Rudolf Hess - enlighten me please

I find the man to be a mystery.

His Nazi credentials are immaculate, yet he flys off to Britian while Germany looks to be at it's peak. After a 4 hour meeting with Hitler.

Even at his trial he was proud of being a Nazi and thought that Hitler was the best thing to ever happen to Germany.

Then there are rumours that he was murdered in prison at the age of 93.

Anyone have more knowledge which will help me understand this man and his role.

Thanks

KTK

 

Ken,

You could try looking at David Irving's Rudolf Hess, for a start. I suggest this as it is available online and is free.

Mark

 

Thanks Mark,

I have book marked it and will be reading it.

Ken

 

Um...well...personally I would stand clear of that author. Having read some of his denial hogwash I just can't recommend it by such a man regardless of any legit historical work he pens.

I had a nice, cordial argument with the editor of World War II magazine about many of his articles appearing in their issues. We kindly agreed to disagree. Although he wrote intellectually about the topic (I think it was an article on the Bf 109) I just have a moral issue.

Rant over

 

Back to the topic at hand

IMO he felt himself being muscled out of the Nazi Hierarchy by more intelligent political and military figures. His trip to Scotland was an attempt to gain favor with the Fuhrer and possibly reach some sort of settlement with Britain. Hitler was not opposed to settling affairs with Britain, but that ship had sailed when they wouldn't succumb to his demands. There is rumor that Hitler knew and his tirade at hearing the news of Hess's trip was an act. I don't believe it. Before he left Hess penned a letter to Hitler stating (the gist) he was sorry and that if the attempt did not work he can cast Hess as being not of sound mind.

It's a very odd story perpetrated by an odd man.

 

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/v1-28.asp

"His mental conditions are of a mixed type. He is an unstable person, which in technical terms is called a psychopathic personality. The data concerning his illness during the period of the last four years submitted by one of us who had him under observation in England, show that he had a delusion of being poisoned and other similar paranoic notions."



"As can be judged on the basis of the report of the English psychiatrist, Doctor Rees, who had Hess under observation from the first days of his flight to England, Hess, after the airplane crash, disclosed no evidence of a brain injury, but, upon arrest and incarceration, he began to give expression to ideas of persecution, he feared that he would be poisoned, or killed, and his death represented as a suicide, and that all this would be done by the English under the hypnotic influence of the Jews. Furthermore, these delusions of persecution were maintained up to the news of the catastrophe suffered by the German Army at Stalingrad when the manifestations were replaced by amnesia. According to Doctor Rees, the delusions of persecution and the amnesia were observed not to take place simultaneously. Furthermore, there were two attempts at suicide. A knife wound, inflicted during the second attempt, in the skin near the heart gave evidence of a clearly hysterico-demonstrative character. After this there was again observed a change from amnesia to delusions of persecution, and during this period he wrote that he was simulating his amnesia, and, finally, again entered into a state of amnesia which has been prolonged up to the present."

Later (same text):

"All that has been exposed above, we are convinced, permits of the interpretation that the deviation from the norm in the behavior of Hess takes the following forms:
1. In the psychological personality of Hess there are no changes typical of the progressive schizophrenic disease, and therefore the delusions, from which he suffered periodically while in England, cannot be considered as manifestations of a schizophrenic paranoia, and must be recognized as the expression of a psychogenic paranoic reaction, that is, the psychologically comprehensible reaction of an unstable (psychologically) personality to the situation (the failure of his mission, arrest, and incarceration). Such an interpretation of the delirious statements of Hess in England is bespoken by their disappearance, appearance, and repeated disappearance depending on external circumstances which affected the mental state of Hess.
2. The loss of memory by Hess is not the result of some kind of mental disease but represents hysterical amnesia, the basis of which is a subconscious inclination toward self-defense as well as a deliberate and conscious tendency toward it. Such behavior often terminates when the hysterical person is faced with an unavoidable necessity of conducting himself correctly. Therefore, the amnesia of Hess may end upon his being brought to Trial.
3. Rudolf Hess, prior to his flight to England, did not suffer from any kind of insanity, nor is he now suffering from it. At the present time he exhibits hysterical behavior with signs of a conscious-intentional (simulated) character, which does not exonerate him from his responsibility under the Indictment."


The guy already attempted "suicide" (once with a butter knife?!? why not a wooden spoon?) twice before the war's end, had several documented attempts later in captivity, displayed hysterical episodes, ranted on about being poisoned as part of a Jewish conspiracy, yet died (by suicide) at the ripe old age of 93.... and someone is suggesting it was a murder?!? ROFLMAO

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17588632

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/rudolf-hess-tale-poison-paranoia-and-tragedy-180952783/

'...it wasn’t just brain poison in his food. Hess believed that the British put a rash-inducing powder in his laundry, and that the Vaseline they gave him to treat the rash contained heart poison. He believed the guards added bone splinters and gravel to his meals to break his teeth. He attributed his sour stomach to their lacing his food with so much acid “the skin came loose and hung in little bits from my palate.”'

The flight was several days after the "four-hour long meeting."

The person most loudly advocating the "Allied conspiracy" to kill Rudolf Hess, was Wolf Rüdiger Hess, son to Rudolf.


Rudolf, Adolph, and Wolf.

 

GS, what do you mean. It just took 93 years of slow, intervaled poisoning. They finally got him!

 

Thanks guys,

Hess and his story definately is interesting. So much conflicting information.

Most appreciate the input and knowledge that you are sharing.

KTK

 

I guess he was tricked to make the flight or got mad during the years in power, as in the UK he kept on saying he was on peace mission and and that he had an appointment with certain persons.He really believed he could meet the top hierarchy in the UK and sign the peace paper and say " Peace in our time" as he flew back to Germany.... No way.

 

Maybe he was more realistic than the other Nazis? He was a veteran of WW1 too and a lesson from this war was to avoid a two front war at all cost.
When Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union regardless the fact that Great Britain wasn't defeated, he senses the danger. Other Nazis and most of the Generals were blinded by the surprisingly easy victory in the West and thought, that the war in the East will be a piece of cake compared to the war against France.

Ok, his flight was idiotic. There were other possibilities to talk to the british government - if they wanted to.

He had the reputation of being slightly mad, but i regard him as one of the more "harmless" Nazis.

 

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a223383.pdf