page_title: Rudolf Hess
section_title: Deputy Führer
hierarchical_section_title: Rudolf Hess / Deputy Führer
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Ausstellung "Planung und Aufbau im Osten" Scherl: Der Stellvertreter des Führers, Reichsminister Rudolf Hess, besichtigte in Berlin eine vom Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler durchgeführte Ausstellung über Aufbau und Planung im Osten. Dabei machte der Reichsführer der SS in seiner Eigenschaft als Reichskommissar zur Festigung des deutschen Volkstum grundsätzliche Ausführungen über die geplante bäuerliche Siedlung in den wiedergewonnenen Ostgebieten und erläuterte sie eingehend an Hand von Modellen und Zeichnungen. - Man sieht (von links nach rechts) den Stellvertreter des Führers Rudolf Hess, Reichsführer SS Himmler, Reichsleiter Bouhler, Reichsminister Dr. Todt, Gruppenführer der SS Heydrich. 20.3.41 [Berlin.- Ausstellung über Aufbau und Planung im Osten, v.l.n.r.: Rudolf Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Philipp Bouhler, Dr. Fritz Todt, Reinhard Heydrich, ganz rechts: Vortragender Erich Ehrlinger (irrtümlich so bezeichnet, tatsächlich: Konrad Meyer, siehe de:Diskussion:Erich Ehrlinger) Abgebildete Personen: Bouhler, Philipp: Reichsleiter, Beauftragter für das Euthanasie-Programm, Deutschland (GND 11627266x) Heß, Rudolf: Stellvertreter Hitlers als Führer der NSDAP, Kanzleileiter, Deutschland (GND 11855039X) Himmler, Heinrich: Reichsführer der SS, Deutschland (GND 11855123X) Heydrich, Reinhard: SS-Obergruppenführer, Leiter des SD, Chef des Reichssicherheitshauptamtes (RSHA), Deutschland (GND 118550640) Todt, Fritz Dr.: Generalinspektor für das Straßenwesen, Minister für Bewaffnung und Munition, Deutschland (GND 118813021) Information added by Wikimedia users.?? 2nd from right in NSDAP uniform: Hans Zimmermann (16.02.1940-04.04.1942: kommissarisch mit der Wahrnehmung der Geschäfte des Gauleiters des Gaues Franken der NSDAP beauftragt; ~ Michael Miller, Kalifornien, 25.IX.2010)
context_page_description: Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess served in that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom during World War II. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace, serving a life sentence until his suicide in 1987.
  Hess enlisted as an infantryman at the outbreak of World War I. He was wounded several times over the course of the war and was awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd Class in 1915. Shortly before the war ended, Hess enrolled to train as an aviator, but he saw no action in that role. He left the armed forces in December 1918 with the rank of Leutnant der Reserve. In 1919 Hess enrolled in the University of Munich, where he studied geopolitics under Karl Haushofer, a proponent of the concept of Lebensraum, which became one of the pillars of Nazi ideology. Hess joined the Nazi Party on 1 July 1920 and was at Hitler's side on 8 November 1923 for the Beer Hall Putsch, a failed Nazi attempt to seize control of the government of Bavaria.
context_section_description: On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, his first step in gaining dictatorial control of Germany. Hess was named Deputy Führer (Stellvertreter des Führers) of the Nazi Party on 21 April. On 2 June 1933 he was made one of 16 Reichsleiters in the Party hierarchy. On 1 July he was raised to the rank of Obergruppenführer in the Schutzstaffel (SS). However, by 20 September Hitler decreed that he stop using the titles of Reichsleiter and Obergruppenführer, and use only the title of "Deputy Fuhrer." This was an acknowledgement of his primus inter pares status in the Party.  Hess was appointed to the cabinet as a Reich Minister without Portfolio, on 1 December. With offices in the Brown House in Munich and another in Berlin, Hess was responsible for several departments, including foreign affairs, finance, health, education and law. All legislation passed through his office for approval, except that concerning the army, the police and foreign policy, and he wrote and co-signed many of Hitler's decrees. An organiser of the annual Nuremberg Rallies, he usually gave the opening speech and introduced Hitler. Hess also spoke over the radio and at rallies around the country, so frequently that the speeches were collected into book form in 1938. Hess acted as Hitler's delegate in negotiations with industrialists and members of the wealthier classes. As Hess had been born abroad, Hitler had him oversee the Nazi Party groups such as the NSDAP/AO that were in charge of party members living in other countries. Hitler instructed Hess to review all court decisions that related to persons deemed enemies of the Party. He was authorised to increase the sentences of anyone he felt got off too lightly in these cases, and was also empowered to take "merciless action" if he saw fit to do so. This often entailed sending the person to a concentration camp or simply ordering the person killed. 
  In 1933, Hess founded the Volksdeutscher Rat (Council of Ethnic Germans) to handle the Nazi Party's relations with ethnic German minorities around the world, with a particular focus on Eastern Europe. The purpose of the council was to protect the Nazi Party from criticism that it was attempting to extend the process of Gleichschaltung to international ethnic German communities. Despite Hess's claims to the contrary, the council members were primarily loyal to Germany rather than their current nations. The eight council members, only one of which was a member of the Nazi Party, were responsible only to Hess. All had long been known to either Hess or Haushofer, who was also involved with the council. Members publicly claimed to be uninvolved in the council, which Hess used as proof that the Nazi Party was not trying in interfere in the domestic affairs of other nations. As the council had considerable funds and appeared to be sufficiently independent of the German government to satisfy foreign governments, its activities had some impact on international German communities in the 1930s. Its most notable impact was in the Sudetenland, where in 1933 it promoted Konrad Henlein as the politician with the best hope of building a Nazi-friendly party that would win mass support without being banned by the Czechoslovak government.
  The Nazi regime began to persecute Jews soon after the seizure of power. Hess's office was partly responsible for drafting Hitler's Nuremberg Laws of 1935, laws that had far-reaching implications for the Jews of Germany, banning marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans and depriving non-Aryans of their German citizenship. Hess's friend Karl Haushofer and his family were subject to these laws, as Haushofer had married a half-Jewish woman, so Hess issued documents exempting them from this legislation.
  Hess did not build a power base or develop a coterie of followers. He was motivated by his loyalty to Hitler and a desire to be useful to him; he did not seek power or prestige or take advantage of his position to accumulate personal wealth. He lived in a modest house in Munich. Hess was devoted to the völkisch ideology and vi
caption: Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Phillip Bouhler, Fritz Todt, Reinhard Heydrich, and others listening to Konrad Meyer at a Generalplan Ost exhibition, 20 March 1941
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "800", "Image ImageLength": "561", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "1", "Image ImageDescription": "Scherl: Der Stellvertreter des F\u00fchrers, Reichsminister Rudolf Hess, besichtigte in Berlin eine vom Reichsf\u00fchrer SS Heinrich Himmler durchgef\u00fchrte Ausstellung \u00fcber Aufbau und Planung im Osten. Dabei machte der Reichsf\u00fchrer der SS in seiner Eigenschaft als Reichskommissar zur Festigung des deutschen Volkstum grunds\u00e4tzliche Ausf\u00fchrungen \u00fcber die geplante b\u00e4uerliche Siedlung in den wiedergewonnenen Ostgebieten und erl\u00e4uterte sie eingehend an Hand von Modellen und Zeichnungen. - Man sieht (von links nach rechts) den Stellvertreter des F\u00fchrers Rudolf Hess, Reichsf\u00fchrer SS Himmler, Reichsleiter Bouhler, Reichsminister Dr. Todt, Gruppenf\u00fchrer der SS Heydrich.\n20.3.41", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "4", "Image XResolution": "50", "Image YResolution": "50", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2010:06:22 11:19:36", "Image Artist": "o.Ang.", "Image ExifOffset": "944", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1094", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5324", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "795", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "539"}