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A2 EDEXCEL NAZI GERMANY NOTES (everyone add theirs!!)...
Here's my notes on Hitler's consolodation of Power between 1933-34, which was a type A question before. I got full marks on a practice on this.
Anyways, please add your condensed notes to this thread. I desperately need some notes on Opposition and Nazi popularity/ role of the party!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hitler’s Consolidation of Power: Jan 1933 - Aug 1934
Hitler ensured his consolidation of power using a combination of several key factors:
LEGALITY; TERROR and INTIMIDATION; CONCESSIONS; HITLER’S OWN PERSONALITY, SKILLS OF PERSUASSION AND OPPURTUNITISM; AND THE POLICY OF GLEICHSCHALTUNG.
- LEGAL PROCEEDURE THE MOST IMPORTANT
Feb 28, 1933: Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the Nation and the State
Issued by Hindeburg using Article 48. Suspended constitutional civil rights, resulted in:
Imprisonment without trial. Secret Police could hold people indefinitely in protective custody. Used to repress KPD.
March 13, 1933: Control of Media
Goebells appointed head of new Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
March 24, 1933: Enabling Act
Passed with 441 v 94 majority (only SPD voted against, KPD banned; Centre supported it after H’ made promises). Gave Hitler power to pass decrees without President’s involvement. Terror and Intimidation helped him pass this law!
July 14, 1933: Law against the Formation of New Parties
Germany effectively becomes a One-Party State.
January, 1934: Law for the Reconstruction of the State
Created new Reich Governors to control states. Dissolved state assemblies.
August 1934: Office of the Fuhrer
Merges the offices of President and Chancellor. Hitler becomes Dictator!
- TERROR AND INTIMIDATION
Used SA to intimidate voters. Example- In assembly on Enabling Act, the SA surround the Opera House.
- CONCESSIONS
July 1933: Concordat
Signed between Nazi’s and Pope. Several concessions given to ensure Church would ban all political activity and give approval to Nazis.
Concession to Elites/ Big business
Eliminated threat of left-wing political party and reduced workers powers by banning TU’s and creating DAF.
Concessions to the Army
Most important concessions. Army wanted assurances from Hitler that they were the only Military force of German. Rohm and SA want to be new army. Absorbed SA into Army and made them swear of of allegiance in August 1934.
- GLEICHSCHALTUNG
Policy of sub-ordinating all important government and non-government institutions nder Nazi control. Extends their reaches of influence and reduces outside interference. Gleichschaltung, coupled with Policing network made any organised resistance almost impossible.
- Creates DAF in May 1933.
- The Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
- HITLER’S OWN PERSONALITY AND PERSUASION
Example of H’ opportunism:
A Week before election day, Reichstag burnt to ground. Communist caught inside. H’ blames communists for arson, accuses them of being a terror organization. Uses all this to justify actions of SA and persuades Hindenburg to issue Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the Nation and State (Feb, 1933). This suspended civil rights and was used to repress opposition.
Anyways, please add your condensed notes to this thread. I desperately need some notes on Opposition and Nazi popularity/ role of the party!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hitler’s Consolidation of Power: Jan 1933 - Aug 1934
Hitler ensured his consolidation of power using a combination of several key factors:
LEGALITY; TERROR and INTIMIDATION; CONCESSIONS; HITLER’S OWN PERSONALITY, SKILLS OF PERSUASSION AND OPPURTUNITISM; AND THE POLICY OF GLEICHSCHALTUNG.
- LEGAL PROCEEDURE THE MOST IMPORTANT
Feb 28, 1933: Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the Nation and the State
Issued by Hindeburg using Article 48. Suspended constitutional civil rights, resulted in:
Imprisonment without trial. Secret Police could hold people indefinitely in protective custody. Used to repress KPD.
March 13, 1933: Control of Media
Goebells appointed head of new Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
March 24, 1933: Enabling Act
Passed with 441 v 94 majority (only SPD voted against, KPD banned; Centre supported it after H’ made promises). Gave Hitler power to pass decrees without President’s involvement. Terror and Intimidation helped him pass this law!
July 14, 1933: Law against the Formation of New Parties
Germany effectively becomes a One-Party State.
January, 1934: Law for the Reconstruction of the State
Created new Reich Governors to control states. Dissolved state assemblies.
August 1934: Office of the Fuhrer
Merges the offices of President and Chancellor. Hitler becomes Dictator!
- TERROR AND INTIMIDATION
Used SA to intimidate voters. Example- In assembly on Enabling Act, the SA surround the Opera House.
- CONCESSIONS
July 1933: Concordat
Signed between Nazi’s and Pope. Several concessions given to ensure Church would ban all political activity and give approval to Nazis.
Concession to Elites/ Big business
Eliminated threat of left-wing political party and reduced workers powers by banning TU’s and creating DAF.
Concessions to the Army
Most important concessions. Army wanted assurances from Hitler that they were the only Military force of German. Rohm and SA want to be new army. Absorbed SA into Army and made them swear of of allegiance in August 1934.
- GLEICHSCHALTUNG
Policy of sub-ordinating all important government and non-government institutions nder Nazi control. Extends their reaches of influence and reduces outside interference. Gleichschaltung, coupled with Policing network made any organised resistance almost impossible.
- Creates DAF in May 1933.
- The Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.
- HITLER’S OWN PERSONALITY AND PERSUASION
Example of H’ opportunism:
A Week before election day, Reichstag burnt to ground. Communist caught inside. H’ blames communists for arson, accuses them of being a terror organization. Uses all this to justify actions of SA and persuades Hindenburg to issue Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the Nation and State (Feb, 1933). This suspended civil rights and was used to repress opposition.
A few brief notes about the three biggest deputies, could be useful if we're asked about them or we need to know how stuff worked etc, hope it's useful
Goebbels - March 13, 1933 Prodaganda Minister
September 22, 1933 Reich Chamber of Culture formed, with seven sub-chambers bringing every aspect of german culture under Goebbel's control, eg music, film, theatre,
October 4, 1933 Reich Press Law tightens controls on the press, newspapers actively told what to write and what not to. Jewish owned newspaper were either forced out of business or bought up by Eber Verlag, the Nazi publishing firm headed by Max Amann, Reich Leader for the Press and president of the Press Chamber. The government had the right to suppress any publication in wanted and if it desired, buy it cheaply to profit from. Eber Verlag became one of the biggest publishing firms in existence.
Goering - May 1933, takes control of the new Air Ministry. Lost Interior Ministry to Frick in 1934, but retained position of Minister Presidet of Prussia. At the 1936 Nuremberg Rally the Four year plan was announced, with Goering in charge.
September, 1936 The Four year Plan inaugrated with the aim of making Germany's economy self-sufficient within four years, in effect a war economy. Imports reduced drastically, harsh price/wage controls set and enomous factories sprung up to manufacture synthetic rubber, textiles and fuel. Goering was in effect the dictator of the economy, much to the dismay of Schacht, the Economics Minister with who he fought until Schacht resigned in 1937, to be replaced by Walther Funk in 1938, over whom Goering complete control.
January, 1938 The Bomberg-Fritsch Affair removed the final remnants of the old elite (the officer corps) and left Hitler free to radicalise without any restraint. Field Marshal Blomberg was Minister of War, a post coveted by Goeing who wanted total control over rearmament. In January he had married his secretary, who was discovered to have worked as a prostitute and posed for pornographic photographs. Goering presented the dossier to Hitler, who was enraged and demanded his resignation. Around the same time, General von Fritsch, the Commander in Chief of the Army, was implicated by Himmler and his aide Heydrich in a homosexual scandal. The accusations were fabricated but Fritsch was helpless to stop Hitler sending him on indefinite leave.
February 4, 1938 Hitler issued a decree making him Supreme Commander of the armed forces, replacing Blomberg and abolishing the War Ministry. Goeing was promoted to Field Marshal, making him the highest ranking officer in the Reich. ThouHe had not got the position he had wanted, but he could not feel slighted since it was Hitler who had taken it ahead of him.
Himmler - In 1933 head of the 50,000 strong SS (but subordinate to Rohm until after the NoLK), April 1933 made Commander of the police in Bavaria, a year later became head of the Prussian Gestapo after a deal with Goering (Minister President of Prussia), Founded Dachau concentration camp in 1933 and supervised the expantion of a network of camps throughout Germany, by 1936 he had successfully incorporated all the police forces of Germany under his command, and merged the Kripo (criminal police) with the Gestapo to form Sipo (security police) in the same year, in 1939 he merged all the organisation under the umbrella of the RHSA (Reich Security Main Office) under Heydrich, founded the Waffen (armed) SS the same year. The gestapo had been made effectively above the law by the various emergency powers.
Goebbels - March 13, 1933 Prodaganda Minister
September 22, 1933 Reich Chamber of Culture formed, with seven sub-chambers bringing every aspect of german culture under Goebbel's control, eg music, film, theatre,
October 4, 1933 Reich Press Law tightens controls on the press, newspapers actively told what to write and what not to. Jewish owned newspaper were either forced out of business or bought up by Eber Verlag, the Nazi publishing firm headed by Max Amann, Reich Leader for the Press and president of the Press Chamber. The government had the right to suppress any publication in wanted and if it desired, buy it cheaply to profit from. Eber Verlag became one of the biggest publishing firms in existence.
Goering - May 1933, takes control of the new Air Ministry. Lost Interior Ministry to Frick in 1934, but retained position of Minister Presidet of Prussia. At the 1936 Nuremberg Rally the Four year plan was announced, with Goering in charge.
September, 1936 The Four year Plan inaugrated with the aim of making Germany's economy self-sufficient within four years, in effect a war economy. Imports reduced drastically, harsh price/wage controls set and enomous factories sprung up to manufacture synthetic rubber, textiles and fuel. Goering was in effect the dictator of the economy, much to the dismay of Schacht, the Economics Minister with who he fought until Schacht resigned in 1937, to be replaced by Walther Funk in 1938, over whom Goering complete control.
January, 1938 The Bomberg-Fritsch Affair removed the final remnants of the old elite (the officer corps) and left Hitler free to radicalise without any restraint. Field Marshal Blomberg was Minister of War, a post coveted by Goeing who wanted total control over rearmament. In January he had married his secretary, who was discovered to have worked as a prostitute and posed for pornographic photographs. Goering presented the dossier to Hitler, who was enraged and demanded his resignation. Around the same time, General von Fritsch, the Commander in Chief of the Army, was implicated by Himmler and his aide Heydrich in a homosexual scandal. The accusations were fabricated but Fritsch was helpless to stop Hitler sending him on indefinite leave.
February 4, 1938 Hitler issued a decree making him Supreme Commander of the armed forces, replacing Blomberg and abolishing the War Ministry. Goeing was promoted to Field Marshal, making him the highest ranking officer in the Reich. ThouHe had not got the position he had wanted, but he could not feel slighted since it was Hitler who had taken it ahead of him.
Himmler - In 1933 head of the 50,000 strong SS (but subordinate to Rohm until after the NoLK), April 1933 made Commander of the police in Bavaria, a year later became head of the Prussian Gestapo after a deal with Goering (Minister President of Prussia), Founded Dachau concentration camp in 1933 and supervised the expantion of a network of camps throughout Germany, by 1936 he had successfully incorporated all the police forces of Germany under his command, and merged the Kripo (criminal police) with the Gestapo to form Sipo (security police) in the same year, in 1939 he merged all the organisation under the umbrella of the RHSA (Reich Security Main Office) under Heydrich, founded the Waffen (armed) SS the same year. The gestapo had been made effectively above the law by the various emergency powers.
Cheers mate!
I've got some good notes on the 'Hitler: All-powerful?' debate I will post if a couple more peeps post up some stuff (anything- essays, notes etc!)... Bit of an incentive lol...
Add to both factors of Terror and Intimidation and also Concession - Night of the Long Knives 1934. Intimidates SA and Rohm and creates a sense of fear, and appeases the Army, Hindenburg and paves a clearer route to power for Himmler (all hostile to the SA/Rohm's left wing radicalism...)
Has anyone got any notes on Geobbels, with focus on his role as one of the three Lieutenants?
I don't really have much on Goebbels, nothing that's worth posting anyway...does anyone have anything good?
Maybe if I posted my notes...which is less then half a page...and people added to it and then posted their additions on here?
Maybe if I posted my notes...which is less then half a page...and people added to it and then posted their additions on here?
Goebbels v successful as Gauleiter of Berlin, brought together the middle classes and working classes. There was a Communist/NSDAP alliance over a strike in Berlin during his leadership.
Obviously brilliant at Propaganda - known as the 'Poison Dwarf' and even managed to keep morale up after the defeat of Stalingrad.
Part of the party's left wing and sympathised with the Bolshevik revolution
Katyn Massacre - Polish officers killed by Russian soldiers. Goebbels focused on this in the newspapers and brought about the disintegration of Russian/Polish cooperation - allied defeat.
One of the main orchestrators of the Final Solution and dedicated to racial purity.
Obviously brilliant at Propaganda - known as the 'Poison Dwarf' and even managed to keep morale up after the defeat of Stalingrad.
Part of the party's left wing and sympathised with the Bolshevik revolution
Katyn Massacre - Polish officers killed by Russian soldiers. Goebbels focused on this in the newspapers and brought about the disintegration of Russian/Polish cooperation - allied defeat.
One of the main orchestrators of the Final Solution and dedicated to racial purity.
Also, here are my notes that I made on the Master/Weak Dictator debate from Jane Jenkin's book "Hitler and Nazi Germany".
Martin Bormann
In the Nazi Party, Martin Bormann was second only to Adolf Hitler. He lusted for power and was eager to do evil. Hitler called Bormann his "most faithful party comrade,"(1) a title that Bormann lived up to.
Bormann was born on June 17, 1900, in Halberstadt, Germany. His father was a postal worker who had been a Prussian regimental sergeant major. Bormann dropped out of high school and worked on a farming estate in Mecklenburg before enlisting as a cannoneer in a field artillery regiment toward the end of World War I. The war ended before he reached the front lines.
After the war, Bormann joined the Deutsche rightist group, Freikorps, which carried out acts of violence along the Latvian border, after Latvia declared its independence. Soon, Bormann became active in the underground paramilitary nationalist organization Frontbann. He was connected with the 'Feme' murders and was an accomplice to Rudolph Höss in the assassination of Bormann's own former elementary school teacher, Walther Kadow, who he claimed had betrayed the Nazi martyr Leo Schlageter to the French occupation authorities in the Ruhr.(2) Bormann was arrested for this murder in 1923 and sentenced to one year in jail.
Upon his release, Bormann started his climb to power in Germany. He joined the Nazi party and the SA (Storm Troopers) in Thuringia. In 1926, he was appointed head of Nazi press affairs and deputy SA commander of the region. He was known as a fund-raiser and in 1928, became the Nazi party's business manager. From 1928 to1930, he was part of the SA Supreme Command.
When the Nazi party took control of Germany in 1933, Bormann was elected to the Reichstag, the German parliament. From July 1933 until 1941, Bormann was the Chief of Cabinet in the Office of the Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess. He acted as Hess' personal secretary and right-hand man.
It was at this time that Bormann started acquiring Hitler’s trust. Bormann acted behind the scenes and gained responsibility for all of the party's financial and administrative affairs.(3) He developed and administered the Adolf Hitler Endowment Fund of German Industry, a fund of contributions by businessmen to Hitler that was allocated as gifts to top party functionaries. Bormann was also in charge of Hitler’s personal finances and he bought and maintained a large number of properties. He took control over the living standards of Gauleiters and Reichsleiters -- top Nazi officials.
When Hess fled to Great Britain in May 1941, Bormann's ascent to power quickened. He took over as head of the Parteikanzlei, Hitler’s Chancery. In 1942, he was appointed head of the party secretariat and of the party staff, with the rank of Reichsminister. In 1943, he became Hitler’s personal secretary. In October 1944, Bormann was appointed commander of the Volkssturm (People's Army), a mass of German civilians established as the Allies were about to invade the Reich.
As Hitler’s secretary, Bormann got involved not only with party affairs, but also with the domestic policies of Germany. He was active in fields such as the pillage of art objects in occupied countries in Eastern Europe.(4) He controlled questions of security in the regime, legislation, appointments and promotions. He created a system of spies in the army, in which he would promote young officers to survey the political attitudes of older fighters. He was a rabid fighter against the Christian churches, stating in a confidential 1942 memo that Nazism was incompatible with Christianity and the power of the churches "must absolutely and finally be broken."(5)
Bormann was an extreme racist who was the "zealous executor"(6) of Nazi persecution and extermination of the Jews. He ordered the deportation of Jews to the East, at first concealing the killings as the "transfer of Jews to labor."(7) He later stopped hiding the massacres and signed a decree on October 9, 1942, stating that "the permanent elimination of the Jews from the territories of Greater Germany can no longer be carried out by emigration but by the use of ruthless force in the special camps of the East."(8) His July 1, 1943, decree gave Adolf Eichmann and the Gestapo (the German secret police) complete power over Jewish affairs.
Bormann's hatred was not confined to Jews. He called the Slavs a "Sovietized mass" of sub-humans and wrote in a August 19, 1942 memo, "The Slavs are to work for us. In so far as we do not need them, they may die. Slav fertility is not desirable."(9) He expanded a slave labor program for both Slavs and Jews.
From the first time they met in 1926, Hitler and Bormann had a close relationship. Bormann is called the "shadow man" because he was always shadowing the Nazi leader. Hitler was a witness at Bormann's 1929 wedding to Gerda Buch, a rabid Nazi and daughter of Supreme Party judge Walter Buch. Hitler was the godfather of Bormann's son, Martin Bormann Junior. During Christmas 1939, Hitler was a guest at Bormann family villa where Hitler gave his godson a box of toy soldiers and a model of an antiaircraft gun.(10) Bormann, in turn, was a witness at Hitler’s marriage to Eva Braun, the day before Hitler and Braun's suicide. At Hitler’s instructions, it was Bormann who informed Admiral Karl Donitz that Donitz had been appointed successor of the Fuhrer.
Bormann used his tremendous influence to curb the power of other top Nazis. He controlled Hitler’s appointment calender and prevented top officials, including Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering and Albert Speer, from approaching the Fuhrer.(11) He even tried unsuccessfully to have Goering executed. Bormann screened the proposals of other members of the Party and convinced Hitler to follow all of his plans.(12) He took care of paper work and all administrative duties himself. As a result of Bormann's plotting, Hitler dismissed Goering and Himmler’s influence was curtailed.(13)
Toward the end of the war, Bormann personally witnessed the suicides of Goebbels and his family, and finally the suicide of Hitler himself.(14) Before his death, Hitler ordered Bormann to save himself and flee the bunker.(15) Some say that Bormann tried to negotiate with the Soviets after Hitler’s death, but realized that negotiations were fruitless.(16) In the end, he escaped the bunker on April 30, 1945, and after that, his fate is unclear.
Hitler’s chauffeur Erich Kempka claimed that Bormann was killed trying to cross the Russian lines by an anti-tank shell, which caused the tank he was in to blow up. Kempka, who was temporarily blinded, said he saw Bormann's body.(17) Hitler Youth leader, Artur Axmann, believed that Bormann killed himself, and claimed to have spotted the body on May 2, 1945, in the Invalidenstrasse in Berlin. In 1946, it was announced that Bormann was in a north Italian monastery. He was also rumored to have escaped via Rome to Argentina or Paraguay, and was sighted in Italy, Brazil and Chile.(18)
On October 29, 1945, Bormann was indicted in absentia by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. He was sentenced to death in absentia almost a year later, on October 1, 1946.
In December 1972, excavations dug up two skeletons near the Reichstag in West Berlin and, in early 1973, a West German forensic expert used dental records to determine that one was almost certainly that of Bormann. In early May 1973, the DNA was matched to that of an 83-year old relative of Bormann. The other skeleton was identified as Hitler’s doctor, Ludwig Stumfegger. The two men had apparently been found by a Russian soldier and had taken cyanide. In April 1973, a West German court formally pronounced Bormann dead.
Gerda Bormann died of cancer in 1946. Bormann's 10 children survived the war. Nine lived with foster parents. One, Martin Bormann Jr., turned to the Roman Catholic church and became a priest, before beginning to travel and speak to audiences denouncing Nazism.
While Bormann's son Martin may remember his father as a "strict but loving" man, and Hitler may have seen him as a loyal, trusted aide, most will remember Borman for his brutality and hunger for power during the Holocaust. Bormann was the behind-the-scenes cog who turned the wheel of Nazism. He yielded more political power than anyone but Hitler himself and used this influence to further his plans of evil to murder the Slavs and Jews.
In the Nazi Party, Martin Bormann was second only to Adolf Hitler. He lusted for power and was eager to do evil. Hitler called Bormann his "most faithful party comrade,"(1) a title that Bormann lived up to.
Bormann was born on June 17, 1900, in Halberstadt, Germany. His father was a postal worker who had been a Prussian regimental sergeant major. Bormann dropped out of high school and worked on a farming estate in Mecklenburg before enlisting as a cannoneer in a field artillery regiment toward the end of World War I. The war ended before he reached the front lines.
After the war, Bormann joined the Deutsche rightist group, Freikorps, which carried out acts of violence along the Latvian border, after Latvia declared its independence. Soon, Bormann became active in the underground paramilitary nationalist organization Frontbann. He was connected with the 'Feme' murders and was an accomplice to Rudolph Höss in the assassination of Bormann's own former elementary school teacher, Walther Kadow, who he claimed had betrayed the Nazi martyr Leo Schlageter to the French occupation authorities in the Ruhr.(2) Bormann was arrested for this murder in 1923 and sentenced to one year in jail.
Upon his release, Bormann started his climb to power in Germany. He joined the Nazi party and the SA (Storm Troopers) in Thuringia. In 1926, he was appointed head of Nazi press affairs and deputy SA commander of the region. He was known as a fund-raiser and in 1928, became the Nazi party's business manager. From 1928 to1930, he was part of the SA Supreme Command.
When the Nazi party took control of Germany in 1933, Bormann was elected to the Reichstag, the German parliament. From July 1933 until 1941, Bormann was the Chief of Cabinet in the Office of the Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess. He acted as Hess' personal secretary and right-hand man.
It was at this time that Bormann started acquiring Hitler’s trust. Bormann acted behind the scenes and gained responsibility for all of the party's financial and administrative affairs.(3) He developed and administered the Adolf Hitler Endowment Fund of German Industry, a fund of contributions by businessmen to Hitler that was allocated as gifts to top party functionaries. Bormann was also in charge of Hitler’s personal finances and he bought and maintained a large number of properties. He took control over the living standards of Gauleiters and Reichsleiters -- top Nazi officials.
When Hess fled to Great Britain in May 1941, Bormann's ascent to power quickened. He took over as head of the Parteikanzlei, Hitler’s Chancery. In 1942, he was appointed head of the party secretariat and of the party staff, with the rank of Reichsminister. In 1943, he became Hitler’s personal secretary. In October 1944, Bormann was appointed commander of the Volkssturm (People's Army), a mass of German civilians established as the Allies were about to invade the Reich.
As Hitler’s secretary, Bormann got involved not only with party affairs, but also with the domestic policies of Germany. He was active in fields such as the pillage of art objects in occupied countries in Eastern Europe.(4) He controlled questions of security in the regime, legislation, appointments and promotions. He created a system of spies in the army, in which he would promote young officers to survey the political attitudes of older fighters. He was a rabid fighter against the Christian churches, stating in a confidential 1942 memo that Nazism was incompatible with Christianity and the power of the churches "must absolutely and finally be broken."(5)
Bormann was an extreme racist who was the "zealous executor"(6) of Nazi persecution and extermination of the Jews. He ordered the deportation of Jews to the East, at first concealing the killings as the "transfer of Jews to labor."(7) He later stopped hiding the massacres and signed a decree on October 9, 1942, stating that "the permanent elimination of the Jews from the territories of Greater Germany can no longer be carried out by emigration but by the use of ruthless force in the special camps of the East."(8) His July 1, 1943, decree gave Adolf Eichmann and the Gestapo (the German secret police) complete power over Jewish affairs.
Bormann's hatred was not confined to Jews. He called the Slavs a "Sovietized mass" of sub-humans and wrote in a August 19, 1942 memo, "The Slavs are to work for us. In so far as we do not need them, they may die. Slav fertility is not desirable."(9) He expanded a slave labor program for both Slavs and Jews.
From the first time they met in 1926, Hitler and Bormann had a close relationship. Bormann is called the "shadow man" because he was always shadowing the Nazi leader. Hitler was a witness at Bormann's 1929 wedding to Gerda Buch, a rabid Nazi and daughter of Supreme Party judge Walter Buch. Hitler was the godfather of Bormann's son, Martin Bormann Junior. During Christmas 1939, Hitler was a guest at Bormann family villa where Hitler gave his godson a box of toy soldiers and a model of an antiaircraft gun.(10) Bormann, in turn, was a witness at Hitler’s marriage to Eva Braun, the day before Hitler and Braun's suicide. At Hitler’s instructions, it was Bormann who informed Admiral Karl Donitz that Donitz had been appointed successor of the Fuhrer.
Bormann used his tremendous influence to curb the power of other top Nazis. He controlled Hitler’s appointment calender and prevented top officials, including Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Goering and Albert Speer, from approaching the Fuhrer.(11) He even tried unsuccessfully to have Goering executed. Bormann screened the proposals of other members of the Party and convinced Hitler to follow all of his plans.(12) He took care of paper work and all administrative duties himself. As a result of Bormann's plotting, Hitler dismissed Goering and Himmler’s influence was curtailed.(13)
Toward the end of the war, Bormann personally witnessed the suicides of Goebbels and his family, and finally the suicide of Hitler himself.(14) Before his death, Hitler ordered Bormann to save himself and flee the bunker.(15) Some say that Bormann tried to negotiate with the Soviets after Hitler’s death, but realized that negotiations were fruitless.(16) In the end, he escaped the bunker on April 30, 1945, and after that, his fate is unclear.
Hitler’s chauffeur Erich Kempka claimed that Bormann was killed trying to cross the Russian lines by an anti-tank shell, which caused the tank he was in to blow up. Kempka, who was temporarily blinded, said he saw Bormann's body.(17) Hitler Youth leader, Artur Axmann, believed that Bormann killed himself, and claimed to have spotted the body on May 2, 1945, in the Invalidenstrasse in Berlin. In 1946, it was announced that Bormann was in a north Italian monastery. He was also rumored to have escaped via Rome to Argentina or Paraguay, and was sighted in Italy, Brazil and Chile.(18)
On October 29, 1945, Bormann was indicted in absentia by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. He was sentenced to death in absentia almost a year later, on October 1, 1946.
In December 1972, excavations dug up two skeletons near the Reichstag in West Berlin and, in early 1973, a West German forensic expert used dental records to determine that one was almost certainly that of Bormann. In early May 1973, the DNA was matched to that of an 83-year old relative of Bormann. The other skeleton was identified as Hitler’s doctor, Ludwig Stumfegger. The two men had apparently been found by a Russian soldier and had taken cyanide. In April 1973, a West German court formally pronounced Bormann dead.
Gerda Bormann died of cancer in 1946. Bormann's 10 children survived the war. Nine lived with foster parents. One, Martin Bormann Jr., turned to the Roman Catholic church and became a priest, before beginning to travel and speak to audiences denouncing Nazism.
While Bormann's son Martin may remember his father as a "strict but loving" man, and Hitler may have seen him as a loyal, trusted aide, most will remember Borman for his brutality and hunger for power during the Holocaust. Bormann was the behind-the-scenes cog who turned the wheel of Nazism. He yielded more political power than anyone but Hitler himself and used this influence to further his plans of evil to murder the Slavs and Jews.
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