Hitler and his God

A Friend

In documentary films of the Nuremberg NSDAP congresses, one can still see the Führer’s deputy standing at attention on the rostrum high above the smartly lined up blocks of uniformed Germans, then suddenly turn to his left, raise his arm stiffly in salute to the arriving Hitler, and announce, as chairman of the National Socialist Party: “The Party is in session and greets its Führer Adolf Hitler. The session continues. The Führer speaks!”

This man, proud to introduce his Leader to the world, was Rudolf Hess. He played a very special role in Hitler’s life.

Hess was born in 1894, in the Egyptian town of Alexandria, where his father was a businessman. He studied at elite business schools in Europe, e.g. the École supérieure de commerce at Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, and spoke English fluently. During the war he was at first a lieutenant in the infantry, but he switched over to the air force to become one of the proud and swaggering fighter pilots. He would remain a first rate pilot, capable enough to win a flying contest around the Zugspitze, Germany’s highest mountain, and to execute some years later the complicated flight to Scotland. After the end of the first world war Hess was introduced by fellow officers of his regiment to the Thule Society, and became an active member “of the inner circle”. He also fought in Thule’s free corps, the Kampfbund Thule, during the Red revolution in Bavaria. Hesemann writes that Hess was “a close confidant of Rudolf von Sebottendorff”; this may explain why Hess, as the Führer’s Deputy, helped his former Thule Master when he got in hot water with the Nazi authorities by publishing Before Hitler Came and trying to revive the Thule Society in 1933.

In April 1919 Hess, earning a living in the textile import, was personally introduced to Karl Haushofer (1869-1946), the former commander of his regiment. Out of interest for Haushofer’s “geopolitics”, which the former major-general was teaching at Munich University, Hess soon became his student, and the master-disciple relation between the two men grew very close. Considering the fact that Hess was extremely interested in all aspects of occultism, and that Haushofer claimed to have the second sight and was familiar with many aspects of the traditions of the East, especially those of Japan, the close relationship between the 50 and 25 year old may be supposed to have had an occult background. The diaries of Haushofer’s wife mention from 5 June onwards a sequence of nightly absences when the general purportedly was on “guard duty” with the Reichswehr; but generals do not take up guard duty, and the situation in Bavaria had turned back to normal. The political and conspirational activities of the nationalists, however, were at their peak, and it was coincidentally on 5 June that the first course for propagandists of the Army started at Munich University, of which Haushofer knew all the organizers and lecturers.

Karl Haushofer was an ambitious man; he was, his son Albrecht would later write in tragic circumstances, “blinded by the dream of power”. He was convinced that his theory of “geopolitics” explained the fundamental political processes, including wars, and that it would help Germany conquer the place in the sun which it deserved. The field covered by geopolitics is very large and the theory has even been rehabilitated in recent years. Yet, all in all it seems to mean that the most developed and powerful peoples should appropriate anything which they find useful for their well-being. Its basis was “scientific”, in other words neo-darwinistic. It was not Haushofer’s intention to grab power for himself, but to be the mentor of the men in power; his motto was (in English) “let us educate our masters”. The “professor-general” was extremely well connected in military and academic circles, and he had been close to the Pan-Germans from his boyhood.

He had, however, a handicap: his wife was the daughter of a rich Jewish businessman. It is therefore doubtful that he ever was a member of the Thule Society, for the Germanenorden demanded a signed declaration from its members that not a drop of Jewish blood ran in their veins. Haushofer also kept his distance from Hitler, even after Hess had discovered “the Man”, in May 1920, and convinced his professor to attend one of Hitler’s speeches. “Professor-General” Haushofer would not take the risk (as yet) of compromising himself with that outlandish political upstart, the Austrian corporal, who at that time was still in the Army. Moreover, as reported afterwards by Hess’ wife, Haushofer resented Hitler’s influence on his favourite student and close companion.

Hess’ enthusiasm for Hitler was indeed boundless and developed into an “enraptured fanaticism” (Hilpert). “This strange friendship” (Bärsch) will lead to Hess writing in some of his letters that Hitler was “a very dear friend, an exceptional human being!” and: “I am more than ever devoted to him! I love him!” 1016 The relationship became especially close in the prison at Landsberg. Hess had actively participated in the Beerhall Putsch by rounding up the ministers of the government with his stormtroopers and putting them under arrest. After the debacle he was on the run for some time; then he found shelter in the house of Haushofer, who managed to convince him that he should give himself up to the police. Hess did this in May 1924 and was, to his delight, also sent to Landsberg. “I had the luck of landing here”, he wrote to his mother, “where every day I can be together with that brilliant being: with Hitler”. 1017

The situation in Landsberg prison has been described elsewhere. The relevance for our story at this juncture is that Hitler and Hess were staying not only on the same floor, but that they shared the same “apartment”. This was an important period in Hitler’s life, for he had now, as Hess put it, “again the time to concentrate and come to rest, and to gather fundamental knowledge”. 1018 Given the personality and the interests of both men, it seems obvious that they created an occult atmosphere around them. In every one of his letters Hess will henceforth call Hitler “the Tribune”, which is a reference to Hitler’s Rienzi experience.

When Haushofer visited Hess, he necessarily met Hitler also. It has been established that the professor of geopolitics visited Landsberg eight times and met both men for a total duration of 22 hours. This was surely time enough for Haushofer to expound his theories to Hitler, and some results of this private tutoring are found in Mein Kampf. When later in difficulty because of Hess’ flight to Scotland, Haushofer will remind the Nazi authorities that he had known the Führer since 1919 – which may be true but does not mean that he frequented him from that date – and that he went to visit him in Landsberg “every Wednesday”.

Rudolf Hess was one of the three people, together with Dietrich Eckart and Albert Speer, with whom Hitler developed an intimate relationship, naturally with each one in his own way. Ernst Hanfstängl has described Hitler’s reaction on the evening he had been released from jail. “The other strong impression he left me with that evening was the emotional quality of the friendship that had developed with Hess. ‘Ach, mein Rudi, mein Hesserl’, he wailed as he stomped up and down. ‘Isn’t it appalling to think he’s still there!’ [Hess was not released from Landsberg until later] … It is probably not true to say that there was a physical homosexual relationship between the two, but in a passive way the attraction was there.” 1019

Konrad Heiden, a rather matter-of-fact journalist, has the following intriguing paragraph: “Suddenly, in the midst of a conversation, Hitler’s face grows tense as with an inner vision; these are the moments in which the humanly repulsive falls away from him and the unfathomable is intensified until it becomes truly terrible. His eyes peer into the distance, as though he were reading or gazing at something which no one else sees; and if the observer follows the direction of his gaze, sometimes, it has been claimed, Rudolf Hess can be seen in the far corner, with his eyes glued to the Führer, apparently speaking to him with closed lips … It is certain that in the decisive years of his career Hitler used his younger friend as a necessary compliment to his own personality …” 1020

This puzzling statement is, in a way, supported by what the former Captain Karl Mayr wrote in his article “I was Hitler’s Boss”: “Hess was Hitler’s first and most successful mentor … A dabbler in mesmerism and faith healing, Hess certainly was most successful with Hitler. Before every important speech Hitler was, sometimes for days, closeted with Hess who in some unknown way got Hitler into that frenetic state in which he came forth to address the public.” 1021 During Hitler’s speeches Hess may have repeated “with closed lips” and in unison with Hitler some passages which he remembered from the rehearsals. As Mayr’s article was written after his flight from Germany (and published after his internment in a concentration camp), he may have sought to involve only the Nazi potentates, conveniently forgetting Eckart and the role he himself had played at the time. And the “unknown way” in which Hess “got Hitler in that frenetic state” is easy to guess, for it must have been the same way in which the medium Hitler used to open himself to the Power that possessed him.