Bormann, Chief of the Parteikanzlei

Bormann, born in Wegeleben (near Halberstadt) in the Kingdom of Prussia in the German Empire, was the son of post office employee Theodor Bormann (1862–1903) and his second wife, Antonie Bernhardine Mennong. He had two half-siblings (Else and Walter Bormann) from his father's first marriage to Louise Grobler, who had died in 1898. Later that year, Theodor Bormann married Antonie. She gave birth to three sons, one of whom died in infancy. Martin (born 1900) and Albert (born 1902) survived to adulthood.
Bormann dropped out of school to work on a farm in Mecklenburg. After serving briefly with an artillery regiment — which never saw combat — at the end of World War I Bormann became an estate manager in Mecklenburg, which brought him into contact with the Freikorps residing on the estate. He became involved in their activities, mostly assassinations and the intimidation of trade union organisers.[1]
In March 1924, he was sentenced to a year in prison as an accomplice to his friend Rudolf Höss in the murder of Walther Kadow, who may have betrayed Albert Leo Schlageter to the French during the occupation of the Ruhr District.[2]
On September 2, 1929, Bormann married 19-year-old Gerda Buch, whose father, Major Walter Buch, served as a chairman of the Nazi Party Court. Bormann had recently met Hitler, who agreed to serve as a witness at their wedding. Over the years, Gerda Bormann gave birth to 10 children; one daughter died shortly after birth.
The children of Martin and Gerda Bormann were:
Adolf Martin Bormann (born April 14, 1930; called Krönzi; named after his godfather Hitler)
Ilse Bormann (born July 9, 1931; twin sister Ehrengard died after the birth; named after her godmother Ilse Hess)
Irmgard Bormann (born July 25, 1933)
Rudolf Gerhard Bormann (born August 31, 1934; named after his godfather Rudolf Hess)
Heinrich Hugo Bormann (born June 13, 1936; named after his godfather Heinrich Himmler)
Eva Ute Bormann (born August 4, 1938)
Gerda Bormann (born October 23, 1940)
Fred Hartmut Bormann (born March 4, 1942)
Volker Bormann (born September 18, 1943)
Gerda Bormann suffered from cancer in her later years, and died of mercury poisoning on March 23, 1946, in Merano, Italy. All of Bormann's children survived the war. Most were cared for anonymously in foster homes. His oldest son Martin was Hitler's godson. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1953, but left the priesthood in the late 1960s. He married an ex-nun in 1971 and became a teacher of theology.