Rudolf Hess Rudolf Hess was born on April 26th, 1894, in Alexandria, Egypt. He moved to Germany at twelve years old so he could get his education at Godesberg and later join his father’s business in Hamburg, Germany. In 1914, Hess joined the German Army in World War I. Hess was wounded twice in World War I. Hess began studying at the University in Munich after the war. In 1920, Hess heard Adolf Hitler speak at a political meeting. He was one of the first to join the Nazi Party and became a close friend of Adolf Hitler. Hess was a part of the Beer Hall Putsch and escaped to the Bavarian Alps to live with Karl Haushofer. He then went to Austria and was arrested, where he went to prison for eighteen months. Here, he helped Hitler write Mein Kampf. Heinrich Bruening was afraid that Adolf Hitler would use his 400,000 stormtroopers to take power by for. To keep this from happening, Bruening banned the group. However, when Paul von Hindenburg became the new chancellor, he removed the ban on the SA. In December 1932, Hitler made Hess head of the Central Political Committee and deputy leader of the party and minister without portfolio. As World War II was building, Hitler began losing trust in Hess and began giving men like Goering, Himmler, Goebbels, and Bormann more responsibility. However, there were rumors that Hess was working secret peace talks with Britain for Hitler. When the war ended, Hess was arrested and tried in the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial. At the trial, Hess was sentenced to life in prison, and died on August 17th, 1987.
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Works Cited
Simkin, John. "Spartacus Educational." Spartacus Educational. Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd., 2014. Web. 08 May 2016.
<http://spartacus-educational.com/GERhess.htm>.
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<http://spartacus-educational.com/GERhess.htm>.
Page by SH