reinforce his weak character traits. He convinced himself that Germany would win the war, but at a heavy cost and after a long time. He thought that if he he would only succeed in convincing the English people that there was a basis for peace, this would bring an end to the war and avoid unnecessary suffering.
Hess had periods of ups and downs in his mental state. There were times when he was as normal as one would expect an inmate in solitary confinement. When he learned of the deterioration of Germany's situation and that he would be tried as a war criminal, gloomy moods struck him. He had fits of rage in which he shouted at himself and severe forgetfulness attacks in which he forgot what happened five minutes ago. When his memory returned to him, he was re-attacked with tantrums, paranoid hallucinations centered on "Jewish conspiracies'', neglected his outward appearance and made failed suicide attempts.
Hess was sent to trial in Nuremberg on October 8, 1945 and experienced a drastic decline in his living conditions. When the psychiatrists visited him, he forgot every detail of his previous life. It seems that with the suicide of Hitler, most of his personality was also erased. He had to be told where he was born. Hess took an interest and tried to cooperate, but without success. Even when they met him with Goering he did not remember anything. He did not remember the putsch in Munich nor the flight to England. They met him with Haushofer and a host of other senior Nazis in prison, but failed to evoke his memory.
Psychiatrists were united in their views that the basis of amnesia was his hysterical tendencies, which may have originated in the traumas he experienced in World War I and perhaps earlier, in his childhood and adolescence. His psychiatrists determined: 1. Hess is sane and responsible. 2. Hess is a fundamentally neurotic and hysterical type. His amnesia stems from a mixture of autosuggestion and a conscious onset of a hysterical personality.
Hess, who had a split personality, became one of the symbols of Germany's geographical split during his lifetime. This combination of personal and geographical division prevented world public opinion from properly condemning Nazi crimes. He died in 1987 at the age of 93 in Shepandau Prison, after many years of deteriorating health. The circumstances of his death, apparently in the wake of a suicide that finally succeeded, became a political event in the vanity fire of the media. His death provoked general unrest in Germany, which eventually led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, three years later.
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