He had two half-siblings (Else and Walter Bormann) from his father's earlier marriage to Louise Grobler, who died in 1898.
Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery.
Bormann's remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Baltic Sea on 16 August 1999. ==Personal life== On 2 September 1929, Bormann married 19-year-old Gerda Buch (23 October 1909 – 23 March 1946), whose father, Major Walter Buch, served as a chairman of the Untersuchung und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss (USCHLA; Investigation and Settlement Committee), which was responsible for settling disputes within the party.
Theodor died when Bormann was three, and his mother soon remarried. Bormann's studies at an agricultural trade high school were interrupted when he joined the 55th Field Artillery Regiment as a gunner in June 1918, in the last days of World War I.
He never saw action, but served garrison duty until February 1919.
He used his position to create an extensive bureaucracy and involve himself as much as possible in the decision making. Bormann joined a paramilitary Freikorps organisation in 1922 while working as manager of a large estate.
Bormann joined the Freikorps organisation headed by Gerhard Roßbach in 1922, acting as section leader and treasurer. On 17 March 1924 Bormann was sentenced to a year in Elisabethstrasse Prison as an accomplice to his friend Rudolf Höss in the murder of Walther Kadow.
Schlageter was arrested and was executed on 23 May 1923.
Bormann joined the Freikorps organisation headed by Gerhard Roßbach in 1922, acting as section leader and treasurer. On 17 March 1924 Bormann was sentenced to a year in Elisabethstrasse Prison as an accomplice to his friend Rudolf Höss in the murder of Walther Kadow.
Bormann was released from prison in February 1925.
In the early 1930s, Hitler bought the property, which he had been renting since 1925 as a vacation retreat.
Bormann returned to his job at Mecklenburg and remained there until May 1926, when he moved in with his mother in Oberweimar. ==Career in the Nazi Party== In 1927, Bormann joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP).
Bormann joined the Nazi Party in 1927 and the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1937.
Bormann returned to his job at Mecklenburg and remained there until May 1926, when he moved in with his mother in Oberweimar. ==Career in the Nazi Party== In 1927, Bormann joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP).
After joining the Nazi Party in 1927, Bormann began duties as regional press officer, but his lack of public-speaking skills made him ill-suited to this position.
He moved to Munich in October 1928, where he worked in the SA insurance office.
By 1932 the fund was collecting 3 million Reichsmarks per year. Bormann also worked on the staff of the SA from 1928 to 1930, and while there he founded the National Socialist Automobile Corps, precursor to the National Socialist Motor Corps.
Bormann's remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Baltic Sea on 16 August 1999. ==Personal life== On 2 September 1929, Bormann married 19-year-old Gerda Buch (23 October 1909 – 23 March 1946), whose father, Major Walter Buch, served as a chairman of the Untersuchung und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss (USCHLA; Investigation and Settlement Committee), which was responsible for settling disputes within the party.
As insurance companies were unwilling to pay out claims for such activities, in 1930 Bormann set up the Hilfskasse der NSDAP (Nazi Party Auxiliary Fund), a benefits and relief fund directly administered by the party.
After the Nazi Party's success in the 1930 general election, where they won 107 seats, party membership grew dramatically.
By 1932 the fund was collecting 3 million Reichsmarks per year. Bormann also worked on the staff of the SA from 1928 to 1930, and while there he founded the National Socialist Automobile Corps, precursor to the National Socialist Motor Corps.
In the early 1930s, Hitler bought the property, which he had been renting since 1925 as a vacation retreat.
Bormann also had a series of mistresses, including Manja Behrens, an actress. Martin and Gerda Bormann had ten children: Martin Adolf Bormann (14 April 1930 – 11 March 2013); called Krönzi (short for Kronprinz, "crown prince"); born "Adolf Martin Bormann", named after Hitler, his godfather. Ilse Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1958); named after her godmother, Ilse Hess.
Bormann also had a series of mistresses, including Manja Behrens, an actress. Martin and Gerda Bormann had ten children: Martin Adolf Bormann (14 April 1930 – 11 March 2013); called Krönzi (short for Kronprinz, "crown prince"); born "Adolf Martin Bormann", named after Hitler, his godfather. Ilse Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1958); named after her godmother, Ilse Hess.
Later called Eike after Rudolf Hess' flight to Scotland. Ehrengard Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1932); twin sister of the former. Irmgard Bormann (born 25 July 1933). Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (born 31 August 1934; named after his godfather Rudolf Hess).
By 1932 the fund was collecting 3 million Reichsmarks per year. Bormann also worked on the staff of the SA from 1928 to 1930, and while there he founded the National Socialist Automobile Corps, precursor to the National Socialist Motor Corps.
Later called Eike after Rudolf Hess' flight to Scotland. Ehrengard Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1932); twin sister of the former. Irmgard Bormann (born 25 July 1933). Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (born 31 August 1934; named after his godfather Rudolf Hess).
He initially worked in the party's insurance service, and transferred in July 1933 to the office of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, where he served as chief of staff. Bormann gained acceptance into Hitler's inner circle and accompanied him everywhere, providing briefings and summaries of events and requests.
The organisation was responsible for co-ordinating the donated use of motor vehicles belonging to party members, and later expanded to training members in automotive skills. ===Reichsleiter and head of the party chancellery=== After the Machtergreifung (Nazi Party seizure of power) in January 1933, the relief fund was repurposed to provide general accident and property insurance, so Bormann resigned from its administration.
He applied for a transfer and was accepted as chief of staff in the office of Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Führer, on 1 July 1933.
Bormann also served as personal secretary to Hess from July 1933 until 12 May 1941.
On 10 October 1933 Hitler named Bormann Reichsleiter (national leader – the second highest political rank) of the Nazi Party, and in November he was named Reichstag deputy.
The result was that nothing changed, and the Committee of Three declined into irrelevance. ===Role in Kirchenkampf=== While Article 24 of the National Socialist Program called for conditional toleration of Christian denominations and a Reichskonkordat (Reich Concordat) treaty with the Vatican was signed in 1933, purporting to guarantee religious freedom for Catholics, Hitler believed that Christianity was fundamentally incompatible with Nazism.
Later called Eike after Rudolf Hess' flight to Scotland. Ehrengard Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1932); twin sister of the former. Irmgard Bormann (born 25 July 1933). Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (born 31 August 1934; named after his godfather Rudolf Hess).
By June 1934, Bormann was gaining acceptance into Hitler's inner circle and accompanied him everywhere, providing briefings and summaries of events and requests. In 1935, Bormann was appointed as overseer of renovations at the Berghof, Hitler's property at Obersalzberg.
Later called Eike after Rudolf Hess' flight to Scotland. Ehrengard Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1932); twin sister of the former. Irmgard Bormann (born 25 July 1933). Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (born 31 August 1934; named after his godfather Rudolf Hess).
He began acting as Hitler's personal secretary on 12 August 1935.
By June 1934, Bormann was gaining acceptance into Hitler's inner circle and accompanied him everywhere, providing briefings and summaries of events and requests. In 1935, Bormann was appointed as overseer of renovations at the Berghof, Hitler's property at Obersalzberg.
He signed the decree of 31 May 1941 extending the 1935 Nuremberg Laws to the annexed territories of the East.
His name was changed to Helmut after Hess' flight to Scotland. Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born 13 June 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler). Eva Ute Bormann (born 4 May 1938). Gerda Bormann (born 4 August 1940). Fritz Hartmut Bormann (born 3 April 1942). Volker Bormann (18 September 1943 – 1946). Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.
Bormann joined the Nazi Party in 1927 and the Schutzstaffel (SS) in 1937.
He joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) on 1 January 1937 with number 278,267.
In February 1937, he decreed that members of the clergy should not be admitted to the Nazi Party.
By special order of Heinrich Himmler in 1938, Bormann was granted SS number 555 to reflect his Alter Kämpfer (Old Fighter) status. ===Early career=== Bormann took a job with Der Nationalsozialist, a weekly paper edited by Nazi Party member Hans Severus Ziegler, who was deputy Gauleiter (party leader) for Thuringia.
Bormann travelled everywhere with Hitler, including trips to Austria in 1938 after the Anschluss (the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany), and to the Sudetenland after the signing of the Munich Agreement later that year.
Bormann was placed in charge of organising the 1938 Nuremberg Rally, a major annual party event. Hitler intentionally played top party members against one another and the Nazi Party against the civil service.
His name was changed to Helmut after Hess' flight to Scotland. Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born 13 June 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler). Eva Ute Bormann (born 4 May 1938). Gerda Bormann (born 4 August 1940). Fritz Hartmut Bormann (born 3 April 1942). Volker Bormann (18 September 1943 – 1946). Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.
Bormann commissioned the building of the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle's Nest), a tea house high above the Berghof, as a gift to Hitler on his fiftieth birthday (20 April 1939).
Dental records reconstructed from memory in 1945 by Hugo Blaschke identified one skeleton as Bormann's, and damage to the collarbone was consistent with injuries that Bormann's sons reported he had sustained in a riding accident in 1939.
His name was changed to Helmut after Hess' flight to Scotland. Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born 13 June 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler). Eva Ute Bormann (born 4 May 1938). Gerda Bormann (born 4 August 1940). Fritz Hartmut Bormann (born 3 April 1942). Volker Bormann (18 September 1943 – 1946). Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.
After Hess' solo flight to Britain on 10 May 1941 to seek peace negotiations with the British government, Bormann assumed Hess' former duties, with the title of Head of the Parteikanzlei (Party Chancellery).
Bormann also served as personal secretary to Hess from July 1933 until 12 May 1941.
He flew solo to Britain on 10 May 1941 to seek peace negotiations with the British government.
Hitler ordered Hess to be shot should he return to Germany and abolished the post of Deputy Führer on 12 May 1941, assigning Hess' former duties to Bormann, with the title of Head of the Parteikanzlei (Party Chancellery).
Bormann, who was strongly anti-Christian, agreed; he stated publicly in 1941 that "National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable." Out of political expediency, Hitler intended to postpone the elimination of the Christian churches until after the war.
In 1941 the Catholic Bishop of Münster, Clemens August Graf von Galen, publicly protested against this persecution and against Action T4, the Nazi involuntary euthanasia programme under which the mentally ill, physically deformed, and incurably sick were to be killed.
He signed the decree of 31 May 1941 extending the 1935 Nuremberg Laws to the annexed territories of the East.
The "Edict on Criminal Law Practices against Poles and Jews in the Incorporated Eastern Territories", promulgated 4 December 1941, permitted corporal punishment and death sentences for even the most trivial of offences. Bormann supported the hard-line approach of Erich Koch, Reichskommissar in Reichskommissariat Ukraine, in his brutal treatment of Slavic people.
Thereafter, he signed the decree of 9 October 1942 prescribing that the permanent Final Solution in Greater Germany could no longer be solved by emigration, but only by the use of "ruthless force in the special camps of the East", that is, extermination in Nazi death camps.
His name was changed to Helmut after Hess' flight to Scotland. Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born 13 June 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler). Eva Ute Bormann (born 4 May 1938). Gerda Bormann (born 4 August 1940). Fritz Hartmut Bormann (born 3 April 1942). Volker Bormann (18 September 1943 – 1946). Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.
He had final approval over civil service appointments, reviewed and approved legislation, and by 1943 had de facto control over all domestic matters.
By early 1943, the war produced a labour crisis for the regime.
The committee, soon known as the Dreierausschuß (Committee of Three), met eleven times between January and August 1943.
On 12 April 1943, Hitler officially appointed Bormann as Personal Secretary to the Führer.
A further decree, signed by Bormann on 1 July 1943, gave Adolf Eichmann absolute powers over Jews, who now came under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Gestapo.
His name was changed to Helmut after Hess' flight to Scotland. Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born 13 June 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler). Eva Ute Bormann (born 4 May 1938). Gerda Bormann (born 4 August 1940). Fritz Hartmut Bormann (born 3 April 1942). Volker Bormann (18 September 1943 – 1946). Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.
After discussion with Hitler, he issued a policy directive to Rosenberg that read in part: Bormann and Himmler shared responsibility for the Volkssturm (people's militia), which drafted all remaining able-bodied men aged 16 to 60 into a last-ditch militia founded on 18 October 1944.
Martin Ludwig Bormann (17 June 1900 – 2 May 1945) was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery.
Bormann was one of the leading proponents of the ongoing persecution of the Christian churches and favoured harsh treatment of Jews and Slavs in the areas conquered by Germany during World War II. Bormann returned with Hitler to the Führerbunker in Berlin on 16 January 1945 as the Red Army approached the city.
His body was buried nearby on 8 May 1945, but was not found and confirmed as Bormann's until 1973; the identification was reaffirmed in 1998 by DNA tests.
The missing Bormann was tried in absentia by the International Military Tribunal in the Nuremberg trials of 1945 and 1946.
Poorly equipped and trained, the men were sent to fight on the eastern front, where nearly 175,000 of them were killed without having any discernible impact on the Soviet advance. ===Last days in Berlin=== Hitler transferred his headquarters to the Führerbunker ("Leader's bunker") in Berlin on 16 January 1945, where he (along with Bormann, his secretary Else Krüger, and others) remained until the end of April.
The Battle of Berlin, the final major Soviet offensive of the war, began on 16 April 1945.
He and several others had been ordered by Hitler to leave Berlin. In the early morning hours of 29 April 1945, Wilhelm Burgdorf, Goebbels, Hans Krebs, and Bormann witnessed and signed Hitler's last will and testament.
In case Bormann was still alive, multiple public notices about the upcoming Nuremberg trials were placed in newspapers and on the radio in October and November 1945 to notify him of the proceedings against him. The trial got underway on 20 November 1945.
The West German government declared that its hunt for Bormann was over in 1971. In 1963, a retired postal worker named Albert Krumnow told police that around 8 May 1945 the Soviets had ordered him and his colleagues to bury two bodies found near the railway bridge near Lehrter station.
He wrote to Stumpfegger's wife on 14 August 1945 and told her that her husband's body was "interred with the bodies of several other dead soldiers in the grounds of the Alpendorf in Berlin NW 40, Invalidenstrasse 63." Excavations on 20–21 July 1965 at the site specified by Axmann and Krumnow failed to locate the bodies.
Dental records reconstructed from memory in 1945 by Hugo Blaschke identified one skeleton as Bormann's, and damage to the collarbone was consistent with injuries that Bormann's sons reported he had sustained in a riding accident in 1939.
His name was changed to Helmut after Hess' flight to Scotland. Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born 13 June 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler). Eva Ute Bormann (born 4 May 1938). Gerda Bormann (born 4 August 1940). Fritz Hartmut Bormann (born 3 April 1942). Volker Bormann (18 September 1943 – 1946). Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.
The missing Bormann was tried in absentia by the International Military Tribunal in the Nuremberg trials of 1945 and 1946.
He was arrested on arrival and spent the rest of the war as a British prisoner, eventually receiving a life sentence – for crimes against peace (planning and preparing a war of aggression), and conspiracy with other German leaders to commit crimes – at the Nuremberg trials in 1946.
Jakob Glas, Bormann's long-time chauffeur, insisted that he saw Bormann in Munich in July 1946.
On 15 October 1946 he was sentenced to death by hanging, with the provision that if he were later found alive, any new facts brought to light at that time could be taken into consideration to reduce the sentence or overturn it. ===Discovery of remains=== Over the years, several organisations, including the CIA and the West German Government, attempted to locate Bormann without success.
Bormann's remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Baltic Sea on 16 August 1999. ==Personal life== On 2 September 1929, Bormann married 19-year-old Gerda Buch (23 October 1909 – 23 March 1946), whose father, Major Walter Buch, served as a chairman of the Untersuchung und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss (USCHLA; Investigation and Settlement Committee), which was responsible for settling disputes within the party.
His name was changed to Helmut after Hess' flight to Scotland. Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born 13 June 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler). Eva Ute Bormann (born 4 May 1938). Gerda Bormann (born 4 August 1940). Fritz Hartmut Bormann (born 3 April 1942). Volker Bormann (18 September 1943 – 1946). Gerda Bormann and the children fled Obersalzberg for Italy on 25 April 1945 after an Allied air attack.
She died of cancer on 23 March 1946, in Merano, Italy.
Bormann also had a series of mistresses, including Manja Behrens, an actress. Martin and Gerda Bormann had ten children: Martin Adolf Bormann (14 April 1930 – 11 March 2013); called Krönzi (short for Kronprinz, "crown prince"); born "Adolf Martin Bormann", named after Hitler, his godfather. Ilse Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1958); named after her godmother, Ilse Hess.
The West German government declared that its hunt for Bormann was over in 1971. In 1963, a retired postal worker named Albert Krumnow told police that around 8 May 1945 the Soviets had ordered him and his colleagues to bury two bodies found near the railway bridge near Lehrter station.
In 1964, the West German government offered a reward of 100,000 Deutsche Marks for information leading to Bormann's capture.
He wrote to Stumpfegger's wife on 14 August 1945 and told her that her husband's body was "interred with the bodies of several other dead soldiers in the grounds of the Alpendorf in Berlin NW 40, Invalidenstrasse 63." Excavations on 20–21 July 1965 at the site specified by Axmann and Krumnow failed to locate the bodies.
The West German government declared that its hunt for Bormann was over in 1971. In 1963, a retired postal worker named Albert Krumnow told police that around 8 May 1945 the Soviets had ordered him and his colleagues to bury two bodies found near the railway bridge near Lehrter station.
However, on 7 December 1972, construction workers uncovered human remains near Lehrter station in West Berlin just from the spot where Krumnow claimed he had buried them.
His body was buried nearby on 8 May 1945, but was not found and confirmed as Bormann's until 1973; the identification was reaffirmed in 1998 by DNA tests.
Facial reconstruction was undertaken in early 1973 on both skulls to confirm the identities of the bodies.
His body was buried nearby on 8 May 1945, but was not found and confirmed as Bormann's until 1973; the identification was reaffirmed in 1998 by DNA tests.
The family was not permitted to cremate the body, in case further forensic examination later proved necessary. The remains were conclusively identified as Bormann's in 1998 when German authorities ordered genetic testing on fragments of the skull.
Bormann's remains were cremated and his ashes were scattered in the Baltic Sea on 16 August 1999. ==Personal life== On 2 September 1929, Bormann married 19-year-old Gerda Buch (23 October 1909 – 23 March 1946), whose father, Major Walter Buch, served as a chairman of the Untersuchung und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss (USCHLA; Investigation and Settlement Committee), which was responsible for settling disputes within the party.
Bormann also had a series of mistresses, including Manja Behrens, an actress. Martin and Gerda Bormann had ten children: Martin Adolf Bormann (14 April 1930 – 11 March 2013); called Krönzi (short for Kronprinz, "crown prince"); born "Adolf Martin Bormann", named after Hitler, his godfather. Ilse Bormann (9 July 1931 – 1958); named after her godmother, Ilse Hess.
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