Germany
Robert Ley
said
You know we have this new poison gas - I've heard about it. The Fuehrer must do it. He must use it. Now he has to do it!
— To Albert Speer, autumn of 1944. Quoted in Albert Speer Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs (1970), p. 417
Robert Ley
German Nazi politician; indicted by the International Military Tribunal for war crimes (1890-1945)
- Fame59.0
- Momentum0.0
- Germany rank#238
Source-basedFalling
- Fame59.0
- Momentum0.0
- Germany rank#238
- Wikipedia77.1K
Lived 1890–1945, aged 55Germany
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Summary
Updated 2026-06-21
Head of the German Labour Front for its entire twelve-year existence, he replaced Germany's trade unions with a state apparatus that funneled workers into rearmament and built Strength Through Joy — then awaited trial at Nuremberg and hanged himself in his cell.
Biography
About
The son of a Rhine Province farmer, Ley flew in the First World War, earned the Iron Cross Second Class, and after the armistice finished a doctorate in chemistry and worked as a food chemist for IG Farben. Radicalized during the French occupation of the Ruhr, he joined the Nazi Party in 1925, became Gauleiter of the Southern Rhineland, entered the Reichstag in 1930, and in 1932 replaced Gregor Strasser as the party's organizational chief. In 1933 Hitler made him head of the newly founded German Labour Front after the regime crushed the unions; from that perch he oversaw rearmament programs, l…
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Sourced, dated quotes from Robert Ley
Robert Ley
said
We swear we are not going to abandon the struggle until the Last Jew in Europe has been exterminated and is actually dead.
— May 1943. Quoted in David Cesarani The Final Solution: Origins and Implementation (1994), p. 224
Robert Ley
said
We believe on this earth in Adolf Hitler alone! We believe in National Socialism as the creed which is the sole source of grace!
— Quoted in W. W. Coole, Władysław Wszebór Kulski, M. F. Potter Thus Spake Germany (1941), p. 30
Robert Ley
said
The Weimar system appeared to me like a father who locks his little boys in a room and stirs them up against one another and says: 'Beat each other up as much as you want.
— Leipzig, 1939. Quoted in Ronald Smelser Robert Ley: Hitler's Labor Front Leader (1988), p. 24
Robert Ley
said
Catastrophe was only narrowly averted. It was all due to the faith of one man!
— Speech given on November 3, 1936. Quoted in Wir alle helfen dem Führer "Schicksal — ich glaube!" (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1937),
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Fame
Falling59.0
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
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Historical26.6
Source confidence60.0
Completeness70.0
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- WikidataHigh confidencewikidata · wikidata.org
- WikipediaHigh confidencewikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
- Pantheon 2.0High confidencedatabase · pantheon.world
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