Martin Bormann - Volker Koop

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Résumé :
The author explores how Bormann achieved his rise to power, detailing his ability to manage and manipulate the power struggle in the Nazi Party.

Born on 17 June 1900, Martin Ludwig Bormann became one of the most powerful and most feared men in the Third Reich. An obsessive bureaucrat, it was Bormann who helped steer Hitler's apparatus of terror so effectively that he became the clandestine ruler of Nazi Germany.

After joining the Nazi Party in 1927 Bormann rose through its ranks. Indeed, by July 1933 Bormann had maneuvered himself into the position where he became the Chief of Cabinet in the Office of the Deputy F?hrer, Rudolf Hess. In this role Bormann gradually consolidated his power base, so that when Hess carried out his infamous flight to the United Kingdom in 1941, Bormann stepped into his shoes.

As the head of the Party Chancellery, Bormann duly took control of the Nazi Party. By the end of 1942, he was in effect Hitler's deputy and his closest collaborator. With the F?hrer increasingly preoccupied with military matters, Hitler came to rely more and more on Bormann to handle Germany's domestic affairs. On 12 April 1943, Bormann was appointed Personal Secretary to the F?hrer.

Feared by ministers, Gauleiters, civil servants, judges and generals alike, Bormann identified strongly with Hitler's ideas on racial politics, destruction of the Jews and forced labor and made himself indispensable as the F?hrer's executioner. Cold as ice, he decided the fate of millions of people.

In January 1945, with the Third Reich collapsing, Bormann returned to the F?hrerbunker with Hitler. Following Hitler's suicide on 30 April, Bormann was named as Party Minister, thus officially confirming his rise to the top of the Party. Late the following day he fled from the bunker in an attempt to escape the encircling Red Army...

Sommaire:
Born in Bavaria in 1945, since 1994 VOLKER KOOP has worked as a freelance author and journalist, mainly on topics of German and European post-war history. Having written more than thirty non-fiction titles, in 2003 he received the prestigious Premio Capo Circeo, a cultural award that is presented annually by the German-Italian Friendship Association....