Hess-Pröhl, Ilse.

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Hess-Pröhl, Ilse, born 22-06-1900 in Hanover, Region Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany. Ilse Pröhl came from a conservative and nationalist family. She was one of three daughters of the wealthy physician and doctor Friedrich Pröhl and his wife Elsa (née Meineke). Her father was killed in May 1917 during the First World War. Her mother then married artist Carl Horn, director of the Bremen Art Museum. Ilse met Rudolf Walter Rudolf “Rudy” Hess  in April 1920 in Munich. She was one of the first women to study at the University of Munich . In 1921, she joined the NSDAP (Nazi Party) for the first time, and rejoined in 1925 (member number 25,071) after the party had been banned. She felt drawn to Rudolf Hess from the beginning, but Hess was reluctant to enter into a relationship. Ilse introduced Hess to Adolf Hitler,  who liked to travel in the circles of well-to-do ladies. Hitler finally gave the impetus to the marriage, which took place on 20-12-1927 in Munich. Hitler was also the godfather of her only child, Wolf Rüdiger Hess,

  who was born on 18-11-1937. After Rudolf Hess’s flight to Scotland, Ilse left Munich with her son to live in Hindelang. . Appointed Deputy Führer (Stellvertreter des Führers) to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position until 1941, when he flew solo to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate the United Kingdom’s exit from the Second World War. He was taken prisoner and eventually convicted of crimes against peace. He was still serving his life sentence at the time of his suicide in 1987. Vehicle standard for Hess while serving as Deputy Führer Hess was found dead on 17-08-1987, aged 93, in a summer house that had been set up in the prison garden as a reading room; he had hanged himself using an extension cable strung over a window latch. A short note to his family was found in his pocket, thanking them for all that they had done. The Four-Power Authorities released a statement on 17 September ruling the death a suicide. Hess was initially buried at a secret location to avoid media attention or demonstrations by Nazi sympathisers, but his body was re-interred in a family plot at Wunsiedel on 17-03-1988; his wife was buried beside him in 1995.

On 03-06-1947, Ilse Hess, like all the wives of the war criminals condemned or executed during the Nuremberg trials, was arrested and transferred to the internment camp in Augsburg-Göggingen. On 24-03-1948 she  was released and settled down in the Allgäu, where she opened a pension in 1955.

Death and burial ground of Hess-Pröhl, Ilse.

  

Ilse Hess was a dedicated Nazi. Until her death, on 07-09-1995 (aged 95),  she remained loyal to Hitler and his views, and supported the Stille Hilfe after the war. Die Stille Hilfe für Kriegsgefangene und Internierte (“Silent assistance for prisoners of war and interned persons”), abbreviated Stille Hilfe, is a relief organization for arrested, condemned and fugitive SS members, similar to the veterans’ association HIAG, set up by Helene Elisabeth Princess von Isenburg (1900–1974) in 1951. The organization has come under criticism for its encouragement and support of neo-Nazis. It has also garnered a reputation for being shrouded in secrecy and thus remains a source of speculation.

Her 1952 book England – Nürnberg – Spandau. Ein Schicksal in Briefen was published by the far-right Druffel-Verlag. She maintained correspondence with, among others, Winifred Wagner,  who also continued to admire Hitler.

She was buried with her husband on the cemetery of Wunsiedel, but After the town of Wunsiedel became the scene of pilgrimages and neo-Nazi demonstrations every August on the date of Hess’s death, the parish council decided not to allow an extension on the grave site’s lease when it expired in 2011. With the eventual consent of his family, Hess’s grave was re-opened on 20 July 2011 and his remains were exhumed, and then cremated. His ashes were scattered at sea by family members; the gravestone, which bore the epitaph “Ich hab’s gewagt” (“I have dared”), was destroyed.

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