Of that flight to Scotland. It still seems rather weird.
I have heard various explanations but none that are really convincing. Peace missions, being insane etc- it just does not fit into all the facts that I am aware of.
The golf courses in Germany suck dick.
Secret mission from Hitler to propose a back-door truce with England, but with redundant levels of deniability in case of failure.
(Yes, I do read too many crappy novels. Why do you ask?)
I watch too many crappy History channel documentaries- thats why I ask. Sad isn’t it?
The truth of the matter is that only one man knew what Hess’s reasons for the flight were, and that was Hess himself and he wasn’t telling.
Hitler and the German authorities were as mystified as the Allies by the flight. My guess is that Hess desperately wanted Britain to join with Germany in a crusade against Communist Russia and he was unbalanced enough at that time to think he could somehow achieve this if he could only speak to the right people. That’s certainly what the Russians believed, and why they were so vehemently opposed to releasing him when he was the only one left in Spandau prison.
Of course he was. He openly and vehemently claimed that he was on a peace mission. Whether or not you choose to believe his explanation is another matter.
Because afterall if you can’t believe Rudolf Hess, who can you trust?
Part of the reason we don’t know, is that Churchill didn’t wanna know, and ignored him because at the time he knew they would defeat nazism, and didn’t want it go into the history books that it was with the help of a nazi, and/or Churchill would never negotiate with a nazi. That made Hess’ spontanous mission a pathetic failure. As stated above, he (most likely) wanted to make peace with the English, and perhaps the “Aryan” nations could rally against the hords from the east. Hitler never really wanted war with England, and remember that even in the spring of '45 guys like Himmler thought it possible to make peace w. England and USA, because really, the real enemy to them all was the “asians”. The nazis seem to have had a blind spot regarding the western democraties, their values and goals. And Rudolf Hess seems to have been slightly intellectually disabled, which didn’t help his judgement. (That’s right, no cites.)
Hess was one of the early leaders of the Nazi party. But as the party grew and gained power, a lot of new people came in and became party leaders. Hess’ status in the party declined and by 1941 he was virtually powerless.
Hitler genuinely wanted a peace treaty with the United Kingdom. He wanted the UK to recognize his control over continental Europe and not interfere with his invasion of the Soviet Union. But Churchill refused to negotiate and insisted the UK would keep fighting.
So Hess had an idea. He would fly to England, explain how Germany and the UK had common interests and should get along, get the UK to agree to sign a peace treaty, and show Hitler and everyone back in Germany that he was still an important figure.
Sure, it was a completely impossible plan that had no connection with reality. But Hess also thought putting Hitler in charge was a good idea - we can assume he only had a nodding aquaintance with reality in the best of times.
Not really. There are far worse things than a History Channel documentary on the boob tube you could clog your brain with.
Really?
I’ve been reading that Heinrich Himmler was very nearly the same way. he had some sort of awe of Hitler, and seems to have genuinely followed the man like an Apostle. Toward the end of the war, he sort of went half-nuts when he realized the Der Fuhrer was pretty much a headcase and that he’d basically tossed Germany into the meatshredder.
Was there something about Nazism that attracted unstable intellectuals? 
In what way do they not fit, and with what facts are you aware of?
Pretty much my assessments in a nutshell there, Wakinyan.
I hardly think that Himmler can be classed as an intellectual, indeed a fair number of the higher Nazis were 2 cards short of a deck, Hitler included
Goering and Bormann were both murderes - Bormann cerainly was no intellectual.
Sorry- bad choice of words on my part- “circumstances” rather than “facts” maybe have been a bit clearer. And they can possibly be explained by Hess not being the full quid.
However, why make a peace overture through a relatively obscure Scottish noble- was he really going to influence the British Government (or be able to?). If indeed he was on a mission unknown to Hitler, why was he certain that Hitler would ever accept any terms?
And if he was simply on a peace mission- why the necessity to not reveal anything after all these years?
I remember a theory that the British were counting on the Soviets to veto Hess’s release, to prevent him coming out and revealing just who in the UK might have been actively collaborating with the Nazis. Once it looked like the Soviets might soften their stance with glasnost and all that, supposedly, the British took other steps to ensure he’d never talk.
All a conspiracy theory, of course.
But who cares who was collobarating now?
To the best of my knowledge I believe that of the whole motley bunch only Albert Speer could claim to be “intellectual” him being an architect.
However the fact that he joined the Nazi party, drew up plans for Hitlers New European cities must in some way have indicated that maybe he wasn’t as smart as perhaps he thought he was.