Official cover with printed corner card franked with Scott S24 posted in Munchen on 13 April 1938. This series of Partei-Dienstmarken (official stamps) was for the exclusive use of the NSDAP, and the slogan postmark identifies the envelope as originating with the leadership of the NSDAP.
The corner card reads:
NSDAP, Office of the Deputy to the Fuhrer.
The back flap of the envelope has the abbreviation St. b. Jy. for Deputy to the Fuhrer. The missive came from Rudolf Hess’s Miinchen office. At the time it was mailed, only Hitler was more powerful than Hess.
Hess joined the NSDAP in 1920, promoted the Fuhrer cult with devotion, and came personally as close to Hitler as the latter’s avoidance of personal relationships allowed. In 1932 he became head of the Political Central Commission of the NSDAP, and in 1933 he became Hitler’s deputy party leader. On May 10, 1941 Hess flew over the North Sea in an ME 110 and parachuted out over Scotland. He had decided to do what he could to make peace with England.
The British imprisoned him. At the Nurnberg Trials in 1946 he was given a life sentence. Hess committed suicide in 1987. He was 93 years old, and the last prisoner in Spandau Prison.