RUDOLF HESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23953, 31 October 1939, Page 10

RUDOLF HESS

HERR HITLER’S BOSOM FRIEND DULL BUT FAITHFUL CAREER IN NAZI PARTY When Herr Hitler plunged Europe into war at the beginning of September he announced that he intended to take the field in person. He then nominated his successors, General Hermann Goering being the first and Herr Rudolf Hess the second. So far, Herr Hitler’s heroics (states a writer in the Dominion) have not been translated into impressive action. It is true that he donned a plain uniform (a sensible safety measure) before doing a tour of the Polish battle fronts, and it is also true that he flitted hither and yon on the various lines of German advance. But he "took the field” in a large motor car, as carefully guarded as the King would be if he visited the Western Front. Barring accidents, then, it is unlikely that rotund General Goering will have much chance of becoming the Fuhrer till such time as illness or Father Time carries the former Austrian corpora,! off to meet his Maker Herr Hess’s chances are smaller still —which in a way is a pity, for nothing would contribute so effectively to the collapse of Nazism than the elevation to supreme power of this dull “ yes man” A Biographer’s Problem Rudolf Hess is 44 years of age (two years younger than Goering). His personality is a betrayal of Herr Hitler’s own lack of true greatness, for he has succeeded in becoming the leader’s party deputy by being a faithful, unswerving sycophant. A really great individual has no use for this type of henchman. To a biographer Herr Hess is a problem, for he appears to possess no ex ceptional gifts of any kind apart from loyalty to the party and its head. His friendship with Herr Hitter began when they first met. Herr Hitler dictated “Mein Kampf” to Herr Hess when they were in prison together after the abortive “beer hall” putsch of the Nazis in 1923. Hess and Hitler were inseparable during the years when the party fought for dominance. After the elimination of the brilliant Gregor Strasser, Hitler appointed Hess as the chairman of the “Political Central Commission ” of the party in 1932. In Hess, Hitler felt he had found the ideal follower. “Mein Kampf had been Hitler’s political testament. Hess had taken down every word of it. Cairo His Birthplace During the last 16 years Herr Hess has been nothing else but the executor of Herr Hitler’s will. Accordingly, his influence on all matters regarding the party, and to a lesser degree the Administration, is very great. But he seems to be little prepared by education for his present or his future position. , . . He was born in Cairo, where his father had a small import and export firm. Before the World War he went to several commercial schools. After the war he studied history and economics for a short time. Then politics swallowed him. , . , “So far Hess’s fate and his horizon seemed to be quite average," said a recent writer in the New York Times. “He belonged to the disappointed layer of the middle-class people in Germany who had bitterly watched all chances of individual success dwindle away in the turmoil of defeat and the Ruhr invasion. “To-day he still seems average, at least when judged by his political utterances His speech are dry, unimaginative, even drab. But he is an indefatigable worker. His is the drudgery of v/orking out what can be realised of the visionary impulses of the leader. In doing so he judges by one moral standard only—the good of tli6 party ** Herr Hess himself is regarded as absolutely incorruptible. He has not enriched himself and he does not long for wealth or the amenities of life as other leaders do. While luxury grew among most of the powerful, Herr Hess effaced himself more and more. He is taciturn, frightening officials by listening to their reports for hours without showing the least emotion and then bidding them farewell. In build he is slim, with an athletic body, and dark. He has an unusually large head, and his nickname in ( the party is “ the Mulatto, or the Egyptian.”