@ Nick:
Which was a large part of Hess’ point: in his eyes, there was no need for the German and English “cousins” to be at war whilst the communists sought to rule the east.
I don’t share his view: few sane people would. Nonetheless, his idealism certainly outweighed the practicalities involved in the matter, as you sagely point out.
Warm, Kind, and Respectful Regards Nick my friend, Uyraell.
But from an English perspective (and indeed the perspective of most of the Western Allies), the “values” which the Nazi’s sought to spread throughout Europe held no attraction and were, in fact, far closer to those of the Communists themselves than the ideals of Britain or the United States.
That is a completely different topic, withal and albeit I Agree with you, Wizard.
In High School our history teacher and class spent an entire week in discussion of the very point you make.
I was focused on Hess’ intent, rather than the ideology he espoused.
Kind, Warm, and Respectful Regards Wizard my friend, Uyraell.
My apologies for the delay, there is no internet at the amazonian forrest,
I think Hess had the power, as Rising Sun said, he was the 2iC of the Third Reich.
Following the former idea:
This is an extract of Wikipedia information on this matter:
According to the source*, British Secret Service agents had intercepted the correspondence to the Duke ( Hamilton), which had been brought from Germany by an “eminent diplomat”, and had begun responding in the Duke’s name and handwriting. Thus encouraged, Hitler sent Hess to propose an accommodation that would reverse German gains in the west in exchange for a free hand in dealing with the Soviet Union in the east. This was a month before Germany attacked the Soviet Union, breaking their non-aggression/neutrality pact.
*“The Inside Story of the Hess Flight” The American Mercury compendium volume CX-CXI Spring 1974 page 18 p. 22
If the Hess affaire is just a case of a lunatic acting on his own, why the secrecy of British files?? (not to be revealed until 2017)
On the other side, if Hess was in fact insane and Hitler didn’t know about his intentions , my opinion is not too different from Churchill’s:
Reflecting upon the whole of the story, I am glad not to be responsible for the way in which Hess has been and is being treated. Whatever may be the moral guilt of a German who stood near to Hitler, Hess had, in my view, atoned for this by his completely devoted and frantic deed of lunatic benevolence. He came to us of his own free will, and, though without authority, had something of the quality of an envoy. He was a medical and not a criminal case, and should be so regarded.
WC, The Second World War Part III,
Respectfully,
Well, obviously, you’re not there or you wouldn’t be able to post.
Which, by itself in any English speaking country, was more than enough to earn a life sentence by the time he landed in Scotland. Fortunately for him, Scotland was, and is, not an English speaking country. 
Wiki is not accepted here as a reliable source, although it is at times a useful starting point for unverified information.
Then you didn’t understand the point of my statement.
I said, “…It would have been nice if Stalin and Hitler had been able to fight WW II supported only by their respective political parties but history seldom presents with such conveniently just opportunities…”
My intent was to indicate that only members of the Nazi Party and Communist Party should have been required to fight and shed their blood in WW II in support of their respective monstrous ideologies and that ordinary Germans and Russians should have been able to have been left in peace, as well as the citizens of the Western Democracies who clearly had no wish to participate in such an insane war. Of course, given the realities of national politics, this happy state of affairs was not within anyone’s power to arrange.
Not sure or positive that Hess really was insane, which is a rather broad brush category in any case. There seems to be ample evidence that Hess’s flight was done in full collusion with Hitler (Quest Searching for the Truth of Germany’s Past, Frank Brandenburg, (with numerous citations in the book). It would have been a very cheap way for Hitler to avoid having that “unsinkable aircraft carrier” off Europe’s shore. The ONLY way for Hess to make the flight was to know the top secret “open lanes” in Germany’s anti-aircraft defenses and this knowledge would only have been available to him with Hitler’s permission. When the British dealt with him as if he didn’t exist, Hitler and Goebbels possessed the necessary plausible deniability to say that he was off his rocker - but then, wasn’t nearly everyone at the top Nazi leadership “off his rocker”? He may have been unbalanced, but insane? I doubt it.
Should he have been imprisoned so long? Probably not.
I agree with Raising Sun. Probably Hess knew things that could not be revealed. He had is responsabilities in what happened since 1933 to his “crazy” flight over Scotland in 1941, and at the time he was the no. 2 of Nazism, but other German leaders with no less blame had better judgement.
Reminds me of that show, TROY, with Brad Bitt. When Achilles said to King Agamemnon, “Imagine a king who fights his own battles. Wouldn’t that be a sight.”
Yea, imagine Hitler and Stalin having a knife fight.
Deaf
Which takes many of us back to childhood when we couldn’t understand why the bosses didn’t fight the wars they started.
But after a bit of life experience we realised that the bosses are bosses because they get others to do the work, whether it’s war or commerce (and the two tend to overlap for the super bosses).
Rather than Hitler and Stalin having a knife fight, imagine what would have happened or, more accurately, not happened if millions of youths and young men had said in countless wars “No! We’re not fighting. We want to live in a world without war!”
Hard to work out which is the greater fantasy, but if nobody fought the world would be a better place.
Good point,
John Lennon’s “Imagine” comes to mind.
From a different perspective I have heard that the Palestinians and the Israelis would end their wars when they love their children more than they hate their enemies. You could substitutes the two countries or nations mentioned here with others.
I remember learning at university that Economists make the two assumptions (1) people make decisions based on perfect information and (2) people make rational decisions.
As Rising Sun’s signature suggests, neither of those assumptions are true.
The little girl saw her first troop parade and asked, ‘What are those?’
‘Soldiers.’
‘What are soldiers?’
‘They are for war. They fight and each tries to kill as many of the other side as they can.’
The girl held still and studied. ‘Do you know … I know something.’
‘Yes, what is it you know?’
‘Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come.’
Carl Sandburg
Yes, (1) The sharemarket works on perfect information which, to the extent it exists, is confined to insiders (which makes it rather pointless for the regulators to get upset about insider trading as that’s what makes the profits) and (2) the herd mentality in a rising or falling market overwhelms any semblance of rationality.
Talk about the dismal science!
he was the second in line in the Nazi party…his dropping into Scotland spared him the rope IMO.