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Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (German Rudolf Walter Richard Heß; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German soldier, aviator, and prominent Nazi politician who served as Adolf Hitler's deputy from April 1933 until May 1941, a month before the German invasion of the Soviet Union, when he flew to Scotland in order to negotiate peace with the United Kingdom without Hitler's prior knowledge or approval. Hess was arrested by British authorities soon after and held in British captivity until the end of the war. After the war was over, he was convicted of crimes of aggression along with conspiracy to commit crimes of aggression in 1946 during Nuremberg trials and sentenced to life imprisonment in Spandau. Hess committed suicide by hanging himself with an extension cord on 17 August 1987 at the age of 93.