Hess marched beside Hitler on the morning of 9 November 1923 during the Beer-Hall Putsch. Somehow in the aftermath of the debacle Hess managed to escape across the border into Austria. Following the trials held in Munich in 1924 and Hitler’s resulting prison sentence, Hess returned, and was himself imprisoned for his part in the revolt. Hess joined Hitler in Landsberg Prison where most of his time was occupied acting as secretary to Hitler; he was of great help to Hitler during the writing of Mein Kampf. The two men developed a close bond during the period of their incarceration.

Hess married Ilse Pröhl, the daughter of a wealthy physician on 20 December 1927. The couple had one child, a son Wolf-Rüdiger, born on 18 December 1937. Ilse Hess died in Lilienthal on 7 September 1995. Rudolf Hess played an important part in the electoral campaign that would eventually see Hitler appointed Chancellor on 30 January 1933. His reward was to be appointed Deputy Führer on 21 April 1933. Hess spent considerable time on the Obersalzberg, and at Hitler’s country home, the Berghof. Those amongst the Party hierarchy, that is those who did not have their own homes on the Obersalzberg, people like Hess and Goebbels, were accommodated in the Party guesthouse, Villa Bechstein, just below the Berghof. Hitler and Hess spent many hours together discussing politics and other subjects during the long periods spent on the Obersalzberg.

The flight of Hess to Scotland on 10 May 1941 remains something of a mystery to this day. The idea that Hitler knew nothing of Hess’s planned flight is most unlikely. The two men spent four hours in private conversation just days prior to the Deputy Führer’s departure. Hess had planned to meet with the Duke of Hamilton, whom he already knew. Suffice to say that at that stage of the conflict there were still a number of highly placed individuals in Britain, amongst them members of the then British government, who were still disposed to a negotiated settlement with Germany. Hess took off from Augsburg in a Messerschmitt Bf 110 fitted with auxiliary fuel-tanks on 10 May 1941. Hess failed in his mission. Had he been successful, Germany would probably have won the Second World War by not having to fight a war on two fronts, against Britain and her allies in the west, and the Soviet Union in the east. Hess was held at various locations around Britain until the Second World War ended, he was then brought back to Germany to stand trial alongside the other surviving Nazi leaders.

Rudolf Hess was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. So it was, that when all other Nazi leaders had either been executed, or had been released having served jail sentences, that Rudolf Hess, prisoner number 7, was the last man to be held in Spandau Prison in Berlin. Thus a prison of six hundred cells was home to just one man, a very expensive undertaking. Eventually, Britain, France and the United States would agree that Hess might be released on humanitarian grounds. The Russians however, would never agree, they would continually veto such a move. Much controversy and speculation surrounds the mysterious death of Rudolf Hess. He was found hanged in a summer house in the grounds of Spandau Prison on 17 August 1987. At the time of his death Hess was almost 93 years old and in poor health. He walked with the aid of a stick and could not rise from a chair unaided. Nonetheless, despite these infirmities, Rudolf Hess still managed to hang himself with a piece of electric wire.

The affidavit of Abdallah Melaouhi, the civilian male nurse who had attended Rudolf Hess during the last five years of his life makes most interesting reading. What information did Hess have that might embarrass or even destroy the reputations of so many people that it would for ever prevent his release. Why have so many successive governments refused to release the paperwork surrounding his capture and subsequent interrogation. Many unanswered questions surround the imprisonment and death of the former Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess.