Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Walter Richard Hess, also spelled Heß (26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987), was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s. On the eve of war with the Soviet Union, he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom, where he was arrested and became a prisoner of war. Hess was tried at Nuremberg and sentenced to life imprisonment, which he served at Spandau Prison, Berlin, where he died in 1987. After World War II Winston Churchill wrote of Hess, "He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded."

On 27–28 September 2007, British news services published descriptions of disagreement between his Western and Soviet captors over his treatment and how the Soviet captors were steadfast in denying his release. In July 2011, the remains of Hess were exhumed from his grave in Bavaria and destroyed, after it became a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.

Early life

Hess, the eldest of three children, was born 26 April 1894 in Alexandria, Egypt, the ethnic German family of Fritz Hess, a prosperous merchant from Bavaria, and Clara Hess (née Münch). His brother, Alfred, was born in 1897 and his sister, Margarete, was born in 1908. The family lived in a villa on the Egyptian coast near Alexandria, and visited Germany often during the summers from 1900, staying at their summer home in Reicholdsgrün in the Fichtel Mountains. Hess attended a German-language Protestant school in Alexandria from 1900 to 1908, when he was sent back to Germany to study at a boarding school in Bad Godesberg. He demonstrated an aptitude for science and mathematics, but his father wished him to join the family business, Hess & Co., so he sent him in 1911 to study at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. After a year there, Hess took an apprenticeship at a trading company in Hamburg.

World War I

Within weeks of the outbreak of World War I Hess enlisted in the 7th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment, becoming an infantryman. His initial posting was against the British on the Somme; he was present at the First Battle of Ypres. On 9 November 1914 Hess was transferred to the 1st Infantry Regiment, stationed near Arras. He was awarded the Iron Cross, second class, and promoted to Gefreiter (corporal) in April 1915. After additional training at the Munster Training Area, he was promoted to Vizefeldwebel (senior non-commissioned officer) and received the Bavarian Military Merit Cross. Returning to the front lines in November, he fought in Artois, participating in the battle for the town of Neuville-Saint-Vaast. After two months out of action with a throat infection, Hess served in the Battle of Verdun in May, and was hit by shrapnel the left hand and arm on 12 June 1916 in fighting near the village of Thiaumont. After a month off to recover, he was sent back to the Verdun area, where he remained until December.

Hess was promoted to platoon leader of the 10th Company of the 18th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, which was serving in Romania. He was wounded on 23 July and again on 8 August 1917; the first was a shell splinter to the left arm, which was dressed in the field, but the second was a bullet wound that entered the upper chest near the armpit and exited near his spinal column, leaving a cherry-sized wound on the back. By 20 August he was well enough to travel, so he was sent to hospital in Hungary and eventually back to Germany, where he recovered in hospital in Meissen. In October he received promotion to Leutnant der Reserve and was recommended for, but did not receive, the Iron Cross, first class. At his father's request, Hess was transferred to a hospital closer to home, arriving at Alexandersbad on 25 October.

While still convalescing, Hess had requested that he be allowed to enroll to train as a pilot, so after some Christmas leave with his family, he reported to Munich, where he passed the required tests and was underwent aeronautical training. By 14 October he had been assigned to Jagdstaffel 35b, a Bavarian fighter squadron equipped with Fokker D.VII biplanes. But he saw no combat in the air; the war ended on 11 November 1918.

Hess (right) with his geopolitics professor, Karl Haushofer, circa 1920

Hess was discharged from the armed forces in December 1918. The family fortunes had taken a serious downturn, as their business interests in Egypt had been expropriated by the British. Severe financial reparations required by the Treaty of Versailles and the loss of industrial areas in Lorraine and Silesia caused ruinous damage to the German economy. Amidst this chaos, Hess joined the Thule Society, an antisemitic right-wing Völkisch group, and the Freikorps, a volunteer paramilitary organisation. Bavaria witnessed frequent and often bloody conflicts between right-wing groups such as the Freikorps and left-wing forces as they fought for control of the state during this period. Hess was a participant in street battles in the spring of 1919 and led a group which distributed thousands of antisemitic pamphlets in Munich.

In autumn 1919 Hess enrolled in the University of Munich, where he studied history and economics. His geopolitics professor was Karl Haushofer, a proponent of the concept of Lebensraum (living space), which Haushofer cited to justify the proposal that Germany should forcefully conquer additional territory in Eastern Europe. Hess later introduced this concept to Hitler, and it became one of the pillars of Nazi Party (NSDAP) ideology. Hess became friends with Haushofer and his son Albrecht, a social theorist and lecturer.

Ilse Pröhl, a fellow student at the university, met Hess in April 1920 when they by chance rented rooms in the same boarding house. They married on 20 December 1927 and their son Wolf Rüdiger Hess was born ten years later, in 1937.

Hitler

After hearing NSDAP leader Adolf Hitler, a powerful orator, speak for the first time in 1920 at a Munich rally, Hess became completely devoted to him. They held a shared belief in the stab-in-the-back myth, the notion that Germany's loss in World War I was caused by a conspiracy of Jews and Bolsheviks rather than a military defeat.Hess joined the NSDAP on 1 July as member number 16. As the party continued to grow, holding rallies and meetings in ever larger beer halls in Munich, he focused his attention on fundraising and organisational activities. On 4 November 1921 he was injured while protecting Hitler when a bomb planted by a Marxist group exploded at the Hofbraühaus during a party event. Hess joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) by 1922 and helped organise and recruit its early membership.

Meanwhile, problems continued with the economy; hyperinflation caused personal fortunes to be rendered worthless. When the German government failed to meet their reparations payments and French troops marched in to occupy the industrial areas along the Ruhr in January 1923, widespread civil unrest was the result. Hitler decided the time was ripe to attempt to seize control of the government with a coup d'état modeled on Benito Mussolini's 1922 March on Rome. Hess was with Hitler on the night of 8 November 1923 when he and the SA stormed a public meeting organised by Bavaria's de facto ruler, Staatskommissar (state commissioner) Gustav von Kahr, in the Bürgerbräukeller, a large beer hall in Munich. Brandishing a pistol, Hitler interrupted Kahr's speech and announced that the national revolution had begun, declaring the formation of a new government with World War I General Erich Ludendorff. The next day, Hitler and several thousand supporters attempted march to the Ministry of War in the city centre. Gunfire broke out between the Nazis and the police; fourteen marchers and four police officers were killed. Hitler was arrested on 11 November.

Meanwhile, Hess and some SA men had taken a few of the dignitaries hostage on the night of the 8th, driving them to a house about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Munich. When Hess left briefly to make a phone call the next day, the hostages convinced the driver to help them escape. Hess, stranded, called Ilse Pröhl, who brought him a bicycle so he could return to Munich. He went to stay with the Haushofers and then fled to Austria, but they convinced him to return. He was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison for his role in the attempted coup, which later became known as the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler was sentenced to five years imprisonment, and the NSDAP and SA were both outlawed.

Both men were incarcerated in Landsberg Prison, where Hitler soon began work on his memoir, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), which he dictated to fellow prisoners Hess and Emil Maurice. Edited by publisher Max Amann, Hess, and others, the work was published in two parts in 1925 and 1926. It was later released in a single volume, which became a best-seller after 1930. This book, with its message of violent antisemitism, became the foundation of the political platform of the NSDAP.

Hitler was released on parole on 20 December 1924 and Hess ten days later. The ban on the NSDAP and SA was lifted in February 1925, and the party grew to 100,000 members in 1928 and 150,000 in 1929.They received only 2.6 per cent of the vote in the 1928 election, but support increased steadily up until the seizure of power in 1933.

Hitler named Hess his private secretary in April 1925 at a salary of 500 Reichsmarks per month, and named him as personal adjutant on 20 July 1929. He accompanied Hitler for speaking engagements around the country and became his friend and confidante.In December 1932 Hess was named party Political Central Commissioner.

Retaining his interest in flying after the end of his active military career, Hess obtained his private pilot's licence on 4 April 1929. His instructor was World War I flying ace Theodor Croneiss, who later worked with aircraft designer Willy Messerschmitt. In 1930 Hess became the owner of a BFW M.23b monoplane sponsored by the party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter. He acquired two more Messerschmitt aircraft in the early 1930s, logging many flying hours and becoming proficient in the operation of light single-engine aircraft.

Deputy Führer

On 30 January 1933 Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, his first step in gaining dictatorial control of Germany. Hess was named Deputy Führer of the NSDAP on 21 April and was appointed to the cabinet, with the post of 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. Among his duties were helping to organise the annual Nuremberg Rallies and acting as Hitler's delegate in negotiations with industrialists and members of the wealthier classes. His chief of staff, Martin Bormann, spent much time at the Berghof when Hitler was in residence there, acting as private secretary and building a power base, something that Hess did not do.Hess was motivated by his loyalty to Hitler and a desire to be useful to him; he did not seek power or prestige.

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 continued to be interested in aviation. He won an air race in 1934, flying a BFW M.35 in a circuit around Zugspitze Mountain and returning to the airfield at Munich with a time of 29 minutes. He placed sixth of 29 participants in a similar race held the next year. With the outbreak of World War II, Hess asked Hitler to be allowed to join the Luftwaffe as a pilot, but Hitler forbade it, and ordered him to stop flying for the duration of the war. Hess convinced him to reduce the ban to one year.

Although Hess's influence was smaller than other top NSDAP officials, he was loyal to Hitler and popular with the masses. After the Invasion of Poland and the start of World War II in September 1939, Hitler named Reich Aviation Minister Hermann Göring as his successor, followed by Hess. Around the same time, Hitler appointed Bormann as his personal secretary, a post formerly held by Hess.

Attempted peace mission

As the war progressed, Hitler's attention became focused on foreign affairs and the conduct of the war, to the exclusion of all else. Hess, not directly engaged in either of these endeavours—though he felt qualified to do so—became increasingly sidelined from the affairs of the nation and from Hitler's attention; Bormann had successfully supplanted Hess in many of his duties and usurped his position at Hitler's side. Also concerned that Germany would face a war on two fronts as plans progressed for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union scheduled to take place in spring 1941, Hess decided to boldly attempt to bring Britain to the negotiating table by travelling there himself to seek meetings with the British government. He asked the advice of Albrecht Haushofer, who suggested several potential contacts in Britain. Hess settled on fellow aviator Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, whom he had never met; both had attended a banquet at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, but had been seated at different tables. On Hess's instructions, Haushofer wrote to Hamilton in September 1940, but the letter was intercepted by MI5 and Hamilton did not see it until March 1941. Hamilton was chosen in a mistaken belief that he was one of the leaders of an opposition party opposed to war with Germany.

A letter Hess wrote to his wife dated 4 November 1940 shows that in spite of not receiving a reply from Hamilton, he intended to proceed with his plan. He began training on the Messerschmitt Bf 110, a two-seater twin-engine aircraft, in October 1940 under instructor Wilhelm Stör, the chief test pilot at Messershmidt. He continued to practice, including logging many cross-country flights, and found a specific aircraft that handled well—a Bf 110E-1/N, radio code VJ+OQ—which was from then on held in reserve for his personal use. He asked for a radio compass, modifications to the oxygen delivery system, and large long-range fuel tanks to be installed on this plane, and these requests were granted by March 1941.

After a final check of the weather reports for Germany and the North Sea, Hess took off at 17:45 on 10 May 1941 from the airfield at Augsburg-Haunstetten in his specially prepared aircraft. Wearing a leather flying suit bearing the rank of captain, he brought along a supply of money and toiletries, a flashlight, a camera, maps and charts, and a collection of 28 different medicines, as well as dextrose tablets to help ward off fatigue and an assortment of homeopathic remedies.Two of the maps Hess used for the journey are now on display at Lennoxlove House, hereditary seat of the dukes of Hamilton.

Flight to Scotland

Initially setting a course towards Bonn, Hess used landmarks on the ground to orient himself and make minor course corrections. When he reached the coast near the Frisian Islands, he turned and flew in an easterly direction for some twenty minutes to stay out of range of British radar. He then took a heading of 335 degrees for the trip across the North Sea, initially at low altitude, but travelling for most of the journey at 5,000 feet (1,500 m). At 20:58 he changed his heading to 245 degrees, intending to approach the coast of England near the town of Bamburgh, Northumberland. As it was not yet sunset when he initially approached the coast, Hess backtracked, zigzagging back and forth for some 40 minutes until it grew dark. Around this time his auxiliary fuel tanks were exhausted, so he released them into the sea. Also around this time, at 22:08, the British Chain Home station at Ottercops Moss near Newcastle upon Tyne detected his presence and passed along this information to the Filter Room at Bentley Priory. Soon he had been detected by several other stations, and the aircraft was designated as "Raid 42".

Two Spitfires of No. 72 Squadron RAF, No. 13 Group RAF that were already in the air were sent to try to intercept, but failed to find the intruder. A second Spitfire sent from Acklington at 22:20 also failed to spot the aircraft; by then it was dark and Hess had dropped to an extremely low altitude, so low that the volunteer on duty at the Royal Observer Corps (ROC) station at Chaton was able to correctly identify it as an Me 110, and reported its altitude as 50 feet (15 m). Tracked by additional ROC posts, Hess continued his flight into Scotland at high speed and low altitude, but was unable to spot his destination—Dungavel House—so he headed for the west coast to orient himself and then turned back inland. At 22:35 a Boulton Paul Defiant sent from No. 141 Squadron RAF based at Ayr began pursuit. Hess was nearly out of fuel, so he climbed to 6,000 feet (1,800 m) and parachuted out of the plane at 23:06. He injured his foot, either while exiting the aircraft or when he hit the ground, shortly after his aircraft crashed at 23:09, about 12 miles (19 km) west of Dungavel House.

Capture

Hess landed near Floors Farm, Eaglesham, where he was discovered removing his parachute harness by local ploughman David McLean. Hess identified himself as "Hauptmann Alfred Horn", and said that he had an important message for the Duke of Hamilton. McLean helped Hess to his home nearby then contacted the local Home Guard unit. Hess was then escorted under guard to the local Home Guard headquarters in Busby, East Renfrewshire, and from there to the Battalion HQ in Giffnock, where he arrived shortly after midnight. At Giffnock he was briefly questioned by Major Donald, the Assistant Group Officer of the Glasgow Royal Observer Corps. Hess gave a short description of his flight and repeated that he had "a secret and vital message" for the Duke of Hamilton and that he must see him immediately. The message was described as being "in the highest interest of the British Air Force", but Hess declined to go into any detail.

Hess was handed over to the Army and taken to Maryhill Barracks, Glasgow, where he again requested that the Duke speak to him alone. Hamilton was informed of the prisoner and visited him, whereupon he revealed his true identity. Shortly afterwards, Hamilton summarised their conversation in a report to Winston Churchill, dictated at RAF Turnhouse. Hamilton stated his belief, based on press photographs and a description of Hess given by Albrecht Haushofer, that "this prisoner was indeed Hess himself". Hamilton then flew to RAF Northolt, and on to Kidlington, near Oxford, whence he was taken by car to meet Churchill at Ditchley Park.

Hess's flight, but not his destination or fate, was first announced by Munich Radio in Germany on the evening of Monday 12 May. Hess's capture was reported at the time in the British and international media and McLean claimed to have arrested Hess with his pitchfork.

The wreckage of the aircraft was salvaged by 63 Maintenance Unit (MU) between 11 and 16 May 1941. The aeroplane was armed with machine guns in the nose but there was no ammunition on board. Part of the aeroplane is now in London's Imperial War Museum.

Motives for trip

Records released by the UK's National Archives confirm that Hess was on a peace mission. In early 1941 Germany tried to negotiate peace with Britain through diplomatic communications via Sweden. The Duke of Hamilton commenced libel action in 1941/42 and wanted Hess in court as a witness. However, some writers have speculated that the Duke of Hamilton might in fact have been implicated. Some National Archives files relating to Hess and concerning the nature and range of German peace feelers in early 1941 (C1687G, C1954, C2785G) were formerly closed until 2017, but were released in 2007, although these contain information largely in the public domain. Some files are still to be released, both from the arrest of Hess in 1941 and his death in Spandau.

Hess was quoted by his wife as saying:

"My coming to England in this way is, as I realise, so unusual that nobody will easily understand it. I was confronted by a very hard decision. I do not think I could have arrived at my final choice unless I had continually kept before my eyes the vision of an endless line of children's coffins with weeping mothers behind them, both English and German, and another line of coffins of mothers with mourning children."

Hitler granted Hess's wife a pension but stripped Hess of all of his party and state offices, and privately ordered him shot on sight if he ever returned to Germany. Martin Bormann succeeded Hess as deputy under a newly created title.

Soviet suspicion

Hess's flight raised suspicions with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin that secret discussions were under way between Britain and Germany to attack the Soviet Union. Later, in a meeting with Stalin, Churchill addressed the topic and found Stalin still believed secret agreements were discussed with Hess. "When I make a statement of facts within my knowledge I expect it to be accepted," Churchill responded to Stalin, again denying that the incident resulted in any communications with Nazi Germany. Files at The National Archives dated 1942 include Moscow Embassy correspondence concerning Hess; some pages are subject to non-disclosure under statute.

According to data published in a book about Wilhelm Canaris, a number of contacts between Britain and Germany were kept during the war.

Trial and imprisonment

Prisoner of war

Churchill sent Hess initially to the Tower of London, making Hess the last in the long line of prominent people to be held in the 900-year-old fortress. Churchill gave orders that Hess be strictly isolated but treated with dignity. He remained in the Tower until 20 May 1941. After being held in the Maryhill army barracks, he was transferred to Mytchett Place, near Aldershot. He was kept under close guard. Frank Foley and two other MI6 officers were given the job of debriefing "Jonathan", as Hess was now known. Churchill's instructions were that Hess be strictly isolated, and that every effort be taken to get any information out of him that might be useful.

During his time as a prisoner of war, Hess was confined at Maindiff Court Military Hospital, Abergavenny, Wales, for treatment for insanity. He was treated well and enjoyed painting.

Mental state

At the time of his capture, official London sources had claimed Hess was "sane and healthy" and had not brought any peace message. The Nazis claimed he had left behind a letter which "showed clearly traces of mental disorder which led to fears that Party Comrade Hess was a victim of hallucinations." In an official report to President Franklin Roosevelt Churchill wrote: "Hess seems in good health and not excited, and no ordinary signs of insanity can be detected."

On 15 October 1941, Hess made his first suicide attempt by throwing himself over the rail of the first floor balcony, but he only broke his leg.

Hess was interviewed by psychiatrist John Rawlings Rees, who had worked at the Tavistock Clinic before becoming a brigadier in the British Army. Rees concluded that Hess was not insane but certainly mentally ill and suffering from depression—probably because of the failure of his mission. Hess's diaries from his imprisonment in Britain after 1941 make many references to visits from Rees, whom he did not like and accused of poisoning him and "mesmerizing" him. Rees took part in the Nuremberg Trials of 1945.

In captivity for almost four years of the war, Hess was absent from most of it, in contrast to the others who stood accused at Nuremberg. British government files released by The National Archives include a note concerning Hess's war-crimes trial in which Judge Jackson considered whether Hess should be certified as insane. His case was considered by the Attorney-General.

Nuremberg Trials

Hess became a defendant at the Nuremberg Trials of the International Military Tribunal, on the insistence of the Soviet Union, despite claiming to be in a state of almost complete forgetfulness. He was flown to Nuremberg in October 1945. Hess regained his memory for a short period and was declared fit to stand trial. Partial memory loss returned and he went back into amnesia. He spent his time in court reading, occasionally laughing. In the British view, Hess was of unsound mind. Some of his last words before the tribunal were "I regret nothing".

In 1946, Hess was found guilty on two of four counts: crimes against peace (planning and preparation of aggressive war), and conspiracy with other German leaders to commit crimes. He was found not guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. He was given a life sentence.

Spandau Prison

After the release in 1966 of Baldur von Schirach and Albert Speer, Hess was the sole remaining inmate of Spandau Prison, partly at the insistence of the Soviets. Guards reportedly said he degenerated mentally and lost most of his memory. For the next eight years, his main companion was warden Eugene K. Bird, with whom he formed a close friendship. Bird wrote a 1974 book, The Loneliest Man in the World: The Inside Story of the 30-Year Imprisonment of Rudolf Hess, about his relationship with Hess. Frank Keller, a former guard at Spandau, said that "Hess would march by himself in the jail courtyard every day".

In the third volume of his book The Second World War, Winston Churchill wrote:

Reflecting upon the whole of the story, I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated. Whatever may be the moral guilt of a German who stood near to Hitler, Hess had, in my view, atoned for this by his completely devoted and frantic deed of lunatic benevolence. He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy. He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded.

In the early 1970s, the U.S., British, and French governments approached the Soviet government to propose that Hess be released on humanitarian grounds because of his age. The Soviet official response apparently was to reject these attempts, and the Soviets reportedly "refused to consider any reduction in Hess's life sentence." U.S. President Richard Nixon favoured releasing Hess and stated that the U.S., Britain and France should continue to entreat the Soviet Union for his release.

In 1977, Britain's chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Sir Hartley Shawcross, characterised Hess's continued imprisonment as a "scandal". In 1987, the new Soviet leadership agreed that Hess should be set free on humanitarian grounds, though his death in the same year meant this decision was never put into effect.

Restrictions and isolation

The limits of communication in prison for Hess were strict. Family visits were kept to one half-hour session per month; he considered this degrading and refused such short visits until 1968. In the 1970s, he was visited by members of his family once a month. Later in the 1970s, on "humanitarian grounds", visitation rights were extended to one hour per month. Hess was never allowed to discuss anything related to World War II and the Nazi regime.

All of Hess's communication was subject to censorship. British government files released by the National Archives detail a disagreement between the Western powers and the Soviet Union about Hess's rights, especially censorship. The Soviet governor argued that uncensored letters to Hess's wife could be used to construct a propagandist essay.

British government files opened on 28 September 2007 by the National Archives from the period 6 May to 6 August 1974 contain a report of an altercation between Hess and a Soviet warder. The Western governors raise issues of Soviet policy towards Hess, such as the confiscation of Hess’s eyeglasses before lights out, the destruction of his notebooks, the increase in the strictness of censorship, and the blocking of visits from his lawyer.

Death and legacy

On 17 August 1987, Hess died while under Four-Power imprisonment at Spandau Prison in West Berlin, at the age of 93. He was found in a secure area of the prison with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. His death was ruled a suicide by asphyxiation. He was buried at Wunsiedel in a family plot sold to his family by the Vetters of the Sechsämtertropfen bitter liquor company of Wunsiedel. Spandau Prison was demolished to prevent it from becoming a shrine.

Hess was the last surviving member of Hitler's cabinet.

Neo-Nazi pilgrimages and disinterment

Neo-Nazis from Germany and Europe held gatherings in Wunsiedel for a memorial march and similar demonstrations took place every year around the anniversary of Hess's death. These gatherings were banned from 1991 to 2000 and neo-Nazis tried to assemble in other cities, and countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark. Demonstrations in Wunsiedel were legalized in 2001. After stricter German legislation regarding demonstrations by neo-Nazis was enacted in March 2005, the demonstrations were banned again.

With the grave's lease due to expire in October 2011, the Hess family applied for a 20-year extension, which was denied. "We decided not to extend the lease because of all the unrest and disturbances," said parish council chairman Peter Seisser. After negotiations between the church's chaplain and Hess's granddaughter, the family agreed to remove his remains from the town. Hess's grave was re-opened on the morning of 20 July 2011 and his remains exhumed, then cremated. Soon afterward his ashes were scattered at sea; the gravestone, which bore the epitaph "Ich hab's gewagt" ("I dared"), was destroyed.

Memorial in Scotland

In 1993 an anonymous memorial was placed at the spot where Hess landed in Scotland, describing him as a "brave, heroic" man and declaring that he was "seeking to end the war". This memorial was on private property and thus could not be destroyed by court order. Jewish leaders vigorously protested against the monument and parliamentary leaders aimed to open inquiries into how it might be removed. Three members of the Socialist Workers Party's revived Anti-Nazi League, led by human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar, destroyed the memorial three days after it made newspaper headlines.

Speculation

Occult

Hess ordered a mapping of all the ley lines in the Third Reich. There is speculation that Hess was questioned by the British about Nazi interest in the occult.

Conspiracy theories

There have been conspiracy theories concerning his death, mainly from Wolf Rüdiger Hess.

Wolfgang Spann, who was in charge of the second autopsy, stated that "we can't prove a third hand participated in the death of Rudolf Hess". Conspiracy theorists have argued that by the time of his death, the 93-year old Hess was so frail that he could not lift his arms above his head, making it impossible for him to be able to hang himself.

The autopsy of Hess did not find any pre-existing medical conditions aside from age-related deterioration (most notable severe arthritis) and his major organs were relatively healthy.

In 2008 Abdallah Melaouhi, a Tunisian who acted as Hess's medical caretaker in Spandau prison from 1984 to 1987, was dismissed from his position in his local German district parliament's advisory board for integration after he wrote a book, I Looked into the Murderer's Eyes. He had claimed in the book that his patient was murdered by MI6 (the British Secret Intelligence Service).

According to Hugh Thomas' book The Murder of Rudolf Hess (1979), the prisoner tried at Nuremberg and incarcerated in Spandau as Hess was an imposter. Dutch author At Voorhorst contradicts Thomas' allegations with his study in which he compares biometric features of the prisoner in Spandau prison and deputy of Hitler in the Second World War.