Martin Bormann Biography - The life of Martin Bormann Documentary

it is the first of may 1945. the fuhrer adolf hitler is dead his private secretary martin bormann leaves the shelter of the fiora bunker puts on his ss general's uniform tucks hitler's will and political testament into his breast pocket and sets off under the cover of darkness into the ruins of the crumbling capital of a thousand-year reich bormann runs northwest to the train station tearing his insignia from his uniform but encounters soviet troops who tell him hitler is kaput he hastily makes off when he's spotted running across a railway bridge but is never seen again did martin borman perish in the ruins of berlin that night attempting to save his own hide or did he survive remaining the highest ranking nazi to escape the ruins of hitler's third reich [Music] before we begin we would like to draw your attention to our revamped patreon and buy me a coffee membership pages which contain rewards and perks such as early access to our content merchandise discounts and audio versions of our videos along with much more that we give to our valued supporters if you have not yet signed up to help our cause we'd like to ask you to please consider doing so as we need to secure the channel by safeguarding it from possible demonetization and also invest in better equipment software and more people to help us improve our videos going forward in short without your contributions these videos would not be possible so if you would like to ensure this channel never has to shut down due to demonetization please spare whatever you can per month and become people profiles patrons thanks for listening [Music] the man known to history as martin ludwig bormann was born on the 17th of june 1900 in vega laban prussia now part of saxony and halt in eastern germany borman's father theodore who was born in 1862 was the son of johann frederick bormann he worked as a bandsman in the halberstadt couracius before leaving the armed forces and gaining employment as a post office official borman's mother anthony bernadine menon was born in 1856 to tobias and louise menon she married theodore after he was widowed in 1898 although she herself was widowed when theodore died in 1903 after which she married albert volborne in the same year giving birth to four children over her two marriages theodore borman was a successful postal worker and had gained rapid promotion due to his ability to speak french as well as his managerial efficiency although he had also struggled with poor health since 1900 which led to his early death in 1903 at the age of 41. the loss of his father was a constant source of grief for bowman who remained angry at his mother for the rest of his life because she remarried the same year his father died despite the fact that she had no income other than a small state pension to support her children the borman volborne household of 1904 was one of curious and tense relationships with nine children living together from the various marriages of theodore anthony and volborn and throughout this time martin remained close only to his brother albert bormann later refusing all contact with his extended family in 1906 the family moved to faringia in central germany where his stepfather had found a better paid job as a bank clerk and martin borman enrolled in a private school in the town of eisenac and then three years later in 1909 the family moved to weimar in thoringia where martin enrolled as a fourth grader in a state school but he would soon come to despise his program of education weimar was a city deep in the throes of xenophobic and anti-semitic sentiment patrolled by nationalists and wagnerites who viewed other european states as a threat and jews as inferior rhetoric which was emphasized in schools and by politicians throughout borman's childhood including by adolph bartles a pastor poet and journalist whose writings were renowned for their rabid anti-semitism and were a precursor to the nazis anti-semitic stance indeed these tensions which were prevalent throughout europe combined with the german declarations of war in early august 1914 sent nationalist fervor into overdrive and borman joined his school friends marching through the streets of weimar and singing patriotic songs borman and his classmates were eager to join the fight and feared that the war would be over by the time they had reached the age of enlistment a matter which heightened tensions with his stepfather who had refused to join the army which deepened bormann's resentment of him failing to excel at school borman's classmates later recalled that he had nil returns from his academic pursuits failing particularly in languages literature and music a situation which had a lasting impact on him and left him feeling insecure for a considerable proportion of his life borman was eventually drafted into the 55th field artillery regiment in june 1918 although he would later claim that he had eagerly signed up of his own accord and he served a few relatively insignificant months behind the lines before he left the army in february 1919 after turning in his uniform he decided not to return to his stepfather's house and instead search for work elsewhere gaining employment as an estate manager on the good herzberg estate near parchin in mecklenburg faulkerman in northeast germany weeks after moving to the estate borman enrolled in various groups dedicated to anti-semitic and nationalist ideologies although it has been argued that this was a move designed to ally himself with the views of his employer hermann von troyenfels rather than a clear demonstration of his own convictions but borman was later remembered as a detested manager on the estate due to his rude disposition and coarse manner and one who sacrificed all else for productivity the economic situation in germany progressively worsened into the 1920s aided by estate owners like the troinfels who hoarded grain to create artificial shortages in order to increase its value a tactic which enraged farmhands and the wider population alike discontent on the estate led boarman and the troinfels to employ the now aimless fry corps members as farmhands the fry core was a former paramilitary organization with close links to the national socialist movement and it was employing members of the group that allowed bormann to take a position of nominal command in the organization whose members soon gained a bad reputation for their drinking womanizing and distinct lack of work although boarman would later boast of his membership of the organization with other members of the nazi government through his work with the frey corps borman involved himself with a rival to hitler's national socialist german workers party or nsdap called the german people's freedom party which considered itself a more radical alternative although the party gained very limited support outside of northern germany in february 1923 a man named walter kaddau joined the frey corps detachment and performance command at good herzberg caddo was a school teacher and youth group leader for the same political party as borman with a pulshar for stealing the money and possessions of his fellows he joined the detachment wearing a uniform adorned with false medals before long it was decided that caddo should be removed although before he departed his parting shot was to steal thirty thousand marks from the estate bookkeeper borman responded by asking all shopkeepers to inform him if kaddau ever returned supposedly to get him to work off his debts although this was seen as a spurious motive as the 30 000 mark theft was relatively minor it is more likely that borman believed caddo to be a spy who had given up a german nationalist to the french occupying army in the rule the frycourt planned to take justice into their own hands and arranged a theme which was a sitting of an internal court for the trial of traitors this would often result in death sentences and backstreet assassinations that would later lead to a series of killings which became known as the theme murders in may 1923 caddo returned to parchin and the trap was sprung to capture him in order that he may be severely beaten as punishment and so khada was invited to attend a drinking session in a tavern with borman's frighcorp associates in the town where he became catatonically drunk not noticing that his sober drinking partners were rummaging through his pockets caddo was then led away from the tavern and put into a horse-drawn carriage whereupon he soon realized that he was being led away from the suburbs and into the dark countryside the man of the frey corps then beat him to death one of whom rudolph hearse the later commandant of auschwitz bludgeoned him with the maple branch the party then buried the body and returned to the good herzberg estate informing borman that kaddau had been killed an unexpected evolution of the initial plan simply to have caddo beaten and so borman quickly devised a plan to keep the murderer secret although one accomplice bernhard jurish informed the authorities of the murder after becoming convinced that he was to be informed upon leading the mecklenburg law enforcement authorities to open an investigation into the matter in june 1923 the case was eventually referred up to the state court in leipzig which led to borman's arrest as a suspect and his subsequent incarceration in schwerin prison even so bormann maintained a serene belief that he had done no wrong in his eyes a traitor had been killed and a threat removed from the freight corps and the wider state which was an outcome he believed was deserving of praise rather than punishment the result of the criminal investigation was the release of borman in september 1923 when it was demonstrated that he had merely coordinated a plan to have cadau beaten and not killed and so he returned to the good herzberg estate in high spirits and proclaimed that he had befuddled law enforcement authorities while serving a purpose essential to the peace but during the time of his internment at schwerin germany was undergoing great political strife with hamburg thuringier and saxony all likely candidates for communist-led coups the increased threat of leftist violence had forced the state to employ the services of the extreme right including organizations such as the freikorps which allowed them to remain empowered as armed groups in germany securing borman's position of authority in the group and in march 1924 borman stood trial alongside rudolph hearst for the murder of walter kaddow and was given a light sentence of a single year's imprisonment the court going so far as to say that his intentions had been not wholly dishonorable boarman spent a relatively insignificant year imprisoned in leipzig and was released in february 1925 returning to the estate at good herzberg however this lull and events was not to last as bormann fiercely disagreed with the owner of the estate hermann von troyenfels on the future of national socialism as troy and fells believed in supporting the old northern national socialists or as bowman had a new infatuation adolf hitler and the nsdap in may 1925 these disagreements reached their peak and bormann left the good herzberg estate driving back to his mother's house in his new opel lab frosh sports car following this boarman did little between 1926 and 1927 dedicating most of his time to joining and working for the nsdap's paramilitary the stoma or sa led by the bullish ernst rome in ethereum detachment whilst working for the sa borman made contact with hans ziegler a lone journalist who had developed a largely unheard of party newspaper the national socialist joining his one-man operation as a truck driver accountant and salesman and gaining employment on the fringes of the national socialist movement brought borman closer to the nsdap which he eventually joined in february 1927 with the membership number 60508 his experience working for their national socialist allowed bormann to be promoted to the press office of the regional party administrator fritz zalkel in november 1927 formally inducting him into the party machine albeit in a lowly position and boorman's skill and adeptness as an administrator were noticed and he was soon promoted to the head of the press office amongst soucal staff where he proved to be an effective manager even working to settle disputes between party offices however boarman was markedly less successful at his short-lived public speaking career which he undertook at the same time and was noted for his stutter and tendency for anger when echoed subsequently leading to his removal from party speaking lists and his banishment to the back rooms of the nsdap boarman made good use of his role as an administrator in shoukel's office and was introduced to hitler as the genius behind the party's thuringia operation indeed hitler made many speeches in thoringia between 1927 and 1933 allowing borman to maintain relatively close contact with him at his staff being introduced to his future boss rudolf hess in the same period his minor reputation as an effective and dedicated worker had gained bomb and respect in certain circles of the party although he remained a small fish reliant on the status of others in his immediate proximity to gain influence clearly illustrated in 1928 when borman was asked to move from hitler's lunch table to make way for a more important guest prince christian of schaumburg lipper nonetheless 1928 was not an unhappy year for borman who having been noticed for his keen talent for bureaucracy had been personally appointed by hitler to a position in the sa's insurance office the fact that many of the personal insurance claims made by the sa were a consequence of self-provoked violence meant that few insurance claims were ever met by companies leading to a crisis over personal insurance provision for sa operatives boarman went to work on a plan for an internal sa insurance and relief fund which was personally approved by hitler in february 1930 who ordered that all party members pay 30 fennecs per month towards the fund and so with 390 000 members a significant cash flow was injected into the nsdap over which boarman gained responsibility and thus newfound power the new sa relief fund was made operational the same month and boarman was given sole power over who received funds for their insurance claims he also worked alongside hans frank who was later the governor general of the polish occupied territories to ensure that the fund was not subject to taxation a move which cemented his reputation amongst the party top brass as a shrewd administrator whilst furthering his career in the nsdap bormann had fallen in love with gerda buch the daughter of the influential nazi judge walter buch a close personal friend of hitler and at the time they met gerda was seemingly the physical opposite of boarman with shining eyes and pretty blond hair she stood four inches taller than her future husband and countered his brutish manner with a warm innocent disposition for all their differences girder was seemingly entranced by bormann and begged her father to have him over for dinner to which he reluctantly agreed viewing borman as a rude promiscuous bureaucrat and suited for their polite company in april 1929 after only a few months of courtship boarman asked gerda to marry him after falling behind her parents on a sunday walk a development which received a lukewarm welcome in the book household but nevertheless the wedding was arranged for september of 1929 and due to walter bush's status was attended by adolf hitler as well as rudolph hess seven months later the couple had their first child who they named martin adolph bormann in honor of hitler and by march 1930 borman had been promoted to the staff of the sa a group which hitler intentionally kept few in number but despite his promotion borman held no rank or command and was considered by others to be somewhat of a paper pusher however the image encapsulated by borman was one which hitler was increasingly eager to project designed to give the impression that the nsdap was a party of elective government not of street fighting and revolution the wall street crash of october and november 1929 had ruined the german economy an event which hitler hoped to capitalize on in order to propel the nazis into government in what he termed a revolution at the ballot box and so the role and image of the sa was therefore to be reformed a task embraced by boarman with his creation of the sa-affiliated national socialist automobile corps or nsak in april 1930 a carpool the rules of which demanded that all members of the nsdap submit their automobiles for party use as and when required hitler too submitted his mercedes compressor although only symbolically borman remained in sole command of the nsak for a brief time although the volume of work associated with the core soon warranted a separate team headed by adolf hernlein a veteran of the november putch of 1923 bormann was subsequently transferred to become the head of the relief fund he had designed between 1928 and 1930 and returned to a status of relative anonymity hitler's redesign of the nsdap into a party with the potential for election saw its first success in the reichstag elections of september 1930 in which the party won 107 seats or 18.3 percent of the national vote and whilst reform had led to political success it also faced a great deal of opposition from the revolutionary sa who threatened hitler with a coup led by pfeffer von solomon on hearing of the coup bormann informed hitler leading to salomon's dismissal and the appointment of ernst rome as the head of the sa under the supreme command of hitler himself the coup led to a wider reform of the nsdap structure with loyal bureaucrats like borman and hess rewarded for their faith with influential positions in the new hierarchy hitler met with his new band of officials in restaurants and cafes often speaking late into the night about his visions for germany and europe although bormann living a fair distance outside of munich was often unable to attend these late night conferences and instead had to rely on the patronage he received at hitler's lunchtime meetings which often took place at his favorite restaurant the austeria bavaria [Music] the first impression that borman made upon many of his colleagues was not a good one as they often noted with disdain the boarman was unrefined loutish and overbearing in his friendliness however what did undoubtedly impress the others was his capacity to work around the clock and he also gained a reputation for the brutality with which he treated his subordinates after the election of september 1930 hitler formed a new shadow cabinet in order to signify his commitment to making the nsdap an electable party although borman never made it onto the list remaining a somewhat anonymous administrator on the fringes of power but despite his failed attempts to become part of hitler's core team he was nonetheless an influential figure within the party a view evidently shared by the weimar government who dispatched secret police officers to search his home in 1931 although they returned with no evidence of illegal activity borman's role as a backroom administrator continued to win in power into the 1930s and by 1932 his office was handling over 3 million marks in the insurance fund alone a sum which he was willing to make available for all party activities hitler respected borman for his capacity to work and viewed him as an effective and honest aid a confidant upon whom hitler could rely without fearing an ideological clash and in march 1932 hitler called borman into his study in the party's munich hq the brown house to inform him and others that he was trailing behind the incumbent paul von hindenburg in his attempt to become president of the weimar republic hitler had only invited yes men to be with him in this time of failure and left other bombastic ideologues such as joseph goebbels and ernst rome in berlin the next round of the presidential election was held a few days later on the 10th of april 1932 which saw hindenburg claim victory although hitler did win another 2 million votes but on the 31st of july 1932 new reichstag elections were held the nsdap winning 230 seats and 37.3 of the popular vote and although another election in november 1932 lost the party 34 of their seats they remained the largest political party in the legislature in the same election the communist party won 100 seats making the contest a two-horse race between the hammer and sickle and the swastika their success in the elections of 1932 drove the nsdap to form a new political central committee under the command of rudolf hesse with borman transferring over in 1933 the party also enhanced its new image by moving its offices to berlin on the 17th of january 1933 and following the resignation of chancellor kurt schleicher on the 28th of january hitler went into talks with hindenburg emerging two days later at midday to proclaim that he was the new chancellor of germany party members who had aided the movement before 1933 like borman were held in high esteem and entitled to wear the gold party badge as a sign of their dedication an honor which would later help in their promotion within the party and march 1933 saw further reichstag elections and with the communist party banned the socialist party in a state of collapse and the nazis cemented into power no further elections were to be held in germany until after the end of world war ii the role of the essay was rapidly diminished after this final victory as few political opponents remained and borman knowing that his relief fund was soon to be cut back wrote to hess and asked if he required any aid in his office hess now deputy party leader and a woefully poor administrator was eager for the assistance of the party's preeminent bureaucrat and promoted borman to become the chief of staff in the hesse bureau a position which he formally took up on the 3rd of july 1933 whilst this was an important promotion borman's power did not immediately increase as he was initially the only other staff member in the hess bureau and did not gain command over his own team however hess himself was almost immediately sidelined once in office due to his lack of political talent being what hans frank termed a hopeless but dreamy weakling when borman arrived five months after hitler's victory he realized that the hess bureau also known as the amtess had effectively become a disputes office for those in power designed to shield hitler from the petty squabbles of his new cabinet they were in effect the guardians of the no man's land that protected the furious throne but regardless of its somewhat boring task the amp test provided great opportunities for power allowing borman and hess to play kingmaker amongst warring elites and promoting networking with officials from all across the party and state in september 1933 hess was given the formal title of deputy fuhrer and bowman the rank of reichsleiter the second highest rank possible in the nsdap which he shared with various other officials and in october 1933 hitler ordered that all party matters and requests be sent to the amtess before being distributed to their appropriate ministries including hitler's personal office in the reich chancellery a command which allowed bormann and hess complete discretion over all information at the highest echelons of power this order also allowed bormann to attend cabinet meetings albeit as an official without portfolio but it is the view of many historians that hess exercised little actual power in his capacity as the head of the amtess preferring to maintain his image as a party man of integrity this along with his increasing hypochondria and use of astrologers resulted in a lack of power and weakened reputation for hess allowing borman almost total control of the office and its staff who considered him a tough but loyal boss even working to get his lawyer heinrich heim a promotion within the nsdap june 1934 saw growing concerns about an insurrection from the sa reached their peak with the knight of the long knives a purge led by goerg and himmler against key members of the sa leading to the execution of ernst rome on the 1st of july 1934 and borman increasingly taking the place of hesse as his department's representative worked alongside hitler to take off the names of those he wished to be killed once again borman was an accessory to murder the events of june and july confirmed the supremacy of the reich government over the state of germany and further centralized power to its offices including the ampess but reportedly borman did not believe the largely fabricated evidence that rome had intended to overthrow the reich government and remained unfazed but regardless of its validity the purge had empowered him and his office further and his suggested replacement for rome victor lutz was accepted by mid to late 1934 borman had been semi-co-opted to hitler's personal office with hess becoming progressively less interested in matters of state allowing bowman greater access to the fuhrer as the de facto representative of the department indeed borman was now responsible for briefing hitler and used the opportunity to note down his thoughts and orders with the intention of winning greater favour with him as a reliable aide and during this time borman's diary reveals key signs of the closer relationship with hitler noting in early 1935 that he had ridden with him in his supercharged mercedes for the first time hess attempted to further centralize power in october 1934 when he requested that gao lighters or district party officials should communicate at all times with central government through the amtess a proposition which they rejected continuing to use their own channels but when borman and hess complained of this to hitler in december 1934 he ordered that borman chair all meetings at which gaul lighters were present borman willingly accepted and ordered his gaul lighters to submit information on their activities to him on a monthly basis borman's power on the local stage grew alongside his influence at national level taking a massive upward swing when ailing president von hindenburg died on the 2nd of august 1934 giving hitler complete power over the reich's civil service command of which he placed in the hands of bormann and so wishing to demonstrate his new authority borman took a shot at hindenburg's former chief of staff otto meisner accusing him of being out of step with the nsdap of its values forcing meisner to profess his support and demonstrating the supremacy of the amtes of all levels of the civil service moreover borman used his new position to establish a civil service training call giving him discretion over all staff employed by the reich an important power which boarman could use to win influence in staff bodies across all government departments borman also used party loyalty and values as is justification for banning the wearing of non-nsdap medals and the use of titles which were not recognized by the state a move which despite having a limited impact was key in building borman's intended image as a defender of the doctrine and integrity of the party this new position as a defender of the nsdap gave bormann an excuse to keep extensive files on party members including those at the very height of power supposedly in order to prevent corruption but which also gave him great power over rivals in the contest for hitler's patronage from 1934 borman increasingly emerged as a party influencer and was treated with appropriate respect albeit begrudgingly with richard dary the reich minister for agriculture appointing borman to the agricultural ministry allowing him to sit on departmental boards another key player of whom borman was wary was himmler although he made an alliance with him in 1937 when he backed himmler's request to hand internal government surveillance powers to the ss they cemented their coalition by spending christmas of 1937 with one another by 1938 bormann had gained a monopoly of a party doctrine and internal legal disputes appointing a large team of lawyers to his entourage ensuring that he was the final voice of authority on all party matters and hitler's trust in boarmen as an aide increased as the 1930s progressed and in 1935 he was given effective command of the hitler fund for german trade and industry formed supposedly to advance cultural programs and trade in germany although used as a personal horde for many of hitler's own projects affording access to several million reichsmarks this hoard allowed borman to green light various projects desired by hitler such as setting up a fund for performances of hitler's favorite operators including the fledermaus and the merry widow in addition to purchasing homes for hitler in munich and decorating them with fine art in 1938 despite the reich ministry of finance expressing their concern borman would unconditionally provide hitler with the funds he needed and by 1945 it was estimated that 305 million reichsmarks from the fund had been spent on various projects ranging from purchasing property to renovating the city centre of augsburg in bavaria which alone cost 140 million marks indeed the fund was most famously used for the redevelopment of hitler's mountaintop retreat the oversalzburg on the austrian border which by 1936 had been expanded to four times its original size with 30 rooms and three stories presented by boarman to hitler on the 5th of july 1936 the project was hitler's pride and joy earning borman the right to build his own property on the same spot of land complemented with a complex road network leading to the fuhrer's residence boarman's ruthless purchasing of land and the scale of his construction program won him a local nickname the lord of oba salzburg and in september 1936 borman started construction on a tea house at the very top of the oba salzburg which would later become a favorite location of hitler when he visited his retreat hitler increasingly favored the oba salzburg as a seat of government and boarman as the head of the household was able to exercise discretion over whom was permitted to enter the premises giving him additional powers to safeguard the fuhrer's patronage moreover as his house was now located on the same plot boarman was able to stay up with hitler into the early hours of the morning as he ranted and listened to his operettas a role which advanced borman's relationship with the fuhrer and allowed him to translate hitler's ravings into orders furthering his position as a reliable aid life at the oba salzburg was intimate with borman accompanying hitler on his daily walks to the tea house and remaining with him late into the night a close proximity which earned borman even greater favor with hitler this maneuvering soon paid off and in 1938 borman was given a promotion to the reich cabinet as one with important government duties as an adviser to the reich chancellor and the fuhrer and two days after his promotion borman accompanied hitler to vienna and this time hess was not invited the german annexation of austria was performed shortly afterward on the 12th of march 1938 bormann accompanied hitler on his advance into austria and stood in his entourage as he performed his first speech as the new fuhrer of the state although his presence remained largely unpublicized as well as this borman shadowed hitler closely for the remainder of 1938 and accompanied him to that year's nuremberg rally and to hitler's beloved wagner festival at beirut september 1938 saw neville chamberlain received at the berkoff in order to deal with the sedating crisis which eventually concluded with the munich agreement ceding the sedatine land to germany a move hailed by many as preventing world war the lord of ober salzberg had played host to one of the most significant meetings of pre-war german history this ever closer relationship with hitler empowered boarman as he was able to invoke the name of hitler with unparalleled authority and thus was the case with robert lay the head of the german labour front when he attempted to limit the number of staff in the amtess with a complaint addressed to hitler which was read and responded to by borman who informed lay that staffing numbers were the sole jurisdiction of the fuhrer few were inclined to argue against the professed will of hitler especially when cited by a man so close to him this was a source of immense power for boarman by october 1938 borman's office at the hesse bureau was formed of three main structures these were departments for drafting legislation resolving and administering party matters in all german states and for running the civil service this gave bormann influence in all sectors of hitler's government indeed walter book borman's father-in-law stated at nuremberg that he believed borman had gone mad with power and used any position of authority he gained to ruthlessly advance his status but during his assent to power many felt sorry for his wife gerda who martin bullied and belittled as bormann would whistle to call over his wife as if she were a dog and would punish her severely for small indiscretions such as forgetting to iron his shirt gerda reportedly held a wholehearted belief in the nazi doctrine that female emancipation was a jewish phrase and remained submissive and loyal regardless of her husband's many extra-marital affairs eventually coming to bear 10 children between 1930 and 1943 but although borman was a striked father and regularly beat his children he did appear to genuinely care for their well-being and often wrote to girder instructing her to remind their children not to accept rides from strangers borman also used his children to get closer to hitler and delighted in showing them off to the fuhrer who delighted in their innocent chatter but with regard to his wider family borman remained distant effectively severing all ties with his extended band of siblings and rarely talking to his mother whom he still blamed for replacing his father and as he gained power borman progressively reduced contact with his family replacing them with hitler and his entourage instead borman's first individual policy program was targeted at the church which he despised indeed while section 24 of the nazis 1920 program did cite a commitment to positive christianity many nazis remained opposed to the church and believed it to detract from the highly centralized power base which hitler wanted between 1937 and 1938 bormann turned his newly acquired firepower against the church and ran a highly publicized campaign investigating widespread corruption and pedophilia within the church and banning party members from joining the clergy he also used his close relationship with the fuhrer to pass a new mandate in 1938 which made hitler the godfather to every tenth child born to any one mother in the reich a proclamation passed with no prior consultation with hitler hitler's direct approval was no longer needed for his policies but borman could introduce new programs purely on the basis that they fulfilled the fear fiora's general outlook using hitler's name as if it were his own and all boarman had to do was delicately mention the church at dinner provoke hitler into a rage and then discreetly write down all that he said the transcript of each tirade could be twisted to authorize any program he wished this advantage was used by bormann to sideline all opposition and when hans curled the reich church minister wrote an essay defending the church borman simply had it banned on hitler's authority with kell dying the following year in 1939 moreover bormann wholly embraced virulently anti-semitic views although reportedly more as a consequence of the nsdap's position as opposed to a particular personal ideology [Music] borman never mentioned membership of any anti-semitic organizations before he joined the national socialist movement and it was said at nuremberg that he gained a lot of his information about nazi racial pseudoscience from the newspapers however this was to be no barrier to his significant role in the implementation of anti-semitic policy in nazi germany with bormann playing a vital role in drafting signing and passing anti-semitic legislation and policy the 1935 nuremberg race laws which legally defined jewishness and removed citizenship and rights protection from jewish black and romany people owed much of its legal content to boorman as did the order in august 1938 for all jewish men to adopt to the first name israel and women sarah furthermore it was bormann who planned and co-signed almost all anti-semitic legislation in the reich and was convicted at nuremberg in absentia for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his actions november 1938 saw the development of the crystal-nacht pogrom or knight of broken glass a retribution against jewish citizens throughout germany following the killing of diplomat ernst von roth by a 17 year old polish jew an event of which borman would have been aware in advance although no evidence links borman to its planning although on the evening of the 9th of november 1938 goebbels informed other top nazis of developing violence against the jews with shops and synagogues smashed up and burned and jews brutally attacked in over 91 cases leading to death but borman appeared unconcerned and waited until 2 56 a.m on the 10th of november to issue an order to his men stating that jewish businesses should not be burned citing concern for damaged goods rather than the danger posed to jewish families 1939 soon dawned the inaugural year of the second world war and in august of that year hitler finalized his plot to invade poland the code name for which was operation white gaining the support of the soviets on the 23rd of august with the signing of the molentov ribbon drop pact toward the end of july and into august hitler hosted secret planning conferences at the berkoff and also inside borman's house with borman noting in his diary on the 25th of august the german military mobilization was ongoing after which poland was invaded by the nazis on the 1st of september 1939 with britain and france declaring war on the third news received by borman as he sat in the antechamber to hitler's office in the reichstag a few days later borman accompanied hitler to the eastern front in his armored train to provide assistance in liaising with government departments back in berlin and with hitler now playing general in poland borman was trusted with representing the fuhrer in german politics whilst he was posted to poland hitler's official chief of staff philip buller and his doctor karl brunt had begun a program of mass murder against disabled citizens in what the nazis referred to as a euthanasia scheme this was a program which hitler had requested in august 1939 in order to rid the state of bad blood targeting those with disabilities and incurable illnesses including children and subjecting them to poisoned gas killing a total of 300 000 citizens throughout the reich and in another show of merciless megalomania bormann had lobbied hard for command of the programme named action t4 but was eventually sidelined in favour of pooler and brandt by september 1939 the public had received word of the programme and regional party bosses wrote to boarman asking how they should deal with a progressively more outraged population borman replied doggedly that the response was to be determined by bulla as the program was within his jurisdiction realizing that the fallout would prove politically fatal to both bula and brandt hitler was outraged and verbally ordered brandt to curtail the german element of the program in august 1941 which nonetheless continued outside of germany as part of the system of concentration camps known as action 14 f-13 and so boula as hitler's official secretary had fallen hard out of hitler's favor just as borman was reaching the apex of his power in poland which was already being terrorized by the nazis einsat group and killing squads bormann saw a new avenue for power which he shifted into high gear when hitler announced his desire for a harsh struggle between nationalities in newly occupied territories in late 1939 bormann exercised his power to appoint regional party officials to new zones of influence and deliberately selected some of the most fanatical and brutal nazis to take command in poland ordering a new system of laws which included a total ban on sexual relations between germans and poles as well as a command that intelligent poles be killed and so borman's system of laws were passed although they did prove overly excessive on the ground and hans frank the nazi governor general of poland complained that the brutality of the laws remained intolerable for soldiers and citizens alike when the reich ministry of justice suggested in 1940 that poland be subjected to german law and therefore brought under its departmental jurisdiction borman refused arguing that hitler's desire for a harsh struggle would be impossible under german legislation an argument which he won it being announced in 1941 that poland would remain under its subjective laws once he had sidelined the ministry of justice borman suggested a new judicial system of trial and punishment for poland which included three man courts made up of an nsdap representative and two police officers as judge and jury restricted to delivering two sentences for those found guilty either internment in a concentration camp or hanging hitler supported bormann and requested that judicial authority in poland be exercised by party officials and not the ministry of justice and by 1941 bormann had secured his place as the executor of hitler's vision in the occupied territories of poland bormann was a vital aid to the development and implementation of anti-semitic and genocidal policy throughout these new territories closing loopholes in proposed legislation and developing new techniques to ensure that none could be overlooked by the nazi's murderous gaze he also instructed his regional officials to ensure that all enemies of the german people were immediately interned in concentration camps however an unexpected development was to occur on the 11th of may 1941 when two of hess's staff members arrived at the oba salzburg white-faced they reported that the anglophile hess had flown off in a messerschmitt 110 to england in an attempt to negotiate a peace deal with the allies hitler flew into a blind rage and expressed a wish that hess crashed into the north sea and drown borman and hitler weren't concerned about hess revealing state secrets as by 1941 he had become so sidelined that he knew little important information however they were fearful that the public response to this news would undermine the nazi's authority and so hitler borman and goebbels promoted the story that hesse had gone insane citing his own incoherent last letters and increasing reliance on astrologers and soothsayers as evidence which largely saved the government from a significant loss of support boarman instantly denounced his former boss as a traitor and effectively avoided all scrutiny over the matter being promoted three days later by hitler to the position of chief of the reich party chancellery and so the amtess was dissolved and borman's new office was renamed the reich party chancellery in may 1941. borman's first act in office was to obliterate hess from the state's collective memory and he employed the gestapo to remove all images and textual references to s as well as arresting those connected to him including his university lecturers whilst announcing a campaign against mesmerists and astrologers who had supposedly caused hess's madness on may 29th borman was formally made a minister of the reich and circulated a memo informing all officials that he now worked directly under hitler and as such all orders from the party chancellory should be taken as if they were hitler's word and by june 1941 the invasion of the soviet union had been initiated and hitler was effectively locked away from all party officials leaving borman alone as the unchecked representative of the fuhrer to all non-military staff realizing the threat from borman's newfound power robert lay the head of the german labour front attempted to appeal to hitler proclaiming that his office had jurisdiction over the careers of party officers and not the party chancellery bormann combated lay by simply refusing to pass any of his complaints onto hitler and eventually wrote back to inform him that hitler supported the party chancellory and had additionally ordered that lay turn over all of his data and intelligence to borman's office borman's monopoly over access to hitler had rendered lay impotent and demonstrated to all in government that he was the sole political voice of the fuhrer with no way of checking whether or not hitler had actually mandated what boorman proclaimed the power of the reich party chancellery was advanced further in january 1942. when poorman passed a regulation which codified the role of his office formalizing his power over the civil service and demanding that all correspondents with hitler be sent through his office closing all unofficial backdoors to hitler which had developed since 1933 proclaiming borman as the new dictator of the anteroom following the van says conference of january 1942 and which it was decided mass killing programmes should be performed in the east borman ordered his officials to pursue this new policy with ruthless severity coded language designed to kickstart the most severe years of the holocaust the operations of which were predominantly handled by himmler and his ss in august 1942 bormann was able to further his campaign against the church when hitler mandated him with the authority to announce the view of the party on all religious matters and so borman announced massive levies on the church and ordered that if churches were unable to pay then their assets were to be seized leading to the dissolution of many monastic communities such as that at cluster neuberg in lower austria by mid-1942 hitler spent the majority of his time at his underground headquarters the wolfshanzer or wolf's lair at rastenberg in east prussia with boarman in close attendance whilst there hitler would often remain in bed until late morning receive his military staff and then call a private conference with borman who would note down hitler's orders and relay them to berlin being called back to hitler's room for supper remaining with him well into the night sometimes until 4am a routine which afforded borman only a couple of hours sleep every night borman continued to use the reich's consolidated influence in poland to order the enslavement of the slavic peoples and on the 19th of august 1942 he mandated that they should work for us where we have no use for them we shall let them die and so the dictator of the anteroom had once again demonstrated his ruthlessness in the pursuit of power by late 1942 hitler had formed a new three-man team to take on his political role as the war in the east developed into a more serious long-term conflict and became more time-consuming this new team the committee of three was headed by bormann and included general wilhelm keitel and hans lammers the head of the reich chancellery kaitel was a soldier a new little of domestic politics and lamas was a cautious civil servant remaining under the control of borman's office leaving bormann as the de facto chief of this new cabinet goring said of borman at the nuremberg trials that he was privy to the most intimate to the fuhrer's affairs and had out-maneuvered all other opponents by 1943 to become hitler's most trusted associate indeed borman had control over all information which reached hitler and could deliver news in such a manner as to shape the fuhrer's opinion in his favor manipulating hitler to agree with his own world view acting as hitler's mouthpiece allowed borman to exercise the fiora's power even allowing him to demand that goebbels submit all advanced copies of his newspaper das reich to poorman's office for proofreading in 1943. this near universal power was formalized on the 12th of april 1943 when a memorandum signed by hitler proclaimed as my personal assistant m bormann will bear the title secretary of the fuhrer the title had not been awarded uncontested as goebbels and albert speer the reich minister for armaments had arranged to meet with hitler in march 1943 to suggest that goring gained greater power claiming that borman could not be trusted the meeting was going well until an aide interrupted to announce that nuremberg was being bombed by allied warplanes and guring's luftwaffe had failed to protect the reich and so hitler was too enraged to hear goebbels and spear defend him any longer leaving bormann the only candidate for promotion borman struck back at goebbels in june when he wrote a smug note to the propaganda minister informing him that his speeches were substandard and that hitler was not to be bothered with incomplete drafts borman was showcasing that he was at this point untouchable throughout this period of 1942-1943 hitler and his generals had experienced a turning tide the war was no longer going in germany's favor and the advance of the soviets and then the allies from the east and west brought the realization home that germany would not emerge victorious and as the fighting wore on the reich was posed with the ever greater threat of invasion made clearer following key losses on the eastern front such as the soviet relief of leningrad in january 1944 and the allied invasion of normandy on the 6th of june bormann had until this stage remained relatively impotent in military matters although he gained a new realm of influence when he suggested the formation of a civilian auxiliary military force designed to defend germany later called the volkster then the 20th of july 1944 saw the crisis brought to hitler's inner sanctum when colonel klaus von stauffenberg attempted to assassinate hitler by planting a bomb near his seat in the wolf chancer hitler's eastern headquarters known as the wolf slayer borman received intelligence that a colonel had been seen leaving the room immediately prior to the explosion and sent gestapo officers to investigate leading to stauffenberg's arrest and execution the next day this attack on hitler severely damaged the furious trust in the non-partisan wehrmacht and convinced him that his trusted party officials should take command and so he promoted himmler to the head of the replacement army borman issued an order on the same day of the attack to all regional officials but only the party should be obeyed and that all orders from the wehrmacht would be disregarded if contradictory later in july bormann managed to convince hitler to sign an order which mobilized all party members in a military capacity for the defense of the reich putting borman in command of his own army hitler subsequently giving a speech in which he effectively announced that the reich was entering a struggle for its survival he then ordered the gestapo and regional officers to arrest and execute all those suspected of being traitors to the reich this included many influential vermont generals and borman indicted gunther von kluger and irwin rommel as enemies of the state leading to their suicides under pressure of execution in august and october 1944 respectively with the brass of the wehrmacht removed borman expanded his own army the volksdam to over a million troops in october although in reality it remained unimpressive formed of ill-trained civilians with few weapons in fact an army of idealists but regardless the tone of borman's letters from october 1944 show an arrogance flowing from his belief that he was a great general ranking alongside himmler and goring by november 1944 borman anticipated the loss of millions of civilians in the coming battle for germany and ordered a new emergency marriage scheme alongside a new programme of forced adultery suggesting that each male could have two or three mistresses in order to increase population levels indeed he also anticipated the risk of increased air raids and had shelters constructed for his family and staff at the oba salzburg the dawn of 1945 saw the reich in a desperate condition with borman and his staff working 18 hours a day attempting to maintain control and order over a state which would cease to exist just a few months later february 1945 saw hitler approve borman's request to create a women's defense battalion and his order to have deserters hanged in the street as a deterrent to others and with the state in ever greater ruin borman isolated hitler more than ever banning many officials from meeting with hitler for months on end lest they worry him with bad news about the war and borman even banned heinrich hoffman hitler's court photographer by fabricating a doctor's report claiming that he had a dangerous and contagious disease with the advance of the allied and red armies the german population grew increasingly demoralized leading borman to order the most fanatical officials to take propaganda roles in order to inspire the population as 1945 progressed in a bid to maintain order among soldiers borman commanded that deserters be shot or hanged without delay and for fortifications to be installed around every german city from march 15 1945 by this time hitler and his entourage had moved into the underground bunker in berlin which would become hitler's final resting place in february the situation had become ever more desperate and borman ordered that cyanide capsules be distributed to the population for use in the event of an emergency whilst ordering his party officials to uphold frederick the great's maxim of win or die on the 15th of march hitler inspected troops stationed near the front line which was located not 60 miles from hitler's bunker and bormann reprimanded his regional officials for displays of pessimism whilst issuing them with false identity papers so that they could escape capture when the regime was inevitably defeated the 20th of april saw hitler's last birthday celebrations take place in berlin with borman writing bluntly in his diary that it was not exactly a birthday situation unfortunately borman had planned to move hitler to the over salzburg on his birthday as captured by the allies would be preferable to capture by the red army who surrounded berlin although by the end of the day hitler refused stating that he would rather die than failed to stand in berlin therefore whilst a majority of hitler's staff flew south borman and a skeleton staff remained with hitler in his bunker and on the 22nd of april hitler announced his resignation and proclaimed that goring should be the new leader of the reich although changed his mind a short time later however guring was erroneously informed that he had become the new leader and sent a telegram thanking hitler for his new appointment which led borman to accuse goering of treachery bormann ordered gerring to step down from all positions he held and an hour later guering's resignation was sent through and on the 25th of april bormann wrote a note in his diary which said that goering had been expelled from the nsdap next to the sentence berlin surrounded which was underlined on the 28th of april borman received intelligence that himmler was attempting to negotiate peace with the allies prompting him to label himmler another traitor and the same night the commander of the german forces in the north ss general hermann fegelein as an employee of himmler was executed with admiral karl donitz taking his place after being informed that soviet tanks were a few hundred meters south at the potsdamer platz hitler married ava braun on the afternoon of the 28th and appointed borman as party minister with goebbels taking the title of reich chancellor and donetsk president of the german reich two days later general kaitol telegrammed to say that nothing could be done by the reserve armies to defend berlin and hitler's head of security brigada fuhrer wilhelm munker informed hitler that the bunker could not be held for more than three days hitler woke at noon and asked borman to relay his orders of promotion to donets before summoning his officials together and shaking their hands calling borman my most faithful party comrade hitler then shot himself at 3 30 pm his body burned outside the bunker with 50 gallons of petrol with hitler dead the remnants of the nazi government attempted to arrange a ceasefire with the soviets who refused wishing to press home their advantage before the allies arrived in berlin it was then announced on german public radio that hitler had died fighting at the head of his army with the newly empowered donets ordering the arrest of bormann and goebbels in order to centralize power to himself borman put on his ss general's uniform tucked hitler's will and political testament into his brass pocket and prepared to depart with various other political leaders goebbels and borman said their farewells on the 1st of may the former committing suicide at 8 30 pm under the cover of darkness the same night portman set off in the second of three groups and ran north to friedrichstrasse station by chance running into a german panzer column which was attacked the tank next to boarman was hit and exploded knocking him to the ground although coming too bourman saw cover in a shell hole he managed to escape in the confusion of the battle and ran onto the deserted railway tracks at the station tearing the insignia from his uniform running north west to the berlin hopped bunhoff station borman meant russian troops who mistook him for one of the poorly equipped members of his volkstum and offered him cigarettes joking in broken german that hitler was kaput bowman hastily made off and ran onto the railway bridge spanning the spree river at invalidenstrasse before biting into his cyanide capsule and dying minutes later bowman was tried in absentia at nuremberg and convicted of conspiracy to wage a war of aggression war crimes and crimes against humanity and was sentenced to death by hanging indeed it was believed for many years that borman had fled to south america as attempts to recover his remains were unsuccessful in december 1972 a construction worker found borman's skeleton the glass from his cyanide capsule still in his jaw and in 1998 the body was formally identified as that of martin bormann after fragments of the skull were subjected to genetic testing borman's skeleton was then cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea in 1999 martin bormann remains one of the lesser-known members of hitler's inner circle although he has received increasing attention from academia in recent years as the power structures of hitler's cabinet continue to be scrutinized borman was the chief mechanic of a system responsible for mass murder and willingly aided in advancing the ability of the reich to capture in turn and kill perceived enemies of the state borman's undeniable lust for power was complemented by his immense capacity to work shrewd ability to play the bureaucratic game and willingness to abandon all else in the pursuit of influence what do you think of martin bowman was he a mere opportunistic sycophant or was he a cold calculating and ruthless schemer whose total focus was the obtaining and maintenance of his own power at any cost please let us know in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching you

Channel: The People Profiles

Views: 95,836

Rating: 4.7547407 out of 5

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles

Id: pOV3GKjkkgk

Length: 63min 20sec (3800 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020