Hitler's deputy was NOT switched for a doppelganger

Rudolf Hess is pictured in the grounds of Spandau prison where he spent 41 years

Rudolf Hess is pictured in the grounds of Spandau prison where he spent 41 years

Hess was born the eldest of three children in Alexandria, Egypt in 1897 to ethnically German parents.

He was sent to boarding school in 1908 to study and went on to enrol at the University of Munich in 1919, reading history and economics.

There he learnt about the concept of Lebensraum, 'living space', which was used by his professor Karl Haushofer as justification for Germany to conquer land in eastern Europe.

He would later introduce the concept to Hitler, who made it one of the pillars of Nazi Party ideology.

Hess served in the armed forces during the First World War, where his initial posting was against the British at the Battle of the Somme. He was also there for the first Battle of Ypres.

He was awarded both the Iron and Military Merit Cross and discharged in 1918.

Rudolf Hess is pictured with Adolf Hitler at Party Day in Nuremberg, Germany  

Rudolf Hess is pictured with Adolf Hitler at Party Day in Nuremberg, Germany  

After hearing Adolf Hitler speak for the first time at a rally in Munich in 1920, Hess became completely devoted to him.

He shared Hitler's 'stab in the back' theory, that Germany lost the Great War because the Jews and Bolsheviks conspired.

Hess joined the NSDAP in 1920 and worked closer and closer with the leader as time went on.

In November 1923 Hitler decided to try to overthrow the Bavarian leader Gustav Von Kahr with the SA.

A gun-wielding Hitler interrupted Kahr's speech and called for a national revolution. The following day Hitler and thousands of his supporters marched to the Ministry of War, where shots were fired and 14 marchers and four police officers were killed.

Both Hess and Hitler were sent to Landsberg Prison, where the latter wrote his autobiography Mein Kamph.

He dictated it to Hess and rewarded him by giving him the job of deputy Fuhrer on the pair's release. 

Rudolf Hess was Hitler's right-hand

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