Why did Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland?

Hello,

I suppose, it was a peace mission, because German would be go far with war criminality (T4, Jews, Russian ed). He could not tolerate this, Hitler TOO, but others came to power to ( Himmler, Heydrich, Muller, Goering ed) to practise the war criminalities. No one outside of Germany even guessed how bad the Nazis were about to really be.

Did Hess not know he would be arrested?

arrested?

I think the best answer is that Hess was an unstable and pathetic individual who had latched on to Hitler as some kind of a twisted father-figure, but was becoming increasingly marginalized in the Nazi hierarchy. He deluded himself that he could reconcile the Germanic and British 'racial cousins' using some of his pre-war social contacts. He had absolutely no concept of how fundamental was the ideological difference between democratic Britain and Nazi Germany, nor how negatively he would be viewed by the British.

But to view him as some sort of born-again humanitarian is, I think, a

Hess was emotionally disturbed and probably pursuing some fantasy about bringing peace. To my knowledge, no one ever obtained a rational statement from

This is at least a new theory...

The Allies knew all about the Holocaust from intelligence reports from sources within German-occupied territories and from signal intercepts. They had no need of Hess' help.

one theory is tha he was kept there simply because he was the last one. Once he was gone, the prison lost its purpose (and as abolished), and so did the Soviets loose another piece of influence in a Western sector of Berlin (Spandau was part of the British sector).

I heard on a program about Hess that there were a few times, and I don't recall specifics, but it had to do with how voting rotated or somesuch, anyway, the point was that the Soviets did somehow allow for the possibility of Hess becoming paroled but on the one or two occasions this did happen the British quickly stepped in to ensure that he'd stay inside. I've heard and or read this a few times, so I'm not so sure it was only the SU that wanted him there for life.

Hess was held under the authority of the International Military Tribunal which convicted him and only that authority could release him. As the IMT was a 4-power body, the Russians had a legal veto on Hess' release which they consistently exercised whenever Britain, France and the US proposed Hess' release. At no time did Britain veto Hess' release; indeed quite the reverse.

You are confusing this situation with the staffing of Spandau prison, which rotated between the same 4 powers. However, the staff of the prison could not release Hess or any other IMT prisoner without an order from the IMT, jsut as any prison governor cannot release a prisoner without a court order.

The most popular Nazi-apologist conspiracy theory that war was forced on Hitler depends on Hess being a secret intermediary between Hitler and Churchill, and thus on Britain wanting to keep him silent. It is absolute unsubstantiated tosh.

What Hess was after is anyones guess. It's possible that Hess wanted to arraenge a meeting with powerful and influential Englishmen for the purpose of reaching a modus vivendi between England and Germany. There were in England individuals who precisely wanted this and one was Lord Stewart, on whose estate Hess attempted to drop in unannounced. In a remarkable feat of navigation and luck Hess dropped by parachute within ten miles of his intended target in Scotland. While Hess should be perceived as mentally unbalanced his ability to reach Scotland, land by parachute to within 10 miles over unfamiliar territory, and actually make a safe landing by parachute by someone without experience must be regarded as a remarkable achievement none-the-less. I would guess that Hess was hoping that England would appreciate the fact that Hitler had ordered the invasion of Soviet Russia. With this knowledge England would realise that the common enemy for both was Bolshevism and a shift in British policy would be the wisest course. If this was actually Hess mission then it can explain British reluctance to use Hess capture for propaganda since Stalin could assume that Britain was indeed hoping for a Soviet-German conflict to reflect Germany's attention from bringing the full force of German might against the British.

This was certainly Hess' hope and belief. There is some evidence that in May and June 1940 SIS at the behest of Churchill deliberately fed false rumours to this effect to Hitler in order to encourage an ever-more fatal delay in military invasion of the UK. Hess may have been reacting to these false stories. But there was no *actual* plot.

Douglas Douglas-Hamilton (14th Duke of Hamilton; 11th Duke of Brandon) was not 'Lord Stewart' but 'Lord Steward of the Royal Household', a ceremonial position within the Royal Household. He was also an RAF Wing Commander on active service and a personal friend of Churchill. There is no evidence whatsoever that he was part of any plot, although Hess may have fondly and wrongly hoped that he was.

(snip remaining conspiracy theory stuff)