Last night I became watching the FANTASTIC German mini-series on Netflix, "NSU: German History X," about the trio of neo-Nazis who murdered about a dozen people (mostly turks) from the late 90s through about 2011.
Rudolf Hess was brought up many times; one of the characters kept his photo in his apartment, and it was clear that he was a major icon to German neo-Nazis.
My question is why? Wasn't Hess considered a traitor, or at least an oddball, for his "peace" flight to scotland in 1941? I would just think that he would be considered a "problematic" Nazi for the neo-Nazis to worship.
Is it because of his longevity in prison after the war helped him to become a focal point? His odd death? If I remember right, he was originally buried anonymously; his family later petitioned for his body to be re-interred in their family plot... and it DID end up being a place for neo-Nazis to gather at... and finally he was dug up again, cremated, and buried at sea.
(fun fact for me: my dad served as the head of the US Army's bomb disposal unit in Berlin in 1970-1972 and defused many terrorist bombs. But his FIRST time in Berlin was as a 17 year old bus driver for the Army in 1955... and once he transported Hess (and his guards) from Spandau Prison to a hospital.)
Also; if folks haven't seen this series on Netflix; definitely check it out. I saw the first part last night; it is TERRIFIC. Apparently the first part just focuses on the neo-nazis and how they developed; part two takes over from the various victims perspectives, and part three is from the perspective of the police that tried to track these people down. Part one was extremely well done... the only real problem with the series is the awful american title, clearly a reference to Ed Norton's American History X. In the context of the series its actually quite apt; but it just SOUNDS like a sad b-movie german version of the American movie, rather than a well researched, masterfully executed docudrama.
Heß did become a focal point of the German Neo-Nazi movement in the 1970s for two reasons ostensibly:
He was the highest-ranked Nazis still alive and it was socially acceptable in the Federal Republic of Germany at that time to campaign for his release.
Him bieng the highest-ranking Nazi still alive and the vice-Führer at that made a lot of the then nascent German Neo-Nazi scene (i.e. the first generation of Nazis who had not experienced the war and Nazism even as children) overlook his... let's say oddities. For them, he was a potent symbol, even more so than Speer, who was accused of having foresaken Hitler when he refused to carry out the Nero order.
Both the DVU (Deutsche Volksunion) as well as the early NPD, which was more German-nationalistic than out right Neo Nazi – both founded in the late 60s, early 70s respectively – used Hess as a symbol for the continuation of Allied oppression in Germany and as an argument to finally draw a line under the past (Schlußstrich).
They were not alone in this. In the 70s it was socially and politically acceptable in the FGR to campaign for the release of Hess. /u/kieslowskifan and myself go into this a bit in this answer. Even Martin Niemöller of "first they came for the communists but I didn't speak out ..." fame campaigned for the release of Heß from Spandau.
A lot of Neo-Nazis seized on to this and used the issue to push their own propaganda.
However, it was only after his death that the Heß cult really took off. One day after his death, on August 17, 1987, demonstrations with hundreds of protestors convened in various cities in Germany and Austria demanding the truth about his death (believing it was a conspiracy) and also justice for Heß. His death and its manner created a martyr and a cult. Several hundred Neo-Nazis also began a virtual siege of the town of Wunsiedel where he was to be buried in order to not miss the funeral. It went even so far as a bomb attack on US army members near Frankfurt by Neo-Nazis demanding "Justice for Heß".
From that point on, there was a Heß-Commemoration-March every year until 2004 because the following year, it was forbidden by police.
Heß as the lone figure in Spandau, because of his high rank and because his death and its circumstances was essentially made into a figure and symbol the usually very split Neo-Nazi scene in Germany could agree on. The Heß Marches served basically as the annual meeting of all Neo-Nazi groups in Germany and their aim was to use this figure who had previously enjoyed political and social support for his release as a symbol for Allied (and Jewish injustice).
Side note on the NSU: The political group I am part of here was one of the first to begin an extensive campaign of events and public information about the NSU, their murders and their connection to the Verfassungschutz once the details began to emerge. One of our most successful events was one with a chief investigator into the Verfassungsschutz-NSU connection, so I am really happy people from other countries take note of this matter. As for the mini-series, I liked it but there is a whole lot of fucked-up details it doesn't cover.