Hans Lammers Dr . jur . Hans Heinrich Lammers ( 27 May 18794 January 1962 ) was a German jurist and prominent Nazi politician . From 1933 until 1945 he served as head of the Reich Chancellery under Adolf Hitler . Biography . Born in Lublinitz ( Lubliniec ) in Upper Silesia , the son of a veterinarian , Lammers completed law school at the universities of Breslau ( Wrocław ) and Heidelberg , obtained his doctorate in 1904 , and was appointed judge at the " Amtsgericht " of Beuthen ( Bytom ) in 1912 . As a volunteer and officer of the German Army he received the Iron Cross , First and Second Class during World War I , then resumed his career as a lawyer and joined the national conservative German National People ' s Party ( DNVP ) , reaching the position of an undersecretary at the Reich Ministry of the Interior by 1922 . In 1932 , Lammers joined the Nazi Party and achieved rapid promotion , appointed head of the police department , and in the course of the Nazi " Machtergreifung " in 1933 a State Secretary and Chief of the Reich Chancellery . At the recommendation of Reich Minister Wilhelm Frick , he became the centre of communications and chief legal adviser for all government departments . From 1937 , he was a member of Hitler ' s cabinet as a Reich Minister without portfolio , and from 30 November 1939 a member of the Council of Ministers for the Defence of the Reich . In this position he was able to review all pertinent documents regarding national security and domestic policy even before they were forwarded to Hitler personally . From January 1943 , Lammers served as President of the cabinet when Hitler was absent from their meetings . Along with Martin Bormann , he increasingly controlled access to Hitler . In February 1943 , following the Battle of Stalingrad , Bormann with Lammers attempted to create a three - men junta representing the Nazi Party ( Bormann ) , the state ( Lammers ) , and the army which would have been led by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel , chief of the OKW ( armed forces high command ) . This Committee of Three would have exercised dictatorial powers over the home front . Joseph Goebbels , Albert Speer , Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler all saw this proposal as a power grab by Bormann and Lammers and a threat to their positions , and combined to block it . However , this scheme eventually collapsed due to the frequent infighting and mistrust the party , military , and the various ministries had amongst one another . Lammers eventually lost power and influence due to the increasing irrelevancies of his post due to the war . In April 1945 , Lammers was arrested by Hitler ' s forces during the final days of the Third Reich , in connection with the upheaval surrounding Hermann Göring . On 23 April , as the Soviets tightened the encirclement of Berlin , Göring consulted Karl Koller and Lammers . All agreed that Göring was not only Hitler ' s designated successor , but was to act as his deputy if Hitler ever became incapacitated . Acting on the matter , Göring sent a telegram from Berchtesgaden in Bavaria , arguing that since Hitler was cut off in Berlin , he , Göring , should assume leadership of Germany . Göring set a time limit , after which he would consider Hitler incapacitated . Hitler responded angrily , ordering SS troops to arrest Göring and to shoot Lammers . Lammers was rescued when he was captured by American forces , but in the meanwhile his wife , Elfriede ( née Tepel ) , committed suicide near Obersalzberg ( the site of Hitler ' s mountain retreat ) in early May 1945 , as did his younger daughter , Ilse Hoffmann ( née Lammers ) , two days later . Post - war . After the war in April 1946 Lammers was a witness at the Nuremberg tribunal . In April 1949 he was tried under Subsequent Nuremberg Trials in the Ministries Trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison . The sentence was later reduced to 10 years by U . S . High Commissioner John J . McCloy , and he was finally pardoned and released in 1952 . He died on 4 January 1962 in Düsseldorf , and was buried in Berchtesgaden in the same plot as his wife and daughter .