Ilse Hess (née Pröhl; 22 June 1900 – 7 September 1995) was the wife of

Rudolf Hess Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...

. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she became a well-known author.

Family

Ilse Pröhl came from a nationalist conservative 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.

Relationship with Rudolf Hess

Ilse met Rudolf Hess in April 1920 in Munich. She was one of the first women to study at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's List of universities in Germany, sixth-oldest u ...

. In 1921, she joined the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

(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 Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

, 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 December 1927 in Munich. Hitler was also the godfather of her only child,

Wolf Rüdiger Hess Wolf Rüdiger Hess (''Heß'' in German script; 18 November 1937 – 24 October 2001) was a German architect, the only son of Rudolf Hess and Ilse Hess (née Pröhl). Early life Born in Munich, Hess lived with his parents until his father’s flig ...

, who was born on 18 November 1937. After Rudolf Hess's flight to Scotland, Ilse left Munich with her son to live in

Hindelang Bad Hindelang is a municipality in the district of Oberallgäu in Bavaria in Germany. As of 2008 it has a population of 4,915. Its sulphur spring was used for cures in the 19th century and today the municipality is a major health resort. Geograp ...

After the war

On 3 June 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 Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

in Augsburg-Göggingen. On 24 March 1948 she was released and settled down in the

Allgäu The Allgäu (Standard German: , also Allgovia) is a region in Swabia in southern Germany. It covers the south of Bavarian Swabia, southeastern Baden-Württemberg, and parts of Austria. The region stretches from the pre-alpine lands up to the A ...

, where she opened a

pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

in 1955. Ilse Hess was a convinced

National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. Until her death, she remained loyal to Hitler and his views, and supported the

Stille Hilfe Die Stille Hilfe für Kriegsgefangene und Internierte (English: "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 ...

after the war. 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 Winifred Marjorie Wagner ( Williams; 23 June 1897 – 5 March 1980) was the English-born wife of Siegfried Wagner, the son of Richard Wagner, and ran the Bayreuth Festival after her husband's death in 1930 until the end of World War II in 1 ...

, who also continued to admire Hitler.

Publications

*''Ein Schicksal in Briefen''. Leoni am Starnberger See: Druffel-Verlag, 1971 (more than 40 editions). *''Antwort aus Zelle 7''. Leoni am Starnberger See: Druffel-Verlag, 1967. *''England – Nürnberg – Spandau''. Leoni am Starnberger See: Druffel-Verlag, 1967. *''Gefangener des Friedens – Neue Briefe aus Spandau''. Leoni am Starnberger See: Druffel-Verlag, 1955.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hess, Ilse Women in Nazi Germany 1900 births 1995 deaths 20th-century German women writers 20th-century German writers Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Nazi Party members German prisoners and detainees Rudolf Hess German neo-Nazis