Biographical Summary:

• Ethnic German born and educated in Estonia under the Russian Empire.
• Emigrated to Germany in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution.
• Involved with the secret Thule Society in Munich and a member of mystical antisemitic societies.
• Editor of the Völkische Beobachter which will become the Nazi Party's official newspaper.
• Leader of the Nazi Party while Hitler was serving time in prison for his failed coup attempt: 1923-1924.
• Author of The Myth of the Twentieth Century, a book on racial theory that rivaled Hitler's Mein Kampf.
• Appointed Reichsleiter for Foreign Policy in 1933 but edged out of influence by Joachim von Ribbentrop in the 1930s.
• Various cultural appointments in Germany.
• 1941 appointed Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories (occupied USSR). He argues for humane treatment of Russians and Ukrainians by Nazi occupation authorities, but is overruled by Himmler, his own regional governors and eventually Hitler himself.
• Loses prestige and power by the end of the war and is discredited by the Nazi power hierarchy.
• Scores IQ: 127 (14th position in 21 defendants tested at Nuremberg.)