Martin Bormann

Martin Bormann was born in Wegleben and died on 2 May 1945 in Berlin. In 1933, Martin Bormann became the chief of staff for Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s deputy. After Hess’s flight to Great Britain in 1941, Bormann was named head of the Party Chancellery and, in 1943, Secretary to the Führer. Bormann was involved in many aspects of Nazi policy, including Hitler’s special commissions, managing Hitler’s personal finances and those of the Linz Museum Project. On 21 April 1943, Bormann appointed “art experts” to carry out Hitler’s wishes, among them his assistant Helmut von Hummel, who was consequently assigned to facilitate – on Bormann’s behalf – the procurement of art collections, such as the Schloss Collection, for the Linz Museum Project. Bormann first found out about the Schloss Collection when Göpel notified him 26 April 1943 that the collection had been located and that it would be a great addition to the Linz Museum project. In the course of negotiations over the future of the Schloss Collection, Bormann’s office was informed of every development and oversaw the purchase. On 16 October 1943, Bormann sent his assistant von Hummel to Paris to help finalize the purchase for 50 million francs. Bormann died in Berlin as he was trying to evade capture by Soviet troops. During the Nuremberg trials, he was tried in absentia and sentenced to death. In 1973, West German authorities officially declared him dead when his remains were discovered and positively identified.

Literature: Lang, Jochen von. [about:blank The Secretary. Martin Bormann: The Man Who Manipulated Hitler]. Random House, 1979. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Martin Bormann.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. [about:blank https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-bormann] Accessed on 28 April 2021. Buchheim, Karl. “Bormann, Martin.” Neue Deutsche Biographie 2 (1955), pp. 465-466 [Online-Version] “Martin Bormann was last seen definitely in a tank in Berlin on May 2, 1945. Does he live?” New York Times, 14 January 1973, https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/14/archives/martin-bormann-was-last-seen-definitely-in-a-tank-in-berlin-on-may.html.