Martin Bormann was an administrator in the Nazi state who was able to manipulate his position around Hitler to become the power behind the throne in the final years of World War Two.
Bormann was born in 1900 in Germany to a former soldier. Leaving school early to work on a farm, Bormann served briefly in World War One. Afterwards he joined Freikorps groups and took part in the street war of early Weimar, coming into contact with Rudolf Hess.
In 1924 he was briefly imprisoned for helping in an assassination, and when he was released he joined the Nazi Party, and in 1926 became the head of the party press in Thuringia. He now rose through the ranks, before becoming chief of staff to Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy leader, and a leading SA member. The Nazis took power in 1933, and Bormann worked as Chief of the Cabinet in the Office of the Deputy Führer, basically Hess’s right hand man and close supporter. He worked to gain Hitler’s trust, take over his finances, and aggregate power over Nazi officials.
In 1939 Hitler’s foreign policy risks bought him the European war he had wanted, but earlier than he’d wanted it, and in 1941 Hess took his own risk: he flew a solo flight to Britain to try and negotiate peace. Hess was arrested, and Hitler promoted Bormann. Now in charge of the administrative heart of the Nazi state Bormann found himself in a position to dominate the infighting and overlapping Nazi machine through developing a friendship with Hitler, controlling who had access to him by drawing up his schedule and restricting access, promoting his own favourites and refusing enemies, controlling laws, and was in many ways in the position Stalin had found himself in inside the Soviet Union years before.
Nazi leaders had underestimated him.
Bormann was a committed Nazi, aiding the extermination programmes and use of slave labour, and was soon one of the most powerful men in the German empire, strengthening his party structure against the rival military powers of the SS and the Wehrmacht. He resumed a war against the churches, put his own spies into the army, and could manipulate the declining Hitler perfectly. He even had success damaging the other powerful Nazis who were his greatest rivals, and was given command of the Volkssturm. The wall of fantasy he allowed Hitler to build made Bormann practically the real ruler of Germany. He remained close to Hitler until the war turned and the latter killed himself, and Bormann left the bunker. His fate was never conclusively determined, with several people saying they’d seen his corpse, and a skeleton discovered in Berlin in 1972 that may well have been his. Nevertheless he was tried at Nuremberg despite his absence and sentenced to death. West Germany declared him dead in 1973.
Early Career
Bormann was born in 1900 in Germany to a former soldier. Leaving school early to work on a farm, Bormann served briefly in World War One. Afterwards he joined Freikorps groups and took part in the street war of early Weimar, coming into contact with Rudolf Hess.
In 1924 he was briefly imprisoned for helping in an assassination, and when he was released he joined the Nazi Party, and in 1926 became the head of the party press in Thuringia. He now rose through the ranks, before becoming chief of staff to Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy leader, and a leading SA member. The Nazis took power in 1933, and Bormann worked as Chief of the Cabinet in the Office of the Deputy Führer, basically Hess’s right hand man and close supporter. He worked to gain Hitler’s trust, take over his finances, and aggregate power over Nazi officials.
The Power behind the Throne
In 1939 Hitler’s foreign policy risks bought him the European war he had wanted, but earlier than he’d wanted it, and in 1941 Hess took his own risk: he flew a solo flight to Britain to try and negotiate peace. Hess was arrested, and Hitler promoted Bormann. Now in charge of the administrative heart of the Nazi state Bormann found himself in a position to dominate the infighting and overlapping Nazi machine through developing a friendship with Hitler, controlling who had access to him by drawing up his schedule and restricting access, promoting his own favourites and refusing enemies, controlling laws, and was in many ways in the position Stalin had found himself in inside the Soviet Union years before.
Nazi leaders had underestimated him.
Bormann was a committed Nazi, aiding the extermination programmes and use of slave labour, and was soon one of the most powerful men in the German empire, strengthening his party structure against the rival military powers of the SS and the Wehrmacht. He resumed a war against the churches, put his own spies into the army, and could manipulate the declining Hitler perfectly. He even had success damaging the other powerful Nazis who were his greatest rivals, and was given command of the Volkssturm. The wall of fantasy he allowed Hitler to build made Bormann practically the real ruler of Germany. He remained close to Hitler until the war turned and the latter killed himself, and Bormann left the bunker. His fate was never conclusively determined, with several people saying they’d seen his corpse, and a skeleton discovered in Berlin in 1972 that may well have been his. Nevertheless he was tried at Nuremberg despite his absence and sentenced to death. West Germany declared him dead in 1973.