When was martin bormann born

Bormann dropped out of education and went to work on a farm in Mecklenburg. When the war ended, Bormann joined the Freikorps Free Corps. Members of the Freikorps believed that the German communists had stabbed Germany in the back during the war — hence her defeat.

Violence and the Freikorps seemed to go hand-in-hand. When Bormann was released from prison, he joined the Nazi Party — as had many Freikorps men. He was also attached to the SA Supreme Command. However, at this time the party was small with just 12 seats in the Reichstag.

In July , Bormann became personal secretary to Rudolf Hess , the deputy leader of the party. In October , Bormann was appointed a Reichsleiter in the Nazi Party and one month later, he was elected to the Reichstag.

However, his ability had been recognised and he was made head of the Party Chancellery in the same month that Hess fled. By now, Bormann had become a master of knowing who he could work with and trust and who he could not. Bormann had the privileged task of allocating this money, much of which went to senior party figures — thus further cultivating his influence. He arranged finance for this endeavor skilfully by diverting party funds and gave Hitler, who had no real understanding of money, the feeling that here was somebody who might relieve him of all the burdens in this area with which he did not wish to be encumbered.

When more structures went up on Obersalzberg later, we were not really surprised to see that Bormann himself had now acquired a magnificent country house and wormed himself into Hitler's close personal circle on the basis of being his "neighbour". His fitting nickname was "The Lord God of Obersalzberg". Martin Bormann was simply one of the most devoted and loyal of Hitler's vassals who would often force through ruthlessly and sometimes brutally the orders and directives given him by Hitler.

Seen in this way, Bormann followed the same kind of path as did Franz Pfeffer von Salomon, running battles with Gauleiters, ministers, Party bosses and the rest being the rule. In the spring of at OSAF, Bormann was as yet unburdened by the far-reaching and unpleasant tasks which Hitler gave him later. Bormann could never be called an attractive man.

Buch had been an active officer and subsequently an instructor at an NCO training school. In the First World War he was regimental adjutant and later commander of a machine-gun sharpshooter unit.

In he took over an officer-candidate battalion at Doberitz. After the war he left the army in the rank of major and joined the NSDAP In he was appointed USCHLA chairman, a position which required a lot of understanding for human inadequacies, much tact, energy and authority.

He was predestined for the office, for his father had been president of the Senate at the Oberland tribunals in Baden. With his long face and tall, slim figure he always looked very elegant.

He had been present at the marriage of his daughter to Martin Bormann, which was naturally very beneficial for Bormann's prospects. All SA men were covered by it. At their gatherings there tended to be a lot of brawling which tended to result in bodily injuries. The insurance was useful and necessary. It was created to serve the single primitive purpose which the genius of Martin Bormann could not cover. Only after beginning work on the staff of the Fuhrer's deputy did Bormann succeed later in proving his extraordinary qualities.

His career took off in the course of the s. He expected from his staff that same enormous industriousness which distinguished himself, and this did not help to make him loved.

Bormann came to Hitler not only well prepared with his files but was also so in tune with Hitler's way of thinking that he could spare him long-winded explanations. Anyone who knew how Hitler did things will realise that this was decisive for him!

Many of the rumours still current about Bormann have in my opinion no basis in fact. He was neither hungry for power nor the "grey eminence" in Hitler's entourage. Ministers, Gauleiters and others believed that Bormann acted from his own lust for power. The Gauleiters were as a rule old street fighters who had known Hitler longer than Bormann and felt senior to him.

If a Gauleiter then happened to cross Hitler's path while strolling, Hitler would play the innocent and gasp: "What? You are here? The hostility between the Bormanns was so habitual and firmly established that they could stand side by side and ignore each other entirely. Unfortunately I never managed to find out the reason for their enmity.

I think there was a woman behind it. Or perhaps those two fighting cocks had long ago forgotten the reason themselves? Martin Bormann was hated and feared by almost everyone in the Reich Chancellery Group, including his own brother Alfred, who was one of Hitler's personal adjutants. Even before the outbreak of war, Bormann, by placing his own desk in the ante-room to Hitler's office, could control civilian access to the Fuehrer.

Except for three or four ministers and the important military officers, no one could now report in to the Fuehrer directly. Bormann also processed all non-military papers before they crossed the Fuehrer's desk. It was he, for instance, who had kept a careful eye on Speer's activities in the Palatinate, receiving reports from the Gauleiters under his command, and had informed Hitler of Speer's attempts to block the scorched-earth orders.

Finally, by his custody of the Fund of the Friends of the Fuehrer, which he had set up for the purpose of milking industrialists, Bormann had access to a vast pool of money which he used for his private patronage and for bribing Gauleiters. This fund also financed the building of the Bunker. All this increased mightily his personal power. As Hitler, from on, began to concentrate almost exclusively on military affairs, Bormann was building his own political power-base within the party.

Hitler knew this; and he knew that Bormann was roundly hated. He once said: "I know that Bormann is brutal.

But I need him. One incident told by old FBK members shows what happened, under Bormann's influence, to the once comradely spirit of the mountain people. One of Hitler's oldest and most faithful retainers was Bruno Gesche, a boisterous type who had been with Hitler since the Munich stormtrooping days.

Gesche rose slowly in the SS and the Leibstandarte until, by , he had become the commanding officer of the FBK, with the rank of Obersturmbannfuehrer lieutenant colonel.

At a wild Christmas party in in the officers' mess at Felsennest during the Battle of the Ardennes, Gesche got roaring drunk, apparently at the bad news coming in from Bastogne. A dead-eye marksman, he whipped out his pistol and shot out all the mess-hall light bulbs. Bormann insisted that Bruno Gesche stand before a court-martial. Hitler refused to intervene. Gesche was reduced to the rank of corporal and exiled to the Italian front.

The old hand said goodbye to the Fuehrer like Falstaff taking leave of Prince Hal. The most hated and dictatorial person in Hitler's immediate circle was Reichsleiter Martin Bormann.

One cannot talk about the fall of the Reich and the death of Hitler without a thorough understanding of the person who was the grey eminence in Hitler's personal circle. I got to know Bormann in Munich in At that time he was relatively unknown until his appointment as head of the SA Sturmabteilung in-house insurance organisation, later that year.

When Rudolf Hess was expanding the liaison apparatus between party and State he noticed Bormann and took him into the staff. After a short while Bormann rose to be Stabsleiter head of staff under Hess and had thus achieved his first goal.

He belonged in the first team. He remained pleasant and was always ready to be of service to equals and those above him. Things changed in After Hitler's Haus Wachenfeld on the Obersalzberg was rebuilt and expanded into the Berghof, Bormann burst out from his previously modest disguise.

Now he just had to have a house on the Obersalzberg. This would give him a reason for being constantly in close proximity to Hitler, with whom he would otherwise have little to do in the course of his duties. In general, his only appearances at the Berghof were to accompany Hess there and stand by silently while Hess delivered his oral reports to Hitler. Bormann therefore started to buy up land on the Obersalzberg The so-called reason for this was that it was being done on behalf of Rudolf Hess to create for Hitler a place where he could really find peace and recuperate without disturbance.

He bought up tracts of land from local farmers. There was no need for him to use underhand methods for the purpose, for he had made it known that the NSDAP would pay four to five times over the market value. This speculation in land could not be kept secret from Hitler for ever. He was concerned that Bormann might be using intimidation to force people off their property, and so told the adjutancy to warn Bormann that at the first complaint he would put a stop to it.

Bormann assured him that there were no grounds for disquiet: on the contrary, the farmers were actually coming to him offering to sell. Soon he had acquired the whole Ohersalzberg mountain. The time now seemed ripe for Bormann to spin his web around Hitler even tighter. At that time, it was the practice at the Berghof for the duty adjutant to decide which Party leaders and men from the State and Wehrmacht to invite to lunch with Hitler. One day Bormann contacted the adjutant with a request to be invited to dine, should the Fuhrer approve.

Obviously Bormann was approved. Shortly before the meal he telephoned the duty adjutant again to excuse himself from attending because his workload was too great. This happened several times. When he finally appeared for lunch one day he was late and took the opportunity to apologise to Hitler with the explanation that he was so weighed down with work that it had unfortunately not been possible for him to get away on time.

He kept this ploy going so long that slowly but surely Hitler gained the impression that Bormann was the most industrious man in the whole Party apparatus. After winning Hitler's trust in this way, Bormann was given the stewardship of the Berghof.

Thus he achieved another goal and won a fresh position of power from where he could damage his rivals. The expansion of his jurisdiction allowed Bormann to be nastier in his relationship towards subordinates.

He began to feel secure. To his underlings he became the most irrational superior. One moment he would treat them in the kindest and most pleasant manner, even giving out presents, and a few minutes later he would be a sadist-belittling, offensive and wounding. Often he would go into such a rage that one would think he had lost his reason. Once the entire staff was under his control, Bormann was empowered to hire and fire whomsoever he wanted. Woe betide the subordinate who fell into disfavour with him.

He would persecute that person, filled with hate, for so long as he remained within reach. His behaviour was totally different to those people whom he knew Hitler liked and did not stand in his path.

Towards them his friendship was unlimited and he would bend over backwards to make sure Hitler noticed. Bormann's great passion was building. It was his method to sketch all the fancy ideas that he knew he shared with Hitler. Thus on the Obersalzberg he converted the houses that appeared to him appropriate for the purpose, making them into guest houses and small villas while creating for himself the wonderful opportunity to go over the plans with Hitler and so ingratiate himself with him even more.

Ordered by Hitler to put the interests of the nation before his own feelings and to save himself, Bormann left the Fuhrerbunker on April 30, Accounts of what happened afterwards vary widely. According to Erich Kempka Hitler's chauffeur , Bormann was killed trying to cross the Russian lines by an anti-tank shell which hit the tank in which they were trying to escape, causing it to burst into flames.

Kempka, who was temporarily blinded at the time, claimed nonetheless to have seen Bormann's dead body. Hitler Youth leader, Artur Axmann , on the other hand, believed that Bormann committed suicide and claimed to have seen Bormann's body on May 2, , in the Invalidenstrasse, north of the River Spree in Berlin. Doubts, however, have persisted and numerous sightings of Bormann have been reported, beginning in when his presence in a North Italian monastery was announced. Rumoured to have settled in Argentina where he was living secretly as a millionaire, allegedly spotted in Brazil and also in Chile , Bormann's traces proved as elusive as the anonymity in which he first rose to power.

Having been sentenced to death in absentia at Nuremberg on October 1, , he was formally pronounced dead by a West German court in April Remains found in near the Lehrter station in West Berlin underwent genetic testing in , which confirmed the remains to be Bormann's.

Glass fragments were discovered in Bormann's jaw upon autopsy, and the cause of death was ruled suicide by cyanide capsule. Sources : Wistrich, Robert S. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. NY: Macmillan, ; Potterton, Louise. The Jerusalem Report , August 22, ; Wikipedia. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library. Category » Biography. Actors and Comedians. Business Icons. Medal of Honor Recipients. Medal of Freedom Recipients. Musicians and Singers.