Rudolf Hess was one of Adolf Hitler’s closest confidants in the early years of the Nazi Party. A dedicated nationalist and a firm believer in Hitler’s ideology, Hess played a significant role in shaping the party’s early structure. However, his legacy is overshadowed by his bizarre and unauthorized flight to Britain in 1941, a move that led to his downfall and a crackdown on astrologers and occultists.

📜 Hess’s Rise in the Nazi Party

Born in 1894 in Egypt, where his German merchant family lived, Hess later moved to Germany and served in World War I.
He joined the Nazi Party in the early 1920s, becoming one of Hitler’s most loyal supporters.
Hess was imprisoned alongside Hitler after the failed Beer Hall Putsch (1923) and acted as Hitler’s scribe while he wrote Mein Kampf.
When the Nazis seized power in 1933, Hess was made Deputy Führer, ranking just below Hitler and Hermann Göring.

🔮 Hess’s Fascination with the Occult

Hess had a deep interest in astrology, esotericism, and the supernatural, which shaped some of his political beliefs.
He reportedly consulted astrologers, mystics, and alternative healers, seeking guidance on political and personal matters.
This made him a controversial figure within the Nazi elite. Some, like Heinrich Himmler, shared his occult interests, while others, like Joseph Goebbels and Reinhard Heydrich, dismissed such beliefs as nonsense.

✈️ The Mysterious Flight to Britain (May 10, 1941)

On May 10, 1941, Hess secretly flew solo to Scotland, attempting to negotiate peace between Germany and Britain. Whether this was due to an astrological election is unclear, however the astrology of that day was in quite rare form, which leads me to believe, yes it was astrologically driven.
He hoped to contact the Duke of Hamilton, believing he could broker a deal to end the war with Britain.
Instead, Hess was immediately arrested, and Churchill dismissed his peace offer as delusional.
Hitler was furious, branding Hess a madman and traitor.

🚨 The Fallout: Nazi Crackdown on Astrology and the Occult

The Nazis scrambled to distance themselves from Hess’s reputation for mysticism.
Astrologers, occultists, and esoteric thinkers were arrested in a mass purge known as Aktion Heß.
Karl Ernst Krafft, an astrologer who had once worked for Nazi propaganda, was imprisoned and later died in a concentration camp.
The crackdown was partly a PR move. Hitler wanted to portray Hess’s actions as an isolated case of insanity rather than a deeper problem within Nazi leadership.

⏳ Hess’s Fate: Prisoner for Life

After World War II, Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Nuremberg Trials.
He spent more than 40 years as the sole prisoner of Spandau Prison in Berlin.
He died in 1987, at the age of 93, in what was officially ruled a suicide, though conspiracy theories persist about his death.

🔍 What Remains Uncertain?

Was Hess acting alone, or did someone in the Nazi leadership support his peace mission?
How much influence did astrologers have over his decision to fly to Britain?
Was Aktion Heß a calculated purge, or just a knee-jerk reaction by paranoid Nazi officials?

Hess remains one of the strangest figures of the Nazi era: a high-ranking official who went from Hitler’s trusted deputy to an isolated prisoner, all because of a misguided belief in diplomacy and mysticism. His story is a reminder of how politics, propaganda, and the supernatural intertwined in Nazi Germany….with often deadly consequences.

Rudolf Hess: The Nazi Deputy Whose Flight Sealed the Fate of Astrologers