Bormann, Martin (1900–1945)

German Nazi leader. He took part in the abortive Munich beer-hall putsch (uprising) in 1923 and rose to high positions in the Nazi Party, becoming deputy party leader in May 1941 following the flight of Rudolf Hess to Britain.

In 1943 Hitler made him his personal secretary, a position in which he controlled access to Hitler, preventing bad news from reaching him and exercising enormous influence over Hitler's decisions. Bormann was believed to have escaped the fall of Berlin in May 1945 and was tried in his absence and sentenced to death at the Nürnberg trials of 1945–46. A skeleton uncovered by a mechanical excavator in Berlin in 1972 was officially recognized as his by forensic experts in 1973, though there continued to be frequent reports of his being seen in various parts of the world, usually South America.