The 93 year old former Nazi leader took his own life last week in Spandau Prison, Berlin, whose sole occupant he had been for almost half a century.

His son will not now be able to attend his father's funeral in the small Bavarian town of Wunsiedel, but the ceremony is expected to proceed as planned on Wednesday.

Hess's 49 year old son was found lying unconscious in bed by his wife and is being treated in an intensive care unit.

Our photos show: the body of Rudolf Hess watched over by his son Wolf-Rudiger in a Bavarian Funeral Parlour before he was struck down with a brain haemorrhage.