Ilse Prohl
Ilse Prohl was the daughter of a prominent physician and one of the first women enrolled at the University of Munich. In April 1920 Ilse met Rudolf Hess, a student at Munich studying geopolitics. Ilse pursued a relationship with the initially reluctant Hess, who was also a follower of the fledgling Nazi party. In July of 1920 Hess officially joined the Nazi Party and was jailed along with Adolf Hitler following the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While they were incarcerated Hess assisted in the writing of Mein Kampf, and was a leading proponent of the idea of lebensraum for the German people. Hess was paroled in 1924, ten days after Hitler was released.
It was Ilse Prohl who first introduced Rudolf Hess to Adolf Hitler. Hitler liked to associate with women of means and had met Ilse several times socially. As Hess grew closer to Hitler, becoming his private secretary in April 1925, Prohl made her case for a relationship with him to Hitler, and Hitler urged Hess to consider marriage to the elegant physician’s daughter. Hess and Prohl were married in Munich in 1927. By then Hess was one of the very few people who could call on Hitler at any time, and the two were not only professional confidants but close friends. Ilse Prohl enjoyed similar access to Hitler as the Nazis consolidated their power.
After Hitler became Reich Chancellor in 1933 Hess was appointed Deputy Fuhrer. Hess was afforded considerable power over the civilian population in Nazi Germany, including the authority to review the sentences of individuals considered to be enemies of the Nazi Party. Hess could and did extend sentences indefinitely as well as order the execution of such parties. Ilse Prohl moved within the social circle of Hitler and his cronies both as a result of her husband’s political standing and Hitler’s own friendship with her. When the Hess’s had a son in 1937, Hitler stood as the child’s godfather.
After Hess made his failed “peace mission” to England in 1941 letters he had written to Ilse explaining his intentions and determination to see them through surfaced. As early as November 1940, Hess was informing Ilse of the purpose of his mission, and that initial feelers to British officials were being sent. This made Ilse an accessory to her husband’s plans and wary of the reaction of the top Nazi officials, many of whom had been jealous of Hess’s access to the Fuhrer, Ilse fled to the region of Hindelang in southern Bavaria. There she was monitored by the Nazis but was relatively unhindered. Hitler apparently wanted the entire episode kept as quiet as possible.
There is no indication that Ilse and Hitler ever saw each other again. Ilse was arrested after the war by the Allies, as the spouse of a prominent Nazi and war criminal, and was interned from 1947-1948. Ilse Prohl Hess never renounced Hitler or Nazism, instead she continued to defend both in her correspondence and interviews for the rest of her life. She also argued for the release of her husband, held in custody by the Allies following the war. Rudolf Hess died in Spandau Prison in 1987, reportedly a suicide. Ilse Prohl died in Lilienthal in 1995.