Editing Robert Ley

{{short description|German Nazi politician (1890–1945)}}
{{for multi|the cruise ship|Robert Ley (ship)|the American sportscaster|Bob Ley}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Robert Ley
| image               = Robert Ley.jpg
| caption             = Ley in the 1930s
| office              = Reich Organization Leader<br>of the Nazi Party
| term_start          = 10 November 1934
| term_end            = 8 May 1945
| predecessor         = [[Adolf Hitler]]
| successor           = ''Position abolished''
| office1             = Head of the [[German Labour Front]]
| term_start1         = 10 May 1933
| term_end1           = 8 May 1945
| leader1             = Adolf Hitler
| predecessor1        = ''Position established''
| successor1          = ''Position abolished''
| office2             = Chief of Staff of the Reich Organization Leader of the Nazi Party
| term_start2         = 9 December 1932
| term_end2           = 10 November 1934
| leader2             = Adolf Hitler
| predecessor2        = [[Gregor Strasser]]
| successor2          = ''Position abolished''
| office3             = ''[[Gauleiter]]'' of Southern Rhineland, {{nobold|later}} [[Rhine Province|Rhineland]]
| term_start3         = 17 July 1925
| term_end3           = 31 May 1931
| predecessor3        = [[Heinrich Haake]]
| successor3          = ''Position abolished''
| title4              = Additional positions
| suboffice4          = ''Reichskommissar'' for Social Housing Construction
| subterm4            = 1940—1945
| suboffice5          = Member of the [[Prussian State Council]]
| subterm5            = 1933—1945
| suboffice6          = ''[[Reichsleiter]]'' of the [[Nazi Party]]
| subterm6            = 1933–1945
| suboffice7          = Member of the [[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Greater German Reichstag]]
| subterm7            = 1933–1945
| suboffice8          = ''[[Inspekteur (NSDAP)|Reichsinspecteur]]'' of the [[Nazi Party]]
| subterm8            = June – December 1932
| suboffice9          = Member of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]
| subterm9            = 1930–1933
| birth_name          = 
| birth_date          = {{birth date|df=yes|1890|02|15}}
| birth_place         = [[Nümbrecht|Niederbreidenbach]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=yes|1945|10|25|1890|02|15}}
| death_place         = [[Nuremberg]], [[Allied-occupied Germany|Germany]]
| death_cause         = [[Suicide by hanging]]
| known_for           = Head of the [[German Labour Front]] (1933–1945)
| alma_mater          = {{plainlist|
* [[University of Jena]]
* [[University of Bonn]]
* [[University of Münster]]
}}
| party               = [[Nazi Party]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Elisabeth Schmidt|1921|1938|end=div}}<br>{{marriage|Inge Spilcker|1938|1942|end=d.}}
| children            = 5
| parents             = Friedrich Ley<br>Emilie Wald
<!--Military service-->| nickname            = 
| allegiance          = German Empire
| branch              = [[Imperial German Army]]
| serviceyears        = 1914–1920
| rank                = {{Lang|de|[[Leutnant]]}}<br>
| unit                = 10th Foot Artillery Regiment
| commands            = 
| battles             = [[World War I]]
| mawards             = [[Iron Cross]] 2nd class<br/>[[Wound Badge]], in silver
}}

'''Robert Ley''' ({{IPA|de|ˈlaɪ|lang}}; 15 February 1890 – 25 October 1945) was a German [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] politician and head of the [[German Labour Front]] during its entire existence, from 1933 to 1945. He also held many other high positions in the [[Nazi Party]], including {{lang |de|[[Gauleiter]]}}, {{lang|de|[[Reichsleiter]]}} and {{lang|de|Reichsorganisationsleiter}}.

Son of a farmer from the [[Rhine Province]], Ley saw action in both the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|eastern]] and [[Western Front (World War I)|western]] fronts of the [[World War I|First World War]] and received the [[Iron Cross|Iron Cross Second Class]]. After the war he resumed his studies in chemistry, obtained his doctorate, and worked for [[IG Farben]] as a food chemist. Radicalised following the [[Occupation of the Ruhr|French occupation of the Ruhr]], Ley joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and subsequently became the ''Gauleiter'' of Southern Rhineland (later Rhineland). Steadily rising through the ranks, he was elected to the ''[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]'' in 1930, and replaced [[Gregor Strasser]] as ''Reichsorganisationsleiter'' in 1932.

In 1933, Hitler appointed Ley head of the newly founded German Labour Front following the suppression of the trade unions. In addition to facilitating [[German rearmament]], Ley also presided over the creation of a number of programs, including [[Strength Through Joy]] and the [[Volkswagen]]. Ley's influence declined after the outbreak of the [[World War II|Second World War]], his role as leader of the German workforce supplanted by [[Fritz Todt]] (and later [[Albert Speer]]) and his alcoholism gradually coming into focus. Nevertheless, he retained Hitler's favour, and remained part of Hitler's inner circle until the last months of the war.

Ley was captured by American paratroopers near the Austrian border at the end of the war. He died by suicide in October 1945 while awaiting [[Nuremberg Trials|trial at Nuremberg]] for [[crimes against humanity]] and [[war crimes]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title= Dr. Ley's Brain: Study by Army Doctors Show Nazi Suicide was Medically Degenerate|page=45|date=February 4, 1946|magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]]}}
</ref>

==Early life==
Ley was born in Niederbreidenbach (now a part of [[Nümbrecht]]) in the [[Rhine Province]], the seventh of 11 children of a farmer, Friedrich Ley, and his wife Emilie ([[née]] Wald). He studied [[chemistry]] at the universities of [[University of Jena|Jena]], [[University of Bonn|Bonn]], and [[University of Münster|Münster]]. He volunteered for the army on the outbreak of [[World War I]] in 1914 and spent two years in the 10th Foot Artillery Regiment and saw action on both the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|eastern]] and [[Western Front (World War I)|western]] fronts.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|p=191}} In 1916 he was promoted to {{Lang|de|[[Leutnant]]}} and trained as an aerial artillery spotter{{sfn|Smelser|1988|p=15}} with Artillery Flier Detachment 202. In July 1917 his aircraft was shot down over [[France]] and he was taken [[prisoner of war]]. It has been suggested that he suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash; for the rest of his life he spoke with a [[stuttering|stammer]] and suffered bouts of erratic behaviour, aggravated by heavy drinking.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=458}} He earned the [[Iron Cross]], 2nd class and the [[Wound Badge]], in silver.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|p=214}}

After the war Ley was released from captivity in January 1920 and returned to university, gaining a doctorate later that year. He was employed as a food chemist by a branch of the giant [[IG Farben]] company, based in [[Leverkusen]] in the [[Ruhr]]. Enraged by the [[Occupation of the Ruhr|French occupation of the Ruhr]] in 1924, Ley became an [[Ultranationalism|ultra-nationalist]] and joined the [[Nazi Party]] soon after reading [[Adolf Hitler]]'s speech at his trial following the [[Beer Hall Putsch]] in [[Munich]]. Ley proved unswervingly loyal to Hitler, which led Hitler to ignore complaints about his arrogance, incompetence and drunkenness.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=459}}

Ley's impoverished upbringing and his experience as head of the largely [[working-class]] Rhineland party region meant that he was sympathetic to the [[Strasserism|Strasserite]] elements in the party, but he always sided with Hitler in inner party disputes. This helped him survive the hostility of other party officials such as the party treasurer, [[Franz Xaver Schwarz]], who regarded him as an incompetent drunk.

==Rise in the Nazi Party==
Ley rejoined the re-founded Nazi Party in March 1925, shortly after the party's ban was lifted (membership number 18,441). He was named Deputy ''[[Gauleiter]]'' of the Southern Rhineland (later, [[Rhine Province|Rhineland]]) that month, and was promoted to ''Gauleiter'' on 17 July.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|pp=190-192}} In September 1925, he became a member of the [[National Socialist Working Association]], a short-lived group of northern and western German ''Gauleiters'', organized and led by [[Gregor Strasser]], which advocated a more working-class focus for the Party and unsuccessfully sought to amend the [[National Socialist Program|Party program]].{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|p=193}} At a meeting on 24 January 1926, however, Ley joined with others in raising objections to Strasser's proposed new draft program and it was shelved.{{sfn|Noakes|1966|pp=26-27}} Shortly thereafter, the Working Association was dissolved following the [[Bamberg Conference]].

In March 1928, Ley became the editor and publisher of a virulently [[anti-Semitic]] Nazi newspaper, the ''Westdeutscher Beobachter'' (West German Observer) in [[Cologne]]. On 20 May 1928, he was elected to the [[Prussian Landtag]], and also was appointed to the Rhenish provincial legislature. He was first elected to the ''[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]'' in September 1930 from electoral constituency 20, Cologne-Aachen. He remained as the ''Gauleiter'' of Rhineland until 1 June 1931 when his ''Gau'' was divided into two and new leaders named.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|pp=192-194}}

On 21 October 1931, Ley was brought to Munich party headquarters as the Deputy to Strasser, then the head of party organization. Ley was styled ''Reichsorganisationsinspekteur'' and conducted inspection visits to the various ''Gaue''. On 10 June 1932, following a further organizational restructuring by Strasser, Ley was named one of two ''[[Inspekteur (NSDAP)|Reichsinspecteurs]]'' with oversight of approximately half the ''[[Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany|Gaue]]''. Furthermore, he was made the Acting [[Inspekteur (NSDAP)|Landesinspekteur]] for Bavaria with direct responsibility for the six Bavarian ''Gaue''.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|p=194}} This was a short-lived initiative by Strasser to centralize control over the ''Gaue''. However, it was unpopular with the ''Gauleiters'' and was repealed on Strasser's fall from power. Strasser resigned on 8 December 1932 in a break with Hitler over the future direction of the Party. Hitler himself took over as ''Reichsorganisationsleiter'' and installed Ley as his ''Stabschef'' (Chief of Staff). The positions of ''Reichsinspecteur'' and ''Landesinspekteur'' were abolished.{{sfn|Orlow|1969|pp=293-295}} When Hitler became [[Reich Chancellor]] in January 1933, Ley accompanied him to Berlin. On 2 June 1933, Ley was among those raised to ''[[Reichsleiter]]'', the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party.{{sfn|Orlow|1973|p=74}} This was followed on 14 September 1933 by his appointment to the reconstituted [[Prussian State Council (Nazi Germany)|Prussian State Council]] by Prussian [[Minister-President]] [[Hermann Göring]]. On 3 October 1933, Ley was named to [[Hans Frank]]'s [[Academy for German Law]] and, on 10 November 1934, Hitler finally formally promoted Ley to the position of ''Reichsorganisationsleiter''. Ley would retain these positions until the fall of the Nazi regime.{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|pp=197–198}}

==Labour Front head==
[[File:Deutsche Arbeitsfront.svg|right|thumb|Flag of Robert Ley's German Labour Front]]

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-17964, Ordensburg Krössinsee, Herzog von Windsor.jpg|right|thumb|[[Edward, Duke of Windsor]] reviewing [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] guards with Robert Ley, 1937]]
By April, 1933 Hitler decided to have the Nazi Party take over the [[trade union]] movement. On 10 May 1933, Hitler appointed Ley head of the newly founded [[German Labour Front]] (''Deutsche Arbeitsfront'', DAF). The DAF took over the existing Nazi trade union formation, the [[National Socialist Factory Cell Organization|National Socialist Factory Cell Organisation]] (''Nationalsozialistische Betriebszellenorganisation'', NSBO) as well as the main trade union federation. But Ley's lack of administrative ability meant that the NSBO leader, [[Reinhold Muchow]], a member of [[Strasserism|the Strasserite wing of the Nazi Party]], soon became the dominant figure in the DAF, overshadowing Ley. Muchow began a purge of the DAF administration, rooting out ex-[[Social Democrat]]s and ex-[[Communist]]s and placing his own militants in their place.

The NSBO cells continued to agitate in the factories on issues of wages and conditions, annoying the employers, who soon complained to Hitler and other Nazi leaders that the DAF was as bad as the Communists had been.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=460}}

[[File:Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling.jpg|right|thumb|[[Philipp Bouhler]], [[Karl Freiherr Michel von Tüßling]], and Robert Ley with his wife Inge (Munich, July 1939)]]

Hitler had no sympathy with the [[syndicalism|syndicalist]] tendencies of the NSBO, and in January 1934 a new Law for the Ordering of National Labour effectively suppressed independent working-class factory organisations, even Nazi ones, and put questions of wages and conditions in the hands of the [[Trustee of Labour|Trustees of Labour]] (''{{lang|de|Treuhänder der Arbeit}}''), dominated by the employers. Around this time Muchow died in a tavern brawl and Ley's control over the DAF was re-established. The NSBO was completely suppressed and the DAF became little more than an arm of the state for the more efficient deployment and disciplining of labour to serve the needs of the regime, particularly its massive expansion of the arms industry.

As head of the Labour Front, Ley invited [[Edward, Duke of Windsor]], and [[Wallis, Duchess of Windsor]], to conduct [[Duke and Duchess of Windsor's tour of Germany, 1937|a tour of Germany]] in 1937, months after Edward had [[Edward VIII abdication crisis|abdicated]] the British throne. Ley served as their host and their personal chaperone. During the visit, Ley's alcoholism was noticed, and at one point he crashed the Windsors' car into a gate.<ref>Brendon, P. (2016). ''Edward VIII (Penguin Monarchs): The Uncrowned King.'' London: Penguin. {{ISBN|978-0-24119-642-7}}.</ref><ref>Cadbury, D. (2015). ''Princes at War: The British Royal Family's Private Battle in the Second World War.'' London: Bloomsbury. {{ISBN|978-1-40884-509-7}}.</ref>

Once his power was established, Ley began to abuse it in a way that was conspicuous even by the standards of the Nazi regime. On top of his generous salaries as DAF head, ''Reichsorganisationsleiter'', and [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] deputy, he pocketed the large profits of the ''Westdeutscher Beobachter'', and freely embezzled DAF funds for his personal use.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=463}} By 1938 he owned a luxurious estate near [[Cologne]], a string of villas in other cities, a fleet of cars, a private railway carriage and a large art collection. He increasingly devoted his time to "womanising and heavy drinking, both of which often led to embarrassing scenes in public."{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=463}}

On 29 December 1942 his second wife Inge Ursula Spilcker (1916–1942) shot herself after a drunken brawl.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=463}} Ley's subordinates took their lead from him, and the DAF became a notorious centre of [[corruption]], all paid for with the compulsory dues paid by German workers. One historian says: "The DAF quickly began to gain a reputation as perhaps the most corrupt of all the major institutions of the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]]. For this, Ley himself had to shoulder a large part of the blame."{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=463}}

== Strength Through Joy ==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 147-1215, Kdf-Schiff "Robert Ley".jpg|left|thumb|The KDF-Schiff ''[[Robert Ley (ship)|Robert Ley]]'', March 1939]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27992, Lazarettschiff "Wilhelm Gustloff" in Danzig.jpg|left|thumb|The KDF-Schiff ''[[MV Wilhelm Gustloff|Wilhelm Gustloff]]'', 23 September 1939]]
Hitler and Ley were aware that the suppression of the trade unions and the prevention of wage increases by the Trustees of Labour system, when coupled with their relentless demands for increased productivity to hasten [[German rearmament]], created a real risk of working-class discontent. In November 1933, as a means of preventing labour disaffection, the DAF established [[Strength Through Joy]] (''Kraft durch Freude'', KdF), to provide a range of benefits and amenities to the German working class and their families. These included subsidised holidays both at resorts across Germany and in "safe" countries abroad (particularly [[Italy]]). Two of the world's first purpose-built cruise-liners, the ''[[Wilhelm Gustloff (ship)|Wilhelm Gustloff]]'' and the ''[[Robert Ley (ship)|Robert Ley]]'', were built to take KdF members on [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] cruises.

Other KdF programs included concerts, [[opera]] and other forms of entertainment in factories and other workplaces, free physical education and [[gymnastics]] training and coaching in sports such as football, tennis and sailing. All this was paid for by the DAF, at a cost of {{Reichsmark|29 million|link=yes}} a year by 1937, and ultimately by the workers themselves through their dues, although the employers also contributed. KdF was one of the Nazi regime's most popular programs, and played a large part in reconciling the working class to the regime, at least before 1939.

The DAF and KdF's most ambitious program was the "people's car," the [[Volkswagen]], originally a project undertaken at Hitler's request by the car-maker [[Ferdinand Porsche]]. When the German car industry was unable to meet Hitler's demand that the Volkswagen be sold at {{Reichsmark|1,000}} or less, the project was taken over by the DAF. This brought Ley's old socialist tendencies back into prominence. The party, he said, had taken over where private industry had failed, because of the "short-sightedness, malevolence, [[profiteering (business)|profiteering]] and stupidity" of the business class. Now working for the DAF, Porsche built a new Volkswagen factory at [[Fallersleben]], at a huge cost which was partly met by raiding the DAF's accumulated assets and misappropriating the dues paid by DAF members. The Volkswagen was sold to German workers on an installment plan, and the first models appeared in February 1939. The outbreak of war, however, meant that none of the 340,000 workers who paid for a car ever received one.

== Wartime role ==
Ley said in a speech in 1939: "We National Socialists have monopolized all resources and all our energies during the past seven years so as to be able to be equipped for the supreme effort of battle."{{sfn|Jackson|1946}} (→ [[German rearmament]]) After [[Invasion of Poland|the beginning]] of [[World War II]] in September 1939, Ley's importance declined. The militarisation of the workforce and the diversion of resources to the war greatly reduced the role of the DAF, and the KdF was largely curtailed. Ley's drunkenness and erratic behaviour were less tolerated in wartime, and he was supplanted by Armaments Minister [[Fritz Todt]] and his successor [[Albert Speer]] as the czar of the German workforce (the head of the ''[[Organisation Todt]]'' (OT)). As German workers were increasingly conscripted, foreign workers, first [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II#Classifications|"guest workers"]] from France and later slave labourers from Poland, Ukraine and other eastern countries, were brought in to replace them. Ley played some role in this program, but was overshadowed by [[Fritz Sauckel]], General Plenipotentiary for the Distribution of Labour (''Generalbevollmächtigter für den Arbeitseinsatz'') since March 1942.

Nevertheless, Ley was deeply implicated in the [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|mistreatment of foreign slave workers]]. In October 1942 he attended a meeting in [[Essen]] with [[Paul Pleiger]] (head of the giant [[Reichswerke Hermann Göring|Hermann Göring Works]] industrial combine) and leaders of the German coal industry. A verbatim account of the meeting was kept by one of the managers. A recent historian writes:

{{quote|The key item on the agenda was the question of 'how to treat the Russians.'... Robert Ley, as usual, was drunk. And when Ley got drunk he was prone to speak his mind. With so much at stake, there was no room for compassion or civility. No degree of coercion was too much, and Ley expected the mine managers to back up their foremen in meting out the necessary discipline. As Ley put it: 'When a Russian pig has to be beaten, it would be the ordinary German worker who would have to do it.'{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=529}}}}

Despite his failings, Ley retained Hitler's favour; until the last months of the war he was part of Hitler's inner circle along with [[Martin Bormann]] and [[Joseph Goebbels]].{{sfn|Sereny|1995|p=477}} In November 1940 he was given a new role, as Reich Commissioner for Social Housing Construction (''Reichskommissar für den sozialen Wohnungsbau''), later shortened to Reich Housing Commissioner (''Reichswohnungskommissar'').{{sfn|Miller|Schulz|2017|pp=206-207}} Here his job was to prepare for the effects on German housing of the expected [[Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe|Allied air attacks on German cities]], which began to increase in intensity from 1941 onwards. In this role he became a key ally of Armaments Minister Albert Speer, who recognised that German workers must be adequately housed if productivity was to be maintained. As the air war against Germany increased from 1943, "[[dehousing]]" German workers became an objective of the Allied [[area bombing]] campaign, and Ley's organisation was increasingly unable to cope with the resulting housing crisis.

He was aware in general terms of the Nazi regime's [[Holocaust|programme of extermination]] of the Jews of Europe. Ley encouraged it through the virulent anti-Semitism of his publications and speeches. In February 1941 he was present at a meeting along with Speer, Bormann and Field Marshal [[Wilhelm Keitel]] at which Hitler had set out his views on the "[[Jewish question#The Nazi "Final Solution"|Jewish question"]] at some length, making it clear that he intended the "disappearance" of the Jews one way or another.{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|p=350}} According to American historian [[Jeffrey Herf]], Ley issued some of the most overt propaganda accusing Jews of plotting the extermination of Germans and threatening to do the reverse. In December 1939, he said that in the event of a British victory:
{{quote|... the German people, man, woman, and child would be exterminated [ausgerottet]... The Jew would be wading in blood. Funeral pyres would be built on which the Jews would burn us... we want to prevent this. Hence it should be rather the Jews who fry, rather they who should burn, they who should starve, they who should be exterminated.{{sfn|Herf|2005|p=57}} }}

In April 1945, Ley became enamored with the idea of creating a "[[death ray]]" after receiving a letter from an unnamed inventor: "I've studied the documentation; there's no doubt about it. This will be the decisive weapon!" Once Ley gave Speer a list of materials, including a particular model circuit breaker, Speer found that the circuit breaker had not been manufactured in 40 years.{{sfn|Speer|1970|p=464}}

== Postwar: arrest and suicide ==
[[File:Robert Ley arrested.jpg|thumbnail|left|upright|Ley is arrested in his pyjamas by [[502nd Infantry Regiment (United States)|US paratroopers]] in May 1945.]]
[[File:R ley cell.jpg|thumb|The cell where Robert Ley hanged himself]]

As Nazi Germany collapsed in early 1945, Ley was among the government figures who remained fanatically loyal to Hitler.{{sfn|Kershaw|2000|p=774}} He last saw Hitler on 20 April 1945, Hitler's birthday, in the ''[[Führerbunker]]'' in central [[Berlin]]. The next day he left for southern [[Bavaria]], in the expectation that Hitler would make his last stand in the "[[Alpine Fortress|National Redoubt]]" in the alpine areas. When Hitler refused to leave Berlin, Ley was effectively unemployed.

On 16 May he was captured by American paratroopers of the [[101st Airborne Division]] in a shoemaker's house in the village of [[Schleching]].{{sfn|Rapport|Northwood|Marshall|1948|pp=741–744}} Ley told them he was "Dr Ernst Distelmeyer," but he was identified by [[Franz Xaver Schwarz]], the treasurer of the Nazi Party and a long-time enemy. After his arrest, he declared: "You can torture or beat me or impale me on a stake. But I will never doubt the greater deeds of Hitler."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ullrich |first=Volker |title=Eight days in May |publisher=Liveright Publishing Corporation |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-63149-827-5 |pages=262 |language=English}}</ref>

At the [[Nuremberg Trials]], Ley was indicted under Count One ("The Common Plan or Conspiracy to wage an aggressive war in violation of international law or treaties"), Count Three (War Crimes, including among other things "mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilian populations") and Count Four ("[[Crime against humanity|Crimes Against Humanity]] – murder, extermination, enslavement of civilian populations, persecution on the basis of racial, religious or political grounds").{{sfn|Nuremberg Indictment}} Ley was apparently indignant at being regarded as a [[war crime|war criminal]], telling the American psychiatrist [[Douglas Kelley]]<ref>Jack El-Hai : ''The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII'', Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2013, {{ISBN|161039156X}}</ref> and psychologist [[Gustave Gilbert]] who had seen and tested him in prison: "Stand us against a wall and shoot us, well and good, you are victors. But why should I be brought before a Tribunal like a c-c-c- ... I can't even get the word out!".{{sfn|Sereny|1995|p=573}}

On 24 October, three days after receiving the indictment, Ley [[Suicide by hanging|strangled himself to death]] in his prison cell using a noose made by tearing a towel into strips, fastened to the toilet pipe.{{sfn|Sereny|1995|p=573}} The Chief Medical Office of the [[Nuremberg trials|Military Tribunal]], [[Rene Juchli|Lt. Col Rene Juchli]], made a report to [[William J. Donovan|Major General Donovan]] regarding the affect the suicide had on other prisoners, stating "It appears to be the unanimous consensus of opinion among the witnesses that no bereavement was indicated over the self-inflicted death of the late Dr. Ley.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Juchli |first1=Rene H. |title=Observations and impressions of the Prison Population concerning the incident of Dr. Robert Ley's death |url=https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/nur01226 |website=digital.library.cornell.edu |publisher=Cornell University Library |access-date=6 March 2025}}</ref> 
<!--The suicide note, written in German, read: "We have forsaken God, and therefore we were forsaken by God. We put human volition in the place of His godly grace. In anti-Semitism we violated a basic commandment of His creation. Anti-Semitism distorted our outlook, and we made grave errors. It is hard to admit mistakes, but the whole existence of our people is in question; we Nazis must have the courage to rid ourselves of anti-Semitism. We have to declare to the youth that it was a mistake."-->
{{Clear}}

== See also ==
* [[Glossary of Nazi Germany]]
* [[List of Nazi Party leaders and officials]]
* [[List of people who died by hanging#suicide by hanging|List of people who died by suicide by hanging]]

== References ==
===Citations===
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

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| location = Pittsburgh
| year = 1973
| isbn = 0-8229-3253-9
}}
* {{cite book
| last1 = Rapport
| first1 = Leonard
| last2 = Northwood
| first2 = Arthur Jr
| last3 = Marshall
| first3 = Samuel Lyman Atwood
| title = Rendezvous With Destiny: A History of The 101st Airborne Division
| publisher = Infantry Journal Press
| location = Washington
| year = 1948
| oclc = 4166870
}}
* {{Cite book
| last = Sereny
| first = Gitta
| author-link = Gitta Sereny
| title = Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth
| location = London
| publisher = Macmillan
| year = 1995
| isbn = 978-0-333-64519-2
}}
* {{Cite book
| last = Smelser
| first = Ronald
| author-link = Ronald Smelser
| title = Robert Ley: Hitler's Labor Front Leader
| location = Oxford
| publisher = Berg
| year = 1988
| isbn = 978-0-85496-161-0
| url-access = registration
| url = https://archive.org/details/robertleyhitlers0000smel
}}
* {{Cite book
| author-link = Albert Speer
| first = Albert
| last = Speer
| title = Inside the Third Reich
| location = New York
| publisher = Simon & Schuster
| year = 1970
| isbn = 0-684-82949-5
| url = https://archive.org/details/insidethirdreich00albe
}}
* {{Cite book
| author-link = Adam Tooze
| first = Adam
| last = Tooze
| title = The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
| location = London
| publisher = Allen Lane
| year = 2006
| isbn = 978-0-7139-9566-4
}}

{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
* [http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/ley2.htm Ley's 1936 speech to Nazi Party factory activists]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/011373}}
* {{ReichstagDB|118728016}}
* [https://reader.library.cornell.edu/docviewer/digital?id=nur01223#mode/1up Official report on the death of Ley] by Chief medical officer [[Rene Juchli|Lt. Col. Rene H. Juchli]]  

{{Final occupants of the Führerbunker}}
{{Main Nuremberg defendants}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ley, Robert}}
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