Martin Ludwig Bormann was a German Nazi Party official and head of the Nazi Party Chancellery, private secretary to Adolf Hitler and a war criminal. After the war, he was convicted and sentenced to death-in-absentia for crimes against humanity. Bormann gained immense power by using his position as Hitler's private secretary to control the flow of information and access to Hitler. He used his position to create an extensive bureaucracy and involve himself as much as possible in the decision making.
Bormann in 1934. A scar on his forehead has been edited out of this photograph.
Bormann in 1939
Bormann (in front beside Hitler) in Paris, June 1940
Bormann (behind and to Hitler's right) on the Old Bridge, Maribor, Slovenia, April 1941
The Party Chancellery, was the name of the head office for the German Nazi Party (NSDAP), designated as such on 12 May 1941. The office existed previously as the Staff of the Deputy Führer but was renamed after Rudolf Hess flew to Scotland in an attempt to negotiate a peace agreement without Adolf Hitler's authorization. Hess was denounced by Hitler, his former office was dissolved, and the new Party Chancellery was formed in its place under Hess' former deputy, Martin Bormann.
Nazi Party Chancellery
As Chief of the NSDAP Partei-Kanzlei, Martin Bormann orders Party officials not to discuss publicly a future complete solution "of the Jewish question"
